[Reportbug-maint] Bug#533861: reportbug: Misleading error when attachment missing

[Tomasz Papszun]

Package: reportbug
Version: 3.48
Severity: normal

After the last step of filling a bugreport for some package (i.e. 
answering "y" for the question "Does your report seem satisfactory?") I 
got the error message:

"Bug report written as /var/tmp/amavisd-new.bug
Original write failed, wrote bug report to 
/home/tomek/reportbug-amavisd-new-20090621-3930-j8AfQ-".

At first I thought that the writing to /var/tmp/ failed, but no: 
amavisd-new.bug was successfully written there. As well as 
/home/tomek/reportbug-amavisd-new-20090621-3930-j8AfQ- and these files 
are identical.

But the report was NOT sent (I checked the mail.log). The command I used 
was:
reportbug --paranoid -A amavisd-nanny.diff amavisd-new

After some thinking I realised that immediately before running 
reportbug I changed the directory, but the file I wanted to attach was 
in the previous directory, so it was not found by reportbug. During the 
second try I gave the proper filename and the report was successfully 
submitted.

Could the error message inform about the real reason (like "the file to 
attach not found"), instead of telling "Original write failed..."?

Thank you.

-- Package-specific info:

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 5.0.1
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.26-2-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=pl_PL.iso-8859-2 (charmap=ISO-8859-2)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages reportbug depends on:
ii  apt                      0.7.20.2+lenny1 Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii  python                   2.5.2-3         An interactive high-level object-o
ii  python-central           0.6.8           register and build utility for Pyt

reportbug recommends no packages.

Versions of packages reportbug suggests:
ii  debconf-utils                 1.5.24     debconf utilities
ii  debsums                       2.0.36     verification of installed package 
pn  dlocate                       <none>     (no description available)
ii  file                          4.26-1     Determines file type using "magic"
ii  gnupg                         1.4.9-3    GNU privacy guard - a free PGP rep
ii  postfix [mail-transport-agent 2.5.5-1.1  High-performance mail transport ag
pn  python-urwid                  <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information