[Debconf-devel] Bug#709198: Bug#709198: debconf: should not use python in maintainer scripts

[Colin Watson]

On Sun, Jan 29, 2017 at 06:04:09PM +0000, Simon McVittie wrote:
> On Sat, 18 May 2013 at 23:29:22 +0200, Richard Hartmann wrote:
> > Broken Python upgrade left me without working debconf.
> 
> I can't help thinking that this would be a lot more robust if debconf.deb
> (which is pseudo-Essential) didn't ship language bindings for a
> non-Essential programming language. perl-base and sh are Essential,
> but python (even the -minimal flavour) isn't.

Yes, I think this is probably the best fix.  I've been putting it off
because it's somewhat tedious to rearrange everything, but you're quite
right.

> According to <https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=import+debconf> and
> <https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=from+debconf+import>, if
> debconf.py was split out into python-debconf and python3-debconf as per
> <https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/python-policy/>,
> the only packages that would need changes (RC bug + versioned Breaks)
> would be apt-listchanges and greylistd.

Also at least ubiquity in Ubuntu.  It ought to be possible to change all
of the rdepends first so that the impact is minimal.

> That seems maybe a worthwhile thing to do post-stretch?

Yep.

Cheers,

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at debian.org]