APT

apt crashes in std::string::compare in debPackagesIndex::FindInCache

Bug #63850 reported by Thomas Folz-Donahue
2
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
APT
Incomplete
Unknown
apt (Ubuntu)
New
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: apt

So today I decided that I would like to install Eclipse.

[eigenlambda@muon:~ ^_^]$ sudo apt-get install eclipse
Password:
Bus errorackage lists... 0%

Well, that was a surprise. Similar results from "apt-cache search foo" and "apt-get update".

I enabled core dumps, ran gdb, and I'm even attaching the core dump for my "apt-cache search eclipse" command.

The bus error appears to be in std::string::compare in debPackagesIndex::FindInCache . I can't find out anything else because without apt, I can't "apt-get source apt" to debug further, and I don't know c++ anyway.

Revision history for this message
Thomas Folz-Donahue (eigenlambda) wrote :
Changed in apt:
status: Unknown → Unconfirmed
Revision history for this message
Michael Vogt (mvo) wrote :

Thanks for your bugreport.

Can you please remove:
/var/cache/apt/*.bin

and re-run your test?

Thanks,
 Michael

Revision history for this message
Thomas Folz-Donahue (eigenlambda) wrote :

I'm posting this here because the solution to this bug is not actually the same as the solution to the one it's flagged as a dupe of, and you asked here.

What happens now is
Reading package lists... Error!
E: Encountered a section with no Package: header
E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/apt/lists/security.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_dapper-security_restricted_binary-i386_Packages
E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

I didn't delete those files, though, I just shoved them to my home directory in the hopes of examining them or the conditions of the bus error more thoroughly in the future. Why do you say that it would be hard to print a real error message instead of crashing? It seems to me that catching SIGSEGV or SIGBUS and printing something wouldn't be too hard.

...So I just moved them back, expecting another bus error, and I still got a decent error message... and didn't get any error on my next apt-get update. That's actually kind of frustrating. Problems shouldn't just go away like that.

Changed in apt:
status: New → Incomplete
To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.