[Debconf-devel] Bug#948479: debconf: Readline Multiselect with one item: missing "none of the above"

[Fabrice BAUZAC]

Package: debconf
Version: 1.5.73
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

I routinely use the "Readline" frontend of debconf (in fact, my
settings indicate Dialog, but it falls back to Readline as I generally
do that inside an Emacs buffer).

When I do "apt dist-upgrade", if some services might have to be
restarted, the needrestart system prompts which service(s), if any, to
restart.  And sometimes I don't want to restart anything, so I select
"None of the above" (see Debconf/Element/Teletype/Multiselect.pm).

However today, I got this prompt below, and the choice "None of the
above" (or similar) is not possible, which looks like a bug: from the
perspective of a user who does not want any restart, it is unclear
what response should be given to this prompt.

    # apt dist-upgrade
    [...]
    The following packages will be upgraded:
      cups-browsed cups-filters cups-filters-core-drivers libboost-atomic1.67.0 libboost-chrono1.67.0
      libboost-date-time1.67.0 libboost-filesystem1.67.0 libboost-iostreams1.67.0 libboost-locale1.67.0
      libboost-system1.67.0 libboost-thread1.67.0 libcupsfilters1 libdouble-conversion3 libfontembed1
      libmariadb3 libpcsclite1 mariadb-common powertop
    18 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
    Do you want to continue? [Y/n] Y
    [...]
    Scanning linux images...

    Running kernel seems to be up-to-date.

    Failed to check for processor microcode upgrades.

    Restarting services...
    Daemons using outdated libraries
    --------------------------------


      1. wpa_supplicant.service

    (Enter the items or ranges you want to select, separated by spaces.)

    Which services should be restarted?

It looks like giving an empty result does the correct thing, but for a
user who is accustomed to having the choice "None of the above", it is
disturbing.  Why is "None of the above" missing?

Thanks!

Best regards
Fabrice


-- System Information:
Debian Release: bullseye/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable-debug'), (500, 'testing-debug'), (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 5.3.0-3-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) (ignored: LC_ALL set to C), LANGUAGE=en_US:en (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) (ignored: LC_ALL set to C)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/bash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)
LSM: AppArmor: enabled

Versions of packages debconf depends on:
ii  perl-base  5.30.0-9

Versions of packages debconf recommends:
ii  apt-utils     1.8.4
pn  debconf-i18n  <none>

Versions of packages debconf suggests:
ii  debconf-doc                1.5.73
pn  debconf-kde-helper         <none>
pn  debconf-utils              <none>
pn  libgtk3-perl               <none>
pn  libnet-ldap-perl           <none>
ii  libterm-readline-gnu-perl  1.36-2+b1
ii  perl                       5.30.0-9
ii  whiptail                   0.52.21-4

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