Re: Bug#209395: teTeX: language.dat mislinked

[Florent Rougon <f.rougon@free.fr>]

Hi,

*** DISCLAIMER: I am not qualified with debconf stuff. ***

>    2. If yes, config looks for an existing language.dat. If it finds
>       one, it looks for every hyphenation pattern that it knows about
>       and checks whether it is commented out or active. Active patterns
>       are stored in a variable

If there is an active pattern your config script does not know about, it
seems it will be lost, doesn't it?

>    3. This variable is merged with the new defaults (currently, french,
>       ngerman) if the existing language.dat is old "enough", and the
>       value is stored in debconf.

I understand this as you trying to help the admin keep up with "upstream
changes" to the configuration file, like dpkg prompts when a package
ships a new version of a conffile. However, I have the impression from
your description that if the admin simply says OK to the dialog without
checking what is proposed, the configuration can be changed (new
patterns added), which many would regard as a policy violation, I think.

And what happens if the debconf priority is so high that the admin does
not see the question? Will the new defaults be "merged" regardless?

Ideally, the admin should be told about the "new defaults" that were
inactive in his language.dat, but I am not sure if this is feasible.
Perhaps a short text before the list of patterns that mentions _all_ new
defaults would suffice as a work-around.

Then the show_old stuff would not be needed.

-- 
Florent