Bug#345901: [doc] unclear whether contents of apt.conf are case-sensitive

[Vincent McIntyre <Vince.McIntyre@atnf.csiro.au>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.5.28.6
Severity: minor
Tags: patch

*** Please type your report below this line ***

When I come to upgrade some of my machines from woody to sarge, and want
to upgrade aptitude as the first step, in some cases aptitude wants to
remove over 100 packages, in other cases, only 1.

This lead me to check how aptitude examines the apt.conf file.
When I wanted to know whether aptitude was ignoring the apt.conf settings,
   APT::Cache-Limit "12500000";
   Aptitude::Keep-Suggests "true";
   Aptitude::Delete-Unused "false";

I noticed this:
   % strings `which aptitude` | grep -i delete-
   aptitude::Delete-Unused
   aptitude::Delete-Unused-Pattern

while the Aptitude documentation (/usr/share/doc/aptitude/html/en/) talks about
   Aptitude::Delete-Unused
   Aptitude::Delete-Unused-Pattern

I couldn't find a clear statement in the various bits of documentation
whether the apt.conf configuration items are case-sensitive or not.

I took a look at the apt and aptitude source and from what I can see
(Configuration::Lookup in apt-0.5.28.6/apt-pkg/contrib/configuration.cc)
the matching is case-insensitive (which is the way that makes sense).

The patch to the manpage below reflects this. Please consider applying it.

--- apt-0.5.28.6/doc/apt.conf.5.xml.orig        2006-01-04 15:47:18.000000000 +1100
+++ apt-0.5.28.6/doc/apt.conf.5.xml     2006-01-04 15:49:38.000000000 +1100
@@ -75,6 +75,8 @@
    <filename>&docdir;examples/apt.conf</filename> &configureindex;
    is a good guide for how it should look.</para>

+   <para>The names of the configuration items are not case-sensitive.</para>
+
    <para>Two specials are allowed, <literal>#include</literal> and <literal>#clear</literal>
    <literal>#include</literal> will include the given file, unless the filename
    ends in a slash, then the whole directory is included.





-- Package-specific info:

-- apt-config dump --

APT "";
APT::Architecture "i386";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
APT::Cache-Limit "12500000";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::userstatus "status.user";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";
Aptitude "";
Aptitude::Keep-Suggests "true";
Aptitude::Delete-Unused "false";


-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --


-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-2-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  libc6                       2.3.2.ds1-22 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libgcc1                     1:3.4.3-13   GCC support library
ii  libstdc++5                  1:3.3.5-13   The GNU Standard C++ Library v3

-- no debconf information