Bug#233116: lintian: check that templates are separated by an empty line

[Denis Barbier <barbier@debian.org>]

Package: lintian
Version: 1.22.10
Severity: wishlist
Tags: patch

Hi,

if the templates file contains templates which are not separated by an
empty line (e.g because this line has a spurious space, or because it
is missing), read_dpkg_control() will return garbage and further checks
will display error messages which are not related to the problem.
Moreover debconf will refuse to load this broken file.

Denis

Index: debconf
===================================================================
--- debconf	(revision 43)
+++ debconf	(working copy)
@@ -61,6 +61,18 @@
     print "E: $pkg $type: debconf-config-not-executable\n";
 }
 
+# First check that templates are separated by an empty line
+if ($seentemplates) {
+    open(TMPL, "control/templates") or fail("Can't open control/templates: $!");
+    local $/ = undef;
+    $_ = <TMPL>;
+    close TMPL;
+    if (m/[^\n]\nTemplate:/i) {
+        print "E: $pkg $type: no-empty-line-before-template\n";
+        $seentemplates = '';
+    }
+}
+
 # Lots of template checks.
 
 my @templates = $seentemplates ? read_dpkg_control("control/templates") : ();
Index: debconf.desc
===================================================================
--- debconf.desc	(revision 43)
+++ debconf.desc	(working copy)
@@ -26,6 +26,13 @@
  package if debconf is not present; please contact &maint; so that this
  exception would be recognized in future versions of Lintian.
 
+Tag: no-empty-line-before-template
+Type: error
+Info: The templates file contains at least two templates which are not
+ separated by an empty line.  It is invalid and cannot be processed by
+ debconf.  Further syntax checks cannot be performed on this file and
+ are skipped.
+
 Tag: unknown-field-in-templates
 Type: error
 Info: See the Debconf Programmer's Tutorial for a list of the possible