Bug#428415: dh-make-perl: dependency diagnostics misleading

[gregor herrmann]

On Mon, 06 Aug 2007 17:38:47 +0200, Andreas J Koenig wrote:

>   > Hm, I don't think this is correct.
>   > If I understand the source code of dh-make-perl correctly
>   > * it searches for the modules in any case
>   > * it issues the above warning if --requiredeps was not used
>   > * it issues an error (= the same text) and dies if --requiredeps was
>   >   used
> 
>   > --requiredeps doesn't seem to do what your suggestion says, AFAICS.  
>  
> I think my point was that I apparently got a wrong message from
> dh-make-perl.
> 
>  * I did not use the --requiredeps option (for lack of knowledge)
> 
>  * I had no apt-file installed (for lack of knowledge)
> 
>  * the message I got told me that none of the eight packages was
>    available as debian package. Because apt-file was not installed on my
>    system, dh-make-perl could not know if the packages were available or
>    not.

Ah!
Looking at the code again that sounds reasonable -- and not very
intuitive, I agree.
The error message about the missing apt-file is only printed with
--requiredeps on.
 
> If the implementation is such that it queries apt-file in any case, this
> does not necessarily bother me. But if it tells me a wrong result then
> it bothers me.

Right.
 
> There are many ways to resolve the issue. For example just insisting
> that all users of dh-make-perl must install apt-file and keep it
> uptodate is probably a much better solution. I certainly came to the
> conclusion that it is what I want.

The last point is a little difficult :-)

I guess improving the message (i.e. mentioning apt-file explicilty)
would be a great help too.
 
> I hope I could make point clearer to you.

Yup, thanks!
 
Cheers,
gregor 
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