Re: template parse error in /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm

[Joey Hess <joeyh@debian.org>]

Eric Brooks wrote:
> I'm trying to move from Debian potato to woody.  At configuration time I
> get the following error:
> 
> 'Template parse error near "" at
> /usr/lib/perl5/Debian/DebConf/Template.pm line 102, <TEMPLATES> chunk2.'

This is a combination of a bug in the debconf in potato, which is not
very robust in its parsing of some files, and a buggy package that has a
malformed templates file with a doubled blank line in it (probably),
and which breaks the old debconf.

We need to find out what package that is, so it can be fixed.
Unfortunatly, that old debconf does not bother to say. Please do *not*
upgrade debconf, or anything else for now, until we figure out what
package is broken.

Could you please do the following for me:

1. Edit /usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure, and go to line 99, which reads:

foreach my $x (0..$#debs) {

2. Add a new line after that, which reads:

print STDERR "DEBUG: $debs[$x]\n";

3. Reproduce the problem again, this time you should get some debug info
   as it processes each .deb in turn. When it fails, the last .deb it
   output is the broken one, probably. Send me the output and I can
   probably take it from there.

-- 
see shy jo