[Pkg-haskell-maintainers] Bug#676874: ghc fails to configure after install (update-alternatives priority out of range)

[Aleksandar Micovic]

Package: ghc
Version: 7.4.1-3
Severity: important

Dear Maintainer,

When I try to insall ghc, this is the output I get:

asm at tara:~$ sudo apt-get install ghc
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
ghc-prof ghc-doc haskell-doc llvm-3.0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
ghc
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/45.8 MB of archives.
After this operation, 288 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package ghc.
(Reading database ... 166376 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking ghc (from .../archives/ghc_7.4.1-3_amd64.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up ghc (7.4.1-3) ...
update-alternatives: priority is out of range

Usage: update-alternatives [<option> ...] <command>

Commands:
--install <link> <name> <path> <priority>
[--slave <link> <name> <path>] ...
add a group of alternatives to the system.
--remove <name> <path> remove <path> from the <name> group alternative.
--remove-all <name> remove <name> group from the alternatives system.
--auto <name> switch the master link <name> to automatic mode.
--display <name> display information about the <name> group.
--query <name> machine parseable version of --display <name>.
--list <name> display all targets of the <name> group.
--get-selections list master alternative names and their status.
--set-selections read alternative status from standard input.
--config <name> show alternatives for the <name> group and ask the
user to select which one to use.
--set <name> <path> set <path> as alternative for <name>.
--all call --config on all alternatives.

<link> is the symlink pointing to /etc/alternatives/<name>.
(e.g. /usr/bin/pager)
<name> is the master name for this link group.
(e.g. pager)
<path> is the location of one of the alternative target files.
(e.g. /usr/bin/less)
<priority> is an integer; options with higher numbers have higher priority in
automatic mode.

Options:
--altdir <directory> change the alternatives directory.
--admindir <directory> change the administrative directory.
--log <file> change the log file.
--force allow replacing files with alternative links.
--skip-auto skip prompt for alternatives correctly configured
in automatic mode (relevant for --config only)
--verbose verbose operation, more output.
--quiet quiet operation, minimal output.
--help show this help message.
--version show the version.
dpkg: error processing ghc (--configure):
subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
ghc
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Running, dpkg --configure ghc, returns the same error. Someone on the Debian
IRC suggested that this was a packaging bug that just fudged the priority
number for update-alternatives. I have reproduced this bug on two independent
systems now.



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

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages ghc depends on:
ii  gcc          4:4.7.0-6
ii  libbsd-dev   0.4.0-1
ii  libc6        2.13-33
ii  libc6-dev    2.13-33
ii  libffi-dev   3.0.10-3
ii  libffi5      3.0.10-3
ii  libgmp-dev   2:5.0.5+dfsg-2
ii  libgmp10     2:5.0.5+dfsg-2
ii  libncurses5  5.9-8
ii  libtinfo5    5.9-8

ghc recommends no packages.

Versions of packages ghc suggests:
pn  ghc-doc      <none>
pn  ghc-prof     <none>
pn  haskell-doc  <none>
pn  llvm-3.0     <none>
ii  perl         5.14.2-11

-- no debconf information