Bug#741453: libconfig-model-dpkg-perl: Feature wish: subcommand to add/remove elements to control fields, e.g. Uploaders

[Axel Beckert]

Package: libconfig-model-dpkg-perl
Version: 2.045
Severity: wishlist

Hi Dominique,

it would be nice if there would be a possibility to add or
remove single elements from a comma separated control field like
e.g. Uploaders or Build-Depends -- independent of how the control field
is formatted or where in the control field the according value is
located.

If I wanted to script e.g. the removal of an retired Uploader, I'd have
to take care of trailing commata, multiline values, etc. which already
caused issues in the past, see e.g. the following fixes:
http://deb.li/3gqvs, http://deb.li/iOgtU, and http://deb.li/kPcx

It would be nice if cme would take that load of the one who has to do
such a addition/renaming/removal.

It seems as if "cme modify" can do that, but it's a little cumbersome
and not very intuitive to use:

cme modify dpkg-control ~~ 'source Uploaders~"John Doe <user at example.org>"'

Took me many iterations to get that right. An easier and more intuitive
to use subcommand would be nice.

But maybe this can be also fixed by just adding some more examples to
cme(1p).

E.g. one thing I would have expected is "-=" instead of "~". Similar for
adding I'd expected "+=" instead of ".=", but ".=" is already way more
intuitive for adding than "~" for removing.

TIA.

-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (600, 'testing'), (400, 'stable'), (110, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 3.12-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages libconfig-model-dpkg-perl depends on:
ii  libanyevent-http-perl                   2.15-2
ii  libanyevent-perl                        7.070-1
ii  libapt-pkg-perl                         0.1.29+b1
ii  libconfig-model-perl                    2.051-1
ii  liblog-log4perl-perl                    1.41-1.1
ii  libmodule-corelist-perl                 3.07-1
ii  libmouse-perl                           2.1.0-1
ii  libnamespace-autoclean-perl             0.15-1
ii  libparse-recdescent-perl                1.967009+dfsg-1
ii  libsoftware-license-perl                0.103009-1
ii  libtext-autoformat-perl                 1.669004-1
ii  lintian                                 2.5.21
ii  perl                                    5.18.2-2+b1
ii  perl-modules [libmodule-corelist-perl]  5.18.2-2

Versions of packages libconfig-model-dpkg-perl recommends:
ii  libconfig-model-tkui-perl  1.341-1

libconfig-model-dpkg-perl suggests no packages.

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