Bug#293277: debbugs: misc. fixes to scripts/service.in and debian/control

[Branden Robinson <branden@debian.org>]

Package: debbugs
Version: 2.4.1
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch

I'm sorry this is a bit of an omnibus request, but it's for fairly minor
issues.

Don Armstrong and Adam Heath have both reviewed this patch, and had no
objections[1].

The patch includes a Debian changelog entry that documents my changes
extensively.  Here they are:

  * (scripts/service.in): Fix several cosmetic problems:
    + Clarify message as being due to administrative prohibition when a user
      is refused access thanks to being in @gFuckheads.  Also report the
      reply-to address so affected so that such prohibitions can be more
      easily debugged by the BTS administrators, and accidents more readily
      detected (shock, horror!).
    + Clarify that the "close" command is deprecated for most, but not all
      purposes.
    + State the address of the person who requested a submitter change
      literally instead of using the ambiguous and possibly incorrect term
      "them" (the requestor might be a "he" or "she").
    + Always report a bug's previous state when changing it; this makes it
      easier to revert mistaken changes:
      - If a bug is being reassigned but was not assigned to any package,
        report that fact.
      - Indicate old severity when changing to a new severity.
      - Indicate other bugs a report was merged with when unmerging it.
      - Indicate the specific other bugs a bug is merged with when refusing to
        clone it.
    + Use double-quotes (") instead of grave accents and apostrophes as
      quotation marks.
    + Fix a couple of other very minor instances of non-idiomatic punctuation
      orthography to be consistent with standard usage.
    + Consistently put periods at the ends of sentences and fragments
      otherwise treated as sentences.
    + Fix some awkward back-indentation that appears to have been intended to
      force lines to fit within 80 columns, a convention which is generally
      disregarded throughout the file anyway.  (These lines were changed to
      wrap and use the string-concatenation operator as necessary.)
  * (debian/control): Rewrite short and extended package description.
  * (debian/control): Don't recommend a pure virtual package (httpd);
    instead recommend apache with httpd as an alternative -- quiets Lintian
    warning.

I hope this patch is of some use.  The most important parts to me
personally are the reporting of previous bug state when changing it via the
control bot.

[1] Adam had a performance-based objection to the way the @gFuckheads array
is scanned for matches with $replyto, but 1) his criticism is of the
existing method; 2) I am not comfortable implementing his suggestion as I
didn't understand it; 3) he also observed that the performance issue may
not be all that important since (if I recall his words correctly) the
control message processing doesn't take place in a persistent process.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: powerpc (ppc)
Kernel: Linux 2.4.27-powerpc-smp
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages debbugs depends on:
ii  ed                            0.2-20     The classic unix line editor
pn  libio-stringy-perl                       Not found.
ii  libmailtools-perl             1.62-1     Manipulate email in perl programs
pn  libmime-perl                             Not found.
ii  perl [perl5]                  5.8.4-5    Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  postfix [mail-transport-agent 2.1.5-5    A high-performance mail transport