Bug#175783: tetex-base: "Remove old conffiles" question is unhelpfully terse

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>]

Package: tetex-base
Version: 1.0.2+20021025-5
Severity: normal

tetex-base asks me, via debconf:

  Remove old conffiles?

  Old conffiles which tetex-base shipped out were found.  It is strongly
  recommended to remove these files right now!

To an even vaguely paranoid admin, this is unnerving; what files it
going to remove (or how can I find out)? Why is it so important? Is it a
security risk, will it break the tetex installation, or is it just
cosmetic?

Of course, I can find out the answer to the first question by reading
/var/lib/dpkg/info/tetex-base.config (although it's not quite so
convenient to find tetex-base.config while this question is being asked
during preconfiguration unless you're familiar with debconf internals;
offhand I think it's /var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/config, although I wouldn't
like to bet on it and certainly wouldn't want to include such an
implementation detail in documentation). However, please consider
clarifying this anyway, together with the other points above: at the
moment it amounts to "May I remove some files from your system
(yes/no)?".

I realize it may be difficult to fit the list of removed conffiles
sensibly into the format of a debconf question. I trust that you can
figure something out. :-)

Thanks,

-- 
Colin Watson                                  [cjwatson@flatline.org.uk]