[debhelper-devel] Bug#710970: Bug#710970: Please include extended dh_ucf script

[Niels Thykier]

Hannes von Haugwitz:
> Dear Debhelper Maintainers,
> 
> On Sun, Jul 14, 2013 at 10:43:48AM +0200, Hannes von Haugwitz wrote:
>> Both points make sense. I'll update the script to enable '--three-way'
>> by default and change the synopsis to 'dh_ucf [debhelper options] [-n]
>> [-- params]'.
> 
> Apart from the above two points what else do I have to do to get the
> patch accepted?
> 
> Best regards
> 
> Hannes
> 
> [...]

Hi Hannes,

Sorry that this bug has fallen between the chairs in between debhelper
changing maintainer. :)

Those two points would be great to have implemented.  I think the
concern with the shell function comes in several variants:

 * The shell function is afterwards available to the maintainer,
   effectively making it a part of the API/ABI.

 * It can clash with another maintainer defined function.
   (Less likely and trivially solved by using a proper namespace
    for debhelper provided functions)

 * The autoscripts should have trivial logic as updates it takes a
   long time to roll out patches to autoscripts.  This is easier to
   do if the complex logic is outsourced to a different tool called
   from the scripts[1].  Defining a function has probably been the
   rule of thumb for something that is getting too complex.


I am willing to try this if we name space the function.  Let me know
when you have an updated patch. :)

Thanks,
~Niels

[1] This has its own issues like very few packages can actually provide
such programs.  Nonetheless, that was one of the design goals.