[Dict-common-dev] dict-common: IDWP lowering debconf questions priority and using debian-installer settings

[Agustin Martin Domingo]

Hi all,

A new (and hopefully last) change in the format of the .config files is 
on the way.

The reason for this is the desire of the debian-installer people of 
lowering the IDWP debconf questions priority and make use if possible of 
new language and country debconf settings to guess the right default 
(see #228837, submitters are being bcc'ed). If we simply change config 
files this will become a nightmare, since all the code here is not even 
complete and a lot of IDWP rebuilds would have been needed until 
everything stabilizes, but do not worry, this is not the intended way.

To make things simpler an idea that was making its way as of #211608 is 
now in its last testing stage. All the complex and changing code is put 
into a separate file that is sourced by each IDWP config file. To make 
sure that the code is run even if dictionaries-commmon is not yet 
installed, it is explicitely added to the dictionaries-common config 
script and called if the file is not present (that is, if we are at the 
first config stage without none of the files being yet unpacked). For 
instance, in this system the .config file for a wordlist would be

--------------------------------------------------------------------
#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use Debconf::Client::ConfModule q(:all);

version ('2.0');

my $class  = "wordlist";
my $script = "/usr/share/dictionaries-common/dc-debconf-select.pl";

if ( -e $script ){
     require $script;
     dc_debconf_select($class);
}
---------------------------------------------------------------------

and all the complexity would be hidden at the dc_debconf_select function 
  defined at dc-debconf-select.pl file and at the dictionaries-common 
config file, no longer requiring IDWP rebuilds for bugfixes in the 
common code.

The required changes are minimal. All IDWP should have a versioned 
dictionaries-common dependency (>=0.20), so they work as expected. If 
you use the dictionaries-common-dev scripts you will need to raise 
dictionaries-common-dev build-dependencies to (>=0.20) so the package 
cannot accidentally be built with the old format, and rebuild as usual; 
otherwise change the .config file as appropriate and rebuild.

In the transition no big conflicts are expected, since the code acting 
in both cases is essentially the same, and will leave things ready for 
the second stage, guessing the default dict and wordlist, but that will 
then be dictionaries-common only work and will require no further 
complex coordination. That is the expected big advantage of this system.

At the right time (hopefully very soon) bugs with severity normal will 
be filed against all IDWP, making easier to keep control of the 
evolution of the changes, but in the mean time as much test as possible 
is required.

dictionaries-common packages supporting this have been put at the alioth 
dict-common repository as well as some ispell dictionaries and wordlists 
  rebuilt for this. Please test the system as much as possible to make 
sure we are not introducing bugs with it. Note also that the default 
guess selection is not yet included, the observed behavior and priority 
should be similar to what we have now, but with this new system.

The alioth repository:

  deb http://dict-common.alioth.debian.org/testing ./

and the project page:

  http://dict-common.alioth.debian.org/

Of course do not upload yet. We need to test that system as much as 
possible before the new package is uploaded. Please send feedback to the 
dict-common mailing list.

Again, thanks for your patience and cooperation


Cheers,

--
The dictionaries-common people