The paperconf binary has been removed from libpaper-utils as of
version 2.3.0, which recently migrated to unstable. This causes the
postinst for r-base-core to fail now.

I believe the output of paperconfig (which is still available in
libpaper-utils 2.3.0) will work fine instead, but I have not
extensively tested this. On my system, I get "Letter" as the output; I
don't know if R cares about the capitalization or not.

Control: severity -1 grave
Control: affects -1 libpaper-utils

Raising severity to RC since r-base-core now fails to install.

It might be better to reassign this to libpaper-utils and reinstate
paperconf there (as a wrapper or compatibility shim, or perhaps even a
symlink if it's command-line compatible) because r-base-core is far from
the only package that invokes paperconf:

https://codesearch.debian.net/search?q=paperconf%5Cb&literal=0

suggests that libreoffice, texlive-bin, texlive-extra, python-docutils,
html2ps, hylafax, xmlto, magicfilter, apsfilter, debiandoc-sgml, fitsh,
cups-pdf, signing-party, efax, pexec all want to use paperconf as well.

     smcv

Thank you both.

Will fix in R -- but may just wait 24 hours as we will get R 4.6.2 tomorrow
(per the as-always well-communicated schedule at [1]). Or maybe get it out of
the way and test. Will ponder over morning coffee.

The odd bit is that I was just testing installations yesterday [2], but I
suppose I used a testing container.

Also agree that libpaper may want to take this up 'as an API' to packages
using it.

Cheers, Dirk

[1] https://developer.r-project.org/, under 'Release Plans' at the top
[2] _Finally_ been getting to the bottom of reproducible builds

Making an upload now as installation breakage is bad.

Validated in rocker/r-base container with update libpaper-utils. Using `tr`
to lowercase the result to remain interface-stable to R.

  root@d778c7fbf704:/work# dpkg -i r-base-core_4.6.1-11_amd64.deb
  (Reading database… 23660 files and directories currently installed.)
  Preparing to unpack r-base-core_4.6.1-11_amd64.deb…
  Unpacking r-base-core (4.6.1-11) over (4.6.1-10)…
  Setting up r-base-core (4.6.1-11)…
  debconf: unable to initialize frontend: Dialog
  debconf: (No usable dialog-like program is installed, so the dialog based frontend cannot be used. at /usr/share/perl5/Debconf/FrontEnd/Dialog.pm line 79.)
  debconf: falling back to frontend: Readline
  Processing triggers for man-db (2.13.1-1)…
  root@d778c7fbf704:/work#

Dirk

Please note that I have reintroduced paperconf now but soon there will be
a proper migration effort.

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
r-base, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1152329@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd@debian.org> (supplier of updated r-base package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2026 07:03:29 -0500
Source: r-base
Architecture: source
Version: 4.6.1-11
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd@debian.org>
Changed-By: Dirk Eddelbuettel <edd@debian.org>
Closes: 1152329
Changes:
 r-base (4.6.1-11) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * debian/r-base-core.postinst: Accomodate update in libpaper-utils and
     use paperconfig with tr to lowercase 	(Closes: #1152329)
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On 28 October 2026 at 13:28, Bastian Germann wrote:
| Control: severity -1 normal
| Control: retitle -1 r-base-core: Move away from deprecated paperconf/paperconfig
|
| Please note that I have reintroduced paperconf now but soon there will be
| a proper migration effort.

Really appreciate that -- but I now shipped the update. May generalize to use
either paperconf or paperconfig.

Dirk