Re: HELP: Fixing a debconf bug in proftpd

[Niels Thykier <niels@thykier.net>]

Hilmar Preuße:
> Hi,
> 
> we got bug #820984 on debconf a while ago. I'm not very familiar w/
> debconf, hence I had a look into the templates/config delivered w/
> debconf itself.
> I'm my eyes the code in proftpd is about a 1:1 copy of the code in
> debconf, nevertheless it does not work as expected.
> 
> 1. Would anybody so kind to have a look at this issue? It is our show
> stopper to get back into testing.
> 2. Is that bug even RC or could we lower it to important and address it
> once we're back in testing?
> 
> Many thanks,
>   Hilmar

Hi,

>From a /very quick glance/, it looks like the package is basically using
"debconf as a registry".

Longer version: In a "config" script, the debconf questions should be
"re-seeded" with the current default value /as defined in the actual
configuration file/ (rather than assuming the debconf database is up to
date).
  See [localepurge template file] for an way of how to do this (ymmv).

Rationale: Users update their configuration files (and not the debconf
database).  If you use the values from the configuration file, the user
receives what they expect.  If you use the debconf database, the user
gets what they selected when they last configured the package (which can
be many years older than their last change to their configuration files).

Thanks,
~Niels

[localepurge template file]:
https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/collab-maint/localepurge.git/tree/debian/localepurge.config#n89