Bug#428415: dh-make-perl: dependency diagnostics misleading

[Andreas J Koenig]

Package: dh-make-perl
Version: 0.25
Severity: minor

We would suggest that the error message from dependency checking be
amended when called without the --requiredeps option. Instead of saying:

	Needs the following modules for which there are no debian
	packages available: Gearman::Client, Gearman::Server,
	Sys::Syslog, Sys::Syscall, Perlbal, Net::Netmask, Danga::Socket,
	Gearman::Client::Async

it probably should rather say:

	Needs the following modules: Gearman::Client, Gearman::Server,
	Sys::Syslog, Sys::Syscall, Perlbal, Net::Netmask, Danga::Socket,
	Gearman::Client::Async; you probably want to check for the
	availablility of these modules using the --requiredeps option.

Additionally we would suggest that the documentation of the
--requiredeps option be extended. Instead of saying

	dependency tracking requires the apt-file package installed and
	updated

it probably should say something like

	dependency tracking requires the apt-file package installed and
	the command 'apt-file update' must have been called not too long
	ago

The reason is that today we only discovered that some of the packages
mentioned in the disgnostic message do actually exist on debian. So we
started investigating and it took us a while until we learned about the
intricacies of apt-file and the exact relationship between apt-file and
dh-make-perl. With the suggested changes we believe that future users of
the packages will not fall into the same trap.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 4.0
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-1-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages dh-make-perl depends on:
ii  debhelper                     5.0.42     helper programs for debian/rules
ii  dpkg-dev                      1.13.25    package building tools for Debian
ii  fakeroot                      1.6.5      Gives a fake root environment
ii  libmodule-depends-perl        0.10-1     identify the dependencies of a dis
ii  libyaml-perl                  0.62-1     YAML Ain't Markup Language (tm)
ii  make                          3.81-3     The GNU version of the "make" util
ii  perl                          5.8.8-7    Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  perl-modules [libpod-parser-p 5.8.8-7    Core Perl modules

Versions of packages dh-make-perl recommends:
ii  apt-file                      2.0.8.2    APT package searching utility -- c
pn  libmodule-build-perl          <none>     (no description available)

-- no debconf information

-- 
dr andreas j koenig _ development
imt GmbH _ methfesselstr. 30-36 _ 10965 berlin _ germany
phone +49 30 886633 206 _ fax +49 30 886633 150
akoenig at iconmobile.com _ www.iconmobile.com
local court charlottenburg _ hrb 88308
managing director _ thomas fellger