[Debconf-devel] Bug#783586: debconf: dpkg-preconfigure outputs status messages on stderr

[Colin Wetherbee]

Package: debconf
Version: 1.5.56
Severity: minor

Dear Maintainer,

When processing more than 30 packages, dpkg-preconfigure will emit template
extraction status messages on the standard error output.  I believe these
messages should be emitted on the standard output instead, as they do not
signify any sort of anomalous behavior.

The messages are of the following form:

    Extracting templates from packages: nn%

In the 1.5.56 tree of debconf, these messages are emitted at lines 173 and
185 of the dpkg-preconfigure script.  Simply removing the "STDERR" symbol
from each line should solve the problem.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 8.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (501, 'testing'), (81, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages debconf depends on:
ii  perl-base  5.20.2-3

Versions of packages debconf recommends:
ii  apt-utils     1.0.9.8
ii  debconf-i18n  1.5.56

Versions of packages debconf suggests:
pn  debconf-doc                <none>
pn  debconf-utils              <none>
ii  dialog                     1.2-20140911-1
pn  libgtk2-perl               <none>
pn  libnet-ldap-perl           <none>
pn  libqtcore4-perl            <none>
pn  libqtgui4-perl             <none>
pn  libterm-readline-gnu-perl  <none>
ii  perl                       5.20.2-3
ii  whiptail                   0.52.17-1+b1

-- debconf information:
  debconf/priority: high
  debconf-apt-progress/info:
  debconf-apt-progress/preparing:
  debconf-apt-progress/media-change:
  debconf/frontend: Dialog
  debconf-apt-progress/title: