diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 57c68d23..1e57c3ca 100755
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -136,9 +136,6 @@ ifneq ($(ARCHES),source)
 	$(Q)mkdir -p $(TASKDIR)
 	$(Q)echo "- copying task files from 'tasks/$(DI_CODENAME)/'"
 	$(Q)cp -r $(BASEDIR)/tasks/$(CODENAME)/* $(TASKDIR)
-	$(Q)echo "- task.languages: using 'tasks/$(DI_CODENAME)/$(TASK_LANGLIST)'"
-	$(Q)cp $(BASEDIR)/tasks/$(DI_CODENAME)/$(TASK_LANGLIST) \
-		$(TASKDIR)/task.languages
 	$(Q)echo "- generating dynamic task files"
 	$(Q)set -e; cd $(TASKDIR); \
 		$(BASEDIR)/tools/update_tasks; \
diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index a693b8df..8dc3165f 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -7,6 +7,7 @@ debian-cd (3.1.9) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
   * Describe discs appropriately depending on the kernel used.
     Closes: #673975
   * Clean up handling of environment variable handling in perl tools.
+  * Switch over to working with new task-* metapackages. Closes: #672941
 
  -- Steve McIntyre <93sam@debian.org>  Tue, 29 May 2012 06:20:20 +0800
 
diff --git a/tools/update_tasks b/tools/update_tasks
index 5b4bfcd0..146f5f93 100755
--- a/tools/update_tasks
+++ b/tools/update_tasks
@@ -1,222 +1,253 @@
-#!/bin/sh
-set -e
+#!/usr/bin/perl -w
 
-if [ -z "$CODENAME" ]; then
-    echo "update_tasks: codename not specified" >&2
-    exit 1
-fi
+use strict;
 
-if [ "$MIRROR"x = ""x ] ; then
-    echo "update_tasks: mirror dir not specified" >&2
-    exit 1
-fi
+my $arch;
+my $old_split = $/;
+my (@desktop_tasks, @user_tasks, @l10n_tasks, @server_tasks, @special_tasks);
+my ($section, $taskname);
 
-if [ "$BDIR"x = ""x ] ; then
-    echo "update_tasks: temp dir not specified" >&2
-    exit 1
-fi
-TDIR=$BDIR/update_tasks
-mkdir -p $TDIR
-
-# Sort primary and secondary tasks and add language tasks for both
-# Secondary tasks are indicated by a "-" suffix in the task.list file
-# When adding language tasks, 'desktop' is sorted before '*-desktop'
-expand_task_list () {
-    outbase=$1
-    tasklist=$2
-    langlist=$3
-
-    # Filter out comments, empty lines and secondary tasks
-    task_primary="$(grep -Ev "^(#.*)?(.*-)?[[:space:]]*$" $tasklist)"
-    # Select only secondary tasks
-    task_secondary="$(grep -Ev "^(#.*)?[[:space:]]*$" $tasklist | \
-        grep -E "(.*-)[[:space:]]*$" | sed "s/[[:space:]]\+-.*$//")"
-
-    echo "# Primary main tasks" >$outbase.primary
-    echo "$task_primary" >>$outbase.primary
-
-    echo >>$outbase.primary
-    echo "# Primary language tasks" >>$outbase.primary
-    for task in "" $(echo "$task_primary" | grep "^desktop" || true) \
-                $(echo "$task_primary" | grep -- "-desktop" || true); do
-        for language in $(cat $langlist); do
-            echo $language${task:+-$task}
-        done
-    done >>$outbase.primary
-
-    rm -f $outbase.secondary
-    if [ "$task_secondary" ]; then
-        echo "# Secondary main tasks" >$outbase.secondary
-        echo "$task_secondary" >>$outbase.secondary
-
-        echo >>$outbase.secondary
-        echo "# Secondary language tasks" >>$outbase.secondary
-        for task in $(echo "$task_secondary" | grep "^desktop" || true) \
-                    $(echo "$task_secondary" | grep -- "-desktop" || true); do
-            for language in $(cat $langlist); do
-                echo $language-$task
-            done
-        done >>$outbase.secondary
-    fi
+my $codename = $ENV{'CODENAME'};
+if (! defined($codename)) {
+    die "update_tasks: codename not specified\n";
 }
 
