apt-file search /ext2 ignores leading slash

Binary package hint: apt-file

If you try to limit your search to just files and directories which begin with "ext2" (excluding, in theory, any "ext2" in the root directory, but there is no such directory in any regular package anyway), apt-file should not ignore this and display all matches which contain "ext2" anywhere in them.

This is on a pretty vanilla Gutsy system:

vnix$ apt-file search /ext2 | head
autofs: usr/lib/autofs/mount_ext2.so
autofs: usr/lib/autofs/mount_ext2.so
autofs: usr/lib/autofs/mount_ext2.so
awesfx: usr/bin/text2sf
awesfx: usr/bin/text2sf
awesfx: usr/bin/text2sf
cmucl-source: usr/share/common-lisp/source/cmucl-hemlock/htext2.lisp
cmucl-source: usr/share/common-lisp/source/cmucl-hemlock/htext2.lisp
cmucl-source: usr/share/common-lisp/source/cmucl-hemlock/htext2.lisp
cmucl-source: usr/share/common-lisp/source/cmucl/hemlock/htext2.lisp

(Obviously, bug #174134 is also at play here.)

This would be the expected output on this system:

vnix$ apt-file search /ext2 | uniq | fgrep /ext2 | head
comerr-dev: usr/share/doc/libcomerr2/examples/ext2_err.et.gz
cryptsetup: lib/cryptsetup/checks/ext2
doc-linux-html: usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-html/Flash-Memory-HOWTO/ext2.html
doc-linux-html-pt: usr/share/doc/HOWTO/pt-html/mini/ext2fs-undeletions.pt_BR.html.gz
doc-linux-ja-text: usr/share/doc/HOWTO/ja-txt/kernel-docs-2.4/filesystems/ext2.txt.gz
doc-linux-ja-text: usr/share/doc/HOWTO/ja-txt/kernel-docs-2.6/filesystems/ext2.txt.gz
doc-linux-text-pt: usr/share/doc/HOWTO/pt-text/mini/ext2fs-undeletions.pt_BR.txt.gz
e2fslibs-dev: usr/include/ext2fs/bitops.h
e2fslibs-dev: usr/include/ext2fs/ext2_err.h
e2fslibs-dev: usr/include/ext2fs/ext2_ext_attr.h

I noticed this in the Changelog for version 2.0.3-2, back in 2003:

  * Remove leading slash in pattern (Closes: #190122)

and also for 2.0.5:

  * Remove tailling slash (Closes: #280690)

I seriously question the logic behind these changes. (These are Debian bug numbers, I believe.)

If I were to work on a different approach to these bugs, should I submit it directly to Debian, or could you consider it for Ubuntu? (I might also end up reverting the changes introduced in Launchpad bug #33483 and bug #33485 on the same principles; I'm somewhat skeptical of those patches.)

Ping? Daniel Hahler, any comment?

It has been changed in Debian, because a search for "/var/cache" would fail, without the removed slash.

I will change it as follows:
1. Do not remove the slash from the pattern
2. If there's a slash at the beginning, match both with pattern and pattern-with-slash removed, but anchored at the beginning

For "apt-file search /sbin" the regexp should look like this then:
D: regexp: ^(sbin|.*\/sbin[^\s]*)\s+(\S+)\s*$

You can see the generated regexp/pattern yourself by using the "-v" option with apt-file.

The 2.0.5 change (trailing slash) is something different, see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=280690

I have it just fixed, but want to look at other bugs/wishes, too, before uploading it - hopefully tomorrow.

I would argue that the "fix" for http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=190122 is the cause of the problem I'm seeing, so perhaps that should be removed as upstream bug tracker.

http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=382312 coincidentally has a patch which (based on a brief glimpse) appears to address this issue, as well as a host of others.

This bug was fixed in the package apt-file - 2.0.8.2ubuntu3

---------------
apt-file (2.0.8.2ubuntu3) hardy; urgency=low

  * Improved "need to run apt-file update" experience (LP: #154180)
    - debian/apt-file.postinst:
      - Do not call apt-file update anymore directly
      - install update-notifier hook
    - debian/control: Depend on "menu" for su-to-root
    - apt-file: test if the cache directory is empty for actions
      search/find and show/list.
  * apt-file: reverted removal of leading slash in pattern and implement
    logic to match both without slash at the beginning and with slash
    inside (LP: #181600). Apply the same logic to regexp patterns (-x).
  * debian/rules:
    - moved DH_COMPAT=3 to debian/compat (increased to 5)
    - Fixed debian-rules-ignores-make-clean-error
    - Dropped binary-arch target
  * Fix typos/wording in README
  * apt-file.conf: Add integrity check for fetched files (LP: #176753)
  * apt-file: find_command: remove leading spaces and open parentheses
    before looking for the command, so that the new defaults in
    apt-file.conf work
  * apt-file: print output from command after executing it, so that
    errors and notes from there get to the user
  * debian/apt-file.postrm: added DEBHELPER marker
  * debian/control:
    - Dropped Build-Depends-Indep: debhelper (>> 3.0.0)
    - Build-Depends: debhelper (>= 5), cdbs
    - Standards-Version: 3.7.3
    - Recommend "file", which gets used optionally for the integrity check
  * apt-file.bash_completion: filename/directory completion for "search",
    patch taken from Debian bug #448358
  * apt-file/do_grep: only search in all cache files once (LP: #174134)
  * apt-file: fix display of warning in purge_cache, if the file cannot be
    deleted
  * Applied patches from Kevin Glynn in a lot of places, see Debian bug
    #382312). Thanks!
  * Support files in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/ (LP: #190602) (Closes: #353275)
    Patches from Amos Shapira and Andrew Schulman.

 -- Daniel Hahler <email address hidden> Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:18:52 +0100