Ubuntu
apt package

/etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal creates comment with invalid # character

Bug #1076237 reported by Martin Pitt
6
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
apt (Ubuntu)
Fix Released
Undecided
Adam Conrad

Bug Description

/etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal does:

cat > "$config_file".dpkg-new <<EOF
# File autogenerated by $0, do not edit
APT
{
[...]

But apt does not seem to accept that. This is exposed by the current aptdaemon autopkgtest failure in https://jenkins.qa.ubuntu.com/view/Raring/view/AutoPkgTest/job/raring-adt-aptdaemon/lastFailedBuild/ARCH=i386,label=albali/ :

=====================================================================
ERROR: test_ (tests.test_configparser.ConfigurationParserTestCase)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/tmp/tmp.dHacB3CTL5/dsc0-build/aptdaemon-0.45+bzr861/tests/test_configparser.py", line 63, in test_
    config = self.parser.parse(fd.readlines())
  File "/tmp/tmp.dHacB3CTL5/dsc0-build/aptdaemon-0.45+bzr861/aptdaemon/config.py", line 156, in parse
    raise Exception("Unknown char '%s' in: %s" % (char, line))
Exception: Unknown char '#' in: # File autogenerated by /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal, do not edit

man apt.conf also just documents // and /* .. */ as valid comments, not #.

I think this apt script should be fixed to write a // comment instead of a # comment. Or should aptdaemon/apt accept # as well?

Revision history for this message
Martin Pitt (pitti) wrote :

This is a regression from https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/0.9.7.6ubuntu1 .

tags: added: autopkgtest-failure raring
Adam Conrad (adconrad)
Changed in apt (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Adam Conrad (adconrad)
status: New → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
Launchpad Janitor (janitor) wrote :

This bug was fixed in the package apt - 0.9.7.6ubuntu3

---------------
apt (0.9.7.6ubuntu3) raring; urgency=low

  * Fix comment char in /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove-kernels to
    use C++ style comments instead of POSIX shell style (LP: #1076237)
 -- Adam Conrad <email address hidden> Wed, 07 Nov 2012 23:10:35 -0700

Changed in apt (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
David Kalnischkies (donkult) wrote :

Just for the record: APT really supports # as comments as a convenience:

apt (0.7.22) unstable; urgency=low
…
  * [ABI break] support '#' in apt.conf and /etc/apt/preferences
    (closes: #189866)
…
 -- Michael Vogt <email address hidden> Wed, 29 Jul 2009 19:16:22 +0200

I really don't get why everyone thinks config file parsing is so damn cool that it must be reimplemented everywhere. I guess I have to try it some time. Sounds like a lot of fun.
Unnecessary to mention that aptdaemon will fail on other for-APT-valid config files also, like these including #clear option; and this time there is not even an excuse as this syntax is present since ever. Even though it might be hard to give a valid excuse provided the copyright year of config.py is 2010 … Oh dear …

My python is to limited, but from a first look it seems like it incorporates quiet a few issues like parsing/editing files which aren't parsed by APT (e.g. config.dpkg-new), #clear, #include, #-comments, …

(yes, I know that aptdaemon "needs" it to rewrite the configuration file as nobody has implemented it in libapt-pkg – properly because it sounds like so much fun – but I still don't get why because you could just append a new line to file to set a different value …)

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