-update_full_list () {
-    file=$1
-    tasklist=$2
-    pkgfile=$3
-
-    (grep -Ev "^(#.*)?[[:space:]]*$" $tasklist ; echo DONE ; cat $pkgfile) | mawk '
-    /DONE/ {
-        in_packages = 1
-        next
-    }
-    /.*/ {
-        if (!in_packages) {
-            tasklist[$1] = num_tasks
-            num_tasks++
-        }
-    }
-    /^Package: / {
-        if (in_packages) {
-            pkgname = $2
-            next
-        }
-    }
-    /^Task: / {
-        if (in_packages) {
-            # Parse the Tasks: line, splitting into array "these"
-            gsub("Task: ", "", $0)
-            gsub(",", "", $0)
-            split($0, these)
-
-            # And see if we have any matches
-            for (task in these) {
-                for (taskname in tasklist) {
-                    if (these[task] == taskname) {
-                        printf("%d:%s\n", tasklist[taskname], pkgname)
-                        next
-                    }
-                }
-            }
-        }
-        next
-    }' | sort -n | cut -d: -f2 >> $file
+my $mirror = $ENV{'MIRROR'};
+if (! defined($mirror)) {
+    die "update_tasks: mirror not specified\n";
 }
 
-update_essential_list () {
-    file=$1
-    tasklist=$2
-    tasksel=$3
-
-    file=$tasksel/usr/share/tasksel/descs/debian-tasks.desc
-    if [ ! -e $file ]; then
-	    file=$tasksel/usr/share/tasksel/debian-tasks.desc
-    fi
-
-    (grep -Ev "^(#.*)?[[:space:]]*$" $tasklist ;
-		echo DONE ;
-		cat $file) | mawk '
-
-    /DONE/ {
-        in_tasks = 1
-        next
-    }
-    /^ / {
-        if (in_key) {
-            printf("%d:%s\n", tasklist[cur_task], $1)
-            next
-        }
-    }
-    /.*/ {
-        if (!in_tasks) {
-            tasklist[$1] = num_tasks
-            num_tasks++
-        }
-        if (in_key) {
-            in_key = 0
-        }
-    }
-    /^Task: / {
-        if (in_tasks) {
-            cur_task = $2
-            next
-        }
-    }
-    /^Key: / {
-        if (in_tasks) {
-            for (taskname in tasklist) {
-                if (taskname == cur_task) {
-                    in_key = 1
-                }
-            }
-        }
-        next
-    }' | sort -s -n -k1 | cut -d: -f2 >> $file
+my $bdir = $ENV{'BDIR'};
+if (! defined($bdir)) {
+    die "update_tasks: temp dir not specified\n";
 }
 
-# Look for the coreutils package (which should exist in all archs, and is
-# a non -all package) to determine a valid arch for the rest of this
-# script
-arch=$($BASEDIR/tools/which_deb $MIRROR $CODENAME coreutils binary | sed -e "s/\.deb//" -e "s/.*_//")
-# We need to gunzip a copy of the appropriate Packages.gz file(s)
-TMP_PKG=$TDIR/Packages
-zcat $MIRROR/dists/$CODENAME/main/binary-$arch/Packages.gz > $TMP_PKG
-if [ -n "$LOCAL" ] ; then
-    if [ -n "$LOCALDEBS" ] ; then
-        zcat $LOCALDEBS/dists/$CODENAME/local/binary-$arch/Packages.gz >> $TMP_PKG
-    else
-        zcat $MIRROR/dists/$CODENAME/local/binary-$arch/Packages.gz >> $TMP_PKG
-    fi
-fi
+my $basedir = $ENV{'BASEDIR'};
+if (! defined($basedir)) {
+    die "update_tasks: basedir not specified\n";
+}
 
-# Now grab the appropriate tasksel package
-TASKSEL_DEB=$MIRROR/`mawk '
-    /^Package: tasksel-data$/ { found=1 }
-    /^Filename:/              { if (found==1) { print $2; exit } }' $TMP_PKG`
+my $tdir = "$bdir/update_tasks";
+system("mkdir -p $tdir");
+
+# Look for the coreutils package (which should exist in all archs, and
+# is a non -all package) to determine a valid arch for the rest of
+# this script
+my $coreutils_deb = `$basedir/tools/which_deb $mirror $codename coreutils binary`;
+if ($coreutils_deb =~ m/_([[:alnum:]]+)\.deb/) {
+    $arch = $1;
+} else {
+    die "update_tasks: Can't determine arch!\n";
+}
+
+# Extract the tasksel-data deb for our suite; we need to parse the
+# data in it
+my $tasksel_deb = `$basedir/tools/which_deb $mirror $codename tasksel-data binary`;
 
