/usr/lib/auto-apt/auto-apt-pkgdcb consumes over 100% RAM on 0.3.23

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I confirm this bug.
Both "update" and "updatedb" commands have frozen my computer (due to full RAM), and the second command was actually killed by the out-of-memory killer (/usr/lib/auto-apt/auto-apt-pkgdcb is indeed the "guilty" program).

The workaround mentioned by the bug reporter also works for me.
Actually, after applying this workaround and the workaround mentioned in Bug #1300991, auto-apt works correctly.

For those who want to apply the workaround, one way to get the 0.3.22 version of the auto-apt-pkgdcb file is to download the 32 or 64 bit DEB of auto-apt of Raring from here: http://packages.ubuntu.com/raring/auto-apt
Then open the DEB in the archive manager, extract the auto-apt-pkgdcb file from its usr/lib/auto-apt directory and replace the system /usr/lib/auto-apt/auto-apt-pkgdcb file with this one.

I've looked at the changes done to file auto-apt-pkgcdb.c in this commit: http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-branches/ubuntu/trusty/auto-apt/trusty/revision/6#auto-apt-pkgcdb.c
There is clearly a memory leak in the "while" loop that starts in line 220.

The get_line() function allocates and returns a pointer to a character array (a new allocation for each invocation).
Inside the loop, in line 225, that function is called ("buf = get_line(stdin);"), and the pointer stored is in "buf".
However, the related free(buf) function is only called outside of the loop. So, only the last allocation is freed.
The free(buf) call must be moved to inside the "while" loop!

I've linked a branch that fixes this bug, bug #1300991 and the warning I mentioned in that bug.

There was indeed a memory leak.

Ubuntu Sponsors, could you "backport" version 0.3.24 of auto-apt to trusty-proposed?
That version of the package fixes both this bug and LP: #1300991.
auto-apt is not functional in the current version 0.3.23.

Important note: 0.3.24 was uploaded to Debian and will, eventually, be synced into Utopic.
It is not yet available there.

Uploaded to trusty-proposed. Unsubscribing sponsors. Now awaiting SRU team approval. Thank you for your work!

Hello iw2snl, or anyone else affected,

Accepted auto-apt into trusty-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/auto-apt/0.3.23ubuntu0.14.04.1 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

I've installed the updated auto-apt package, version 0.3.23ubuntu0.14.04.1 from trusty-proposed, in a Ubuntu 14.04 virtual machine (I'm still using 13.10).
This version seems to work correctly. The auto-apt commands mentioned in the description work fine and without filling the RAM.

I've also tested using auto-apt to "help me" install 'nano' from source ('auto-apt run ./configure').
It installed all required dependencies. After that, 'make' compiled the program without problems.

The verification of the Stable Release Update for auto-apt has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

This bug was fixed in the package auto-apt - 0.3.23ubuntu0.14.04.1

---------------
auto-apt (0.3.23ubuntu0.14.04.1) trusty; urgency=medium

  * No change rebuild from Debian auto-apt 0.3.24, which fixes only these bugs:
    - Patches supplied by Bruno Nova, with thanks.
    - Plug a memory leak caused by not freeing lines read from stdin. (LP:
      #1300987)
    - Use dpkg --print-architecture instead of deprecated dpkg
      --print-installation-architecture (the latter causes a warning). (LP:
      #1300991)
    - Accept no leading spaces at the start of a line in sources.list. (LP:
      #1300991)
 -- Robie Basak <email address hidden> Tue, 03 Jun 2014 13:32:35 +0000