Package: exim4-config Version: 4.63-10 Priority: wishlist Exim4-config fails to detect if a user introduced non-ASCII characters in the debconf prompt that might lead to an impromer /etc/mailname being automatically generated on postinst.
I have recently had to debug a misconfiguration issue which stemmed on the fact that the user introduced a control character (by pressing some of the "Print Screen" / Scroll Lock keys in the keyboard) when introducing the local system name which resulted in local mail not being delivered. Notice that since the value is reused in the exim4-config debconf values and Debconf does not properly handle control characters there is no way to fix this issue through either Debconf reconfiguration or package purge: - If the user tries to fix this by reconfiguring the package he is presented with a debconf prompt in which, no matter what characters he/she introduces, the prompt does not change and remains blank (because of the control character). - If the user tries to puge the package and reinstall then he is presented with the same non-functioning debconf prompt. (this is because /etc/mailname is preserved after purge and reused in the debconf prompt) I don't think that exim4-config should allow non-ASCII characters in answer to his configuration questions for the local mailname and other values. Maybe this should be something requested of Debconf prompts as they cannot handle non-ASCII information. Maybe a new 'string-ascii' type should be selected that made Debconf printout an error (and remade the question) if the user introduced invalid characteres there. I envision that many Debconf questions cannot handle non-ASCII information and asking maintainer scripts to code in that detection would be maybe too much. If you agree, please reassign this bug to Debconf. Regards Javier
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