[PKG-Openstack-devel] Bug#802232: Bug#802232: python3-editor: Does not use /usr/bin/editor

[Thomas Goirand]

On 10/18/2015 06:15 PM, Dmitry Shachnev wrote:
> Package: python3-editor
> Version: 0.4-1
> Severity: important
> Justification: Policy § 11.4
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> The Debian Policy § 11.4 (Editors and pagers) [1] says:
> 
> | Thus, every program that launches an editor or pager must use the EDITOR or
> | PAGER environment variable to determine the editor or pager the user wishes
> | to use. If these variables are not set, the programs /usr/bin/editor and
> | /usr/bin/pager should be used, respectively. 
> 
> This package honors the environment variable but does not honor /usr/bin/editor:
> 
>   $ [ -z "$EDITOR" ] && echo "EDITOR is unset"
>   EDITOR is unset
>   $ readlink -f /usr/bin/editor
>   /usr/bin/vim.tiny
>   $ /usr/bin/editor --version | head -n1
>   VIM - Vi IMproved 7.4 (2013 Aug 10, compiled Aug 17 2015 03:36:20)
>   $ python3 -c "import editor; print(editor.get_editor())"
>   /bin/nano
> 
> [1]: https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ch-customized-programs.html#s11.4
> 
> --
> Dmitry Shachnev

Hi Dmitry,

It is my understanding that, within the Debian policy, "must" and
"should" are important words. Here, a program *must* respect $EDITOR
(which python-editor does), which is mandatory. But python-editor
doesn't implement /usr/bin/editor, which it *should* (ie: a
recommendation). Therefore, there's no policy violation. that's for the
"bylaws" of Debian. Now, as for my own opinion, $EDITOR is indeed very
important, as it is the user's explicit choice, while /usr/bin/editor
only points to whatever the system double-guess the user may like, so
it's not very useful.

Anyways, I'd recommend you to send such a bug report upstream rather
than downstream in Debian. I do not have time to work on this kind of
bugs, considering the amount of packages I maintain. Therefore, unless
you (or someone else) provide a patch, and because I need to keep bug
triaging in a good shape, I'll be forced to close this bug after some
time with no solution to fix it.

Your thoughts?

Cheers,

Thomas Goirand (zigo)