Problem with slink-->potato upgrade/Perl

[Jan Vroonhof <vroonhof@math.ethz.ch>]

I don't want to file a bug on this, because it is most likely some local
problem. However I cannot figure out what it is. Please tell me if you
would prefer bug reports over direct posts. Note that I am not
subscribed so please CC.

[N.B. Sorry for the broken mail address on bug #57540. bug managed to
fetch a really old bogus hostname from /etc/mailname which I forgot to
update.]

I compiled a recent apt from source

petteflet:/tmp> dpkg -l apt
ii  apt             0.3.16-0.slink Advanced front-end for dpkg
        
I am contemplating a slink->potato upgrade, so I did a trial run with
apt. However loads of packages are held back because debconf cannot be
installed.
        
 apt-get -f -o Debug::pkgProblemResolver=yes -o Debug::NoLocking=yes
+dist-upgrade
...
Package perl-5.005-base has broken dep on perl
  Considering perl 32 as a solution to perl-5.005-base 22
  Holding Back perl-5.005-base rather than change perl
...
Package perl-5.005 has broken dep on perl-5.005-base
  Considering perl-5.005-base 22 as a solution to perl-5.005 57
  Holding Back perl-5.005 rather than change perl-5.005-base
Package debconf has broken dep on perl-5.005
  Considering perl-5.005 57 as a solution to debconf 17
  Holding Back debconf rather than change perl-5.005
...

However I don't really understand why apt thinks perl-5.005-base needs
perl..

petteflet:/tmp> apt-cache showpkg perl-5.005-base
Package: perl-5.005-base
Versions:
+5.005.03-5.3(/var/state/apt/lists/ftp.de.debian.org_debian_dists_frozen_main_bi
+nary-i386_Packages),
Reverse Depends:
  perl-5.005,perl-5.005-base
  perl-5.005,perl-5.005-base
  liblocale-gettext-perl,perl-5.005-base
  debconf-tiny,perl-5.005-base
Dependencies:
5.005.03-5.3 - libc6 (2 2.1) libgdbmg1 (0 (null)) perl-5.005 (0 (null))
+perl-base (3 5.004.05) perl (0 (null)) perl-base (0 (null)) perl-5.005 (0
+(null))
Provides:
5.005.03-5.3 - perl5-base
Reverse Provides:

If you want more info, please mail..This time my address should
actually be correct.
 
Jan