 # For testing purposes - set up FORCE_SID_TASKSEL to force us to use
 # sid's tasksel data even if we're using stable/testing.
-if [ "$FORCE_SID_TASKSEL"x = "1"x ] ; then
-    echo "update_tasks: forcing use of the sid tasksel-data tasks"
-    TASKSEL_DEB=$MIRROR/$($BASEDIR/tools/which_deb $MIRROR sid tasksel-data binary)
-fi
+if (defined($ENV{'FORCE_SID_TASKSEL'}) and $ENV{'FORCE_SID_TASKSEL'} eq '1') {
+    print "update_tasks: forcing use of the sid tasksel-data tasks\n";
+    $tasksel_deb = `$basedir/tools/which_deb $mirror sid tasksel-data binary`;
+}
 
-dpkg -x $TASKSEL_DEB $TDIR/tasksel
+$tasksel_deb = "$mirror/$tasksel_deb";
+chomp $tasksel_deb;
 
-[ -e task.languages ] || exit 1
-grep -Ev "^(#.*)?[[:space:]]*$" task.languages > $TDIR/languages
+# Several types of task package we care about:
+#
+# task-$DESKTOP-desktop            - core package set for desktop $DESKTOP
+# task-$LANGUAGE                   - core package set for language $LANGUAGE
+# task-$LANGUAGE-desktop           - general desktop i18n packages for $LANGUAGE
+# task-$LANGUAGE-$DESKTOP-desktop  - i18n packages for $DESKTOP, $LANGUAGE
+# task-$FOO                        - package set for $FOO (mail-server, laptop, etc.)
+#
+# VERY much complicated by the freeform style of the names here:
+# * languages can be 1, 2 or 3 words (eg. english, brazilian-portuguese, south-african-english)
+# * non-desktop tasks can be 1 or 2 words (e.g. laptop, file-server)
+#
+# Need to parse debian-tasks.desc to work out what each type is
 
-for tlist in task.list.*; do
-    variant=${tlist##*.}
+system("dpkg -x $tasksel_deb $tdir/tasksel");
 
-    expand_task_list task.gen.$variant $tlist $TDIR/languages
+my $descfile = "usr/share/tasksel/descs/debian-tasks.desc";
 
-    # Create (empty) output files
-    : >task-essential-$variant
-    : >task-full-$variant
+open (TASKS, "$tdir/tasksel/$descfile")
+    or die "can't open $tdir/tasksel/$descfile: $!\n";
 
-    update_essential_list \
-        task-essential-$variant \
-        task.gen.$variant.primary \
-        $TDIR/tasksel
+while (defined (my $task = <TASKS>)) {
+    chomp $task;
+    if ($task =~ m/^Task: (\S+)/) {
+        $taskname = $1;
+    }
+    if ($task =~ m/^Section: (\S+)/) {
+        $section = $1;
+        if ($section eq "l10n") {
+            push (@l10n_tasks, $taskname);
+        } elsif ($section eq "server") {
+            push (@server_tasks, $taskname);
+        } elsif ($section eq "user") {
+            if ($taskname =~ m/^[[:alnum:]]+-desktop/) {
+                push (@desktop_tasks, $taskname);
+            } else {
+                push (@user_tasks, $taskname);
+            }
+        } elsif ($section eq "special") {
+            push (@special_tasks, $taskname);
+        } else {
+            die "update_tasks: task $taskname has unknown section $section!\n";
+        }
 
-    update_full_list \
-        task-full-$variant \
-        task.gen.$variant.primary \
-        $TMP_PKG
+    }
+}
+close TASKS;
 
-    # Now add packages for secondary tasks; start with Key packages again
-    if [ -e task.gen.$variant.secondary ]; then
-        update_essential_list \
-            task-full-$variant \
-            task.gen.$variant.secondary \
-            $TDIR/tasksel
+#print "l10n: @l10n_tasks\n";
+#print "desktop: @desktop_tasks\n";
+#print "user: @user_tasks\n";
+#print "server: @server_tasks\n";
+#print "special: @special_tasks\n";
 
-        update_full_list \
-            task-full-$variant \
-            task.gen.$variant.secondary \
-            $TMP_PKG
-    fi
-done
+# Reduce special-casing and duplicate code. Add "generic-desktop" and
+# "all-desktop" tasks that we can use here.
+push (@desktop_tasks, "generic-desktop");
+push (@desktop_tasks, "all-desktop");
 
