debconf/cdebconf coinstallability

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+debconf/cdebconf coinstallability
+
+<p><a href="http://kitenet.net/~joey/blog/">Joey</a> has been
+<a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2005/08/msg00136.html">campaigning</a>
+for a while to get everything in the archive changed to depend on
+<code>debconf | debconf-2.0</code> or similar rather than just
+<code>debconf</code>, in order that we can start rolling out
+<code>cdebconf</code> as its replacement. Like most jobs that involve
+touching the bulk of the archive, this looks set to take quite a while, as
+the <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/328498">list of bugs</a> should
+indicate.</p>
+
+<p>Recently it occurred to me that we didn't necessarily have to do it that
+way round. In a bout of late-night hacking while staying awake to look after
+a sick child (he seems mostly OK now, although the rushed trip to the
+hospital earlier was a bit on the nerve-wracking side), I've shuffled things
+around in the cdebconf package so that it no longer has any file conflicts
+with debconf or debconf-doc, and changed the debconf confmodule to fire up
+the cdebconf frontend rather than its own if the
+<kbd>DEBCONF_USE_CDEBCONF</kbd> environment variable is non-empty. (The
+details of this may change before it actually gets uploaded, as I'd like to
+get Joey to look it over and approve it first.) This allows you to install
+cdebconf, set that environment variable, and play around with cdebconf with
+relative ease; when we come to switch to cdebconf for real, instead of a
+huge conflicting mess that apt will probably have trouble resolving, it'll
+just be a matter of changing a couple of lines in
+<code>/usr/share/debconf/confmodule</code>.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, don't expect cdebconf to be a complete working replacement for
+debconf just yet; if you try using it for a dist-upgrade run it'll fall
+over. Due to its d-i heritage, it doesn't yet load templates automatically;
+that has to be done by hand. Frontend names differ from debconf's, which
+will need some migration code. At the moment it can only handle UTF-8
+templates, which are mandated in the installer but only optional in the rest
+of the system. It doesn't have all of debconf's rich array of database
+modules. I haven't adapted the Perl or Python confmodules yet. The list goes
+on. However, I think we at least stand a chance of getting a handle on the
+problem now.</p>
+
+<p>(I'll post this article to debian-devel once the changes have been
+reviewed and uploaded.)</p>