-rm -rf $TDIR
+# Write out all the groupings
+foreach my $desktop (@desktop_tasks) {
+    my $filename;
+    my $desktop_name = $desktop;
+    $desktop_name =~ s/-desktop//g;
+
+    # Essential; $DESKTOP
+    $filename = "task-essential-$desktop_name";    
+    open (DESKOUT, "> $filename") or die "can't open file $filename for writing, $!\n";
+
+    # in all-desktop, add all the desktop tasks
+    if ($desktop_name eq "all") {
+        foreach my $taskname (@desktop_tasks) {
+            print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+        }
+    } elsif ($desktop_name eq "generic") {
+        print DESKOUT "task-gnome-desktop\n";
+    } else {
+        print DESKOUT "task-$desktop\n";
+    }
+
+    # generic-desktop and all-desktop want all the server and user
+    # tasks included too
+    if ($desktop_name eq "all" or $desktop_name eq "generic") {
+        foreach my $taskname (@user_tasks) {
+            print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+        }
+        foreach my $taskname (@server_tasks) {
+            print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+        }
+    }
+    close DESKOUT;
+
+    # Full; $DESKTOP
+    $filename = "task-full-$desktop_name";    
+    open (DESKOUT, "> $filename") or die "can't open file $filename for writing, $!\n";
+
+    # in all-desktop, add all the desktop tasks now
+    if ($desktop_name eq "all") {
+        foreach my $taskname (@desktop_tasks) {
+            print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+        }
+    } elsif ($desktop_name eq "generic") {
+        print DESKOUT "task-gnome-desktop\n";
+    } else {
+        print DESKOUT "task-$desktop\n";
+    }
+
+    # generic-desktop and all-desktop want all the server and user
+    # tasks included too
+    if ($desktop_name eq "all" or $desktop_name eq "generic") {
+        foreach my $taskname (@user_tasks) {
+            print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+        }
+        foreach my $taskname (@server_tasks) {
+            print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+        }
+    }
+
+    # task-$LANGUAGE, same for all flavours
+    foreach my $taskname (@l10n_tasks) {
+        if ($taskname !~ m/desktop/) {
+            print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+        }
+    }
+
+    # task-$LANGUAGE-desktop, same for all flavours
+    foreach my $taskname (@l10n_tasks) {
+        if ($taskname =~ m/desktop/) {
+            my $include = 1;
+            foreach my $dsk (@desktop_tasks) {
+                if ($taskname =~ m/$dsk/) {
+                    $include = 0;
+                    last;
+                }
+            }
+            if ($include) {
+                print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
+    # in all-desktop, add all the desktop l10n tasks
+    if ($desktop_name eq "all") {
+        # task-$LANGUAGE-$DESKTOP-desktop
+        foreach my $taskname (@l10n_tasks) {
+            foreach my $dsk (@desktop_tasks) {
+                if ($taskname =~ m/$dsk/) {
+                    print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+                }
+            }
+        }
+
+    } elsif ($desktop_name eq "generic") {
+        # in generic-desktop, add the desktop l10n tasks as though for
+        # Gnome *first*. Others will come later
+
+        # task-$LANGUAGE-$DESKTOP-desktop
+        foreach my $taskname (@l10n_tasks) {
+            if ($taskname =~ m/gnome/) {
+                print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+            }
+        }
+        # task-!gnome-desktop
+        foreach my $taskname (@desktop_tasks) {
+            if ($taskname !~ m/gnome/) {
+                print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+            }
+        }
+
+        # task-$LANGUAGE-!gnome-desktop
+        foreach my $taskname (@l10n_tasks) {
+            if ($taskname =~ m/desktop$/) {
+                my $include = 0;
+                foreach my $dsk (@desktop_tasks) {
+                    if ($dsk !~ m/gnome/ and $taskname =~ m/$dsk/) {
+                        $include = 1;
+                        last;
+                    }
+                }
+                if ($include) {
+                    print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+                }
+            }
+        }
+    } else {
+        # a specific desktop, just add the desktop l10n tasks for this
+        # desktop
+
+        # task-$LANGUAGE-$DESKTOP-desktop
+        foreach my $taskname (@l10n_tasks) {
+            if ($taskname =~ m/$desktop_name/) {
+                print DESKOUT "task-$taskname\n";
+            }
+        }
+    }
+    close DESKOUT;
+}