diff -Nru daptup-0.12.2/daptup daptup-0.12.5/daptup
--- daptup-0.12.2/daptup	2011-11-12 18:50:05.000000000 +0000
+++ daptup-0.12.5/daptup	2011-12-02 16:50:08.000000000 +0000
@@ -58,23 +58,16 @@
 
 	my $filter = main::get_pkg_list_description_filter();
 	my $binary_name = $self->get_cache_binary_name();
-	system(qq/$binary_name search ".*" $filter 2>$errors_file | sort | uniq > $output_file/);
+	system(qq/$binary_name search ".*" 2>$errors_file $filter | sort | uniq > $output_file/);
 }
 
 sub get_updates {
 	my ($self, $output_file) = @_;
 
-	my @installed_package_names;
-	my $dpkg_query_output = `dpkg-query -l`;
-	foreach my $dpkg_output_line (split("\n", $dpkg_query_output)) {
-		if ($dpkg_output_line =~ m/^ii..(.+?) /) {
-			push @installed_package_names, $1;
-		}
-	}
-
-	my $installed_package_names_string = join(' ', @installed_package_names);
 	my $binary_name = $self->get_cache_binary_name();
-	my $policy_output = `$binary_name policy $installed_package_names_string 2>/dev/null`;
+	my $get_installed_package_names_command = q/dpkg -l | grep "^ii" | awk '{ print $2 }'/;
+	# shell may reject too long lists of arguments, xargs automatically handles that
+	my $policy_output = `$get_installed_package_names_command | LC_MESSAGES=C xargs $binary_name policy 2>/dev/null`;
 
 	# 'apt-cache policy' somewhy outputs blocks in random order, not as
 	# specified in the command line (#......), use hash
@@ -107,7 +100,7 @@
 
 		open(my $output_file_fd, '>', $output_file);
 		foreach my $package_name (@watched_packages) {
-			my $policy_output = `$binary_name policy $package_name 2>/dev/null`;
+			my $policy_output = `LC_MESSAGES=C $binary_name policy $package_name 2>/dev/null`;
 			my ($version_string) = ($policy_output =~ m/$preferred_version_sub_regex/o);
 			chomp($version_string);
 			say $output_file_fd "$package_name $version_string";
@@ -156,7 +149,7 @@
 		my $command = qq/aptitude search "~n($regex)"/;
 		$command .= qq/ --display-format $ENV{DAPTUP_WATCH_DISPLAY_FORMAT}/;
 		$command .= qq/ --width "$ENV{DAPTUP_WATCH_DISPLAY_WIDTH}"/;
-		$command .= qq/ $ENV{DAPTUP_EXTRA_APTITUDE_ARGUMENTS} > $output_file/;
+		$command .= qq! $ENV{DAPTUP_EXTRA_APTITUDE_ARGUMENTS} 2>/dev/null > $output_file!;
 		system($command);
 	}
 }
@@ -439,7 +432,7 @@
 	lprint("Building old list of packages... ");
 	$backend->get_avail_pkg_list($new_before_file, $errors_file_path);
 
-	if (-s $errors_file_path) {
+	if (-s $errors_file_path and -z $new_before_file) {
 		if (system("grep '^E:' $errors_file_path") == 0) {
 			lsay("errors present. Is apt/dpkg running?");
 			exit 8;
diff -Nru daptup-0.12.2/debian/changelog daptup-0.12.5/debian/changelog
--- daptup-0.12.2/debian/changelog	2011-11-12 18:50:05.000000000 +0000
+++ daptup-0.12.5/debian/changelog	2011-12-02 16:50:08.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,3 +1,29 @@
+daptup (0.12.5) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Apt and Cupt back-end: don't pass long strings to 'echo' commands as well.
+    (Closes: #650517)
+
+ -- Eugene V. Lyubimkin <jackyf@debian.org>  Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:49:17 +0200
+
+daptup (0.12.4) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Apt and Cupt back-ends: don't pass too long list of arguments to
+    the shell. (Closes: #650517)
+
+ -- Eugene V. Lyubimkin <jackyf@debian.org>  Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:13:29 +0200
+
+daptup (0.12.3) unstable; urgency=low
+
+  * Don't error out at building old list of packages when a package manager
+    throw errors but a result is not empty. (Closes: #637738, #649244)
+  * Aptitude back-end: searching for watched packages: fixed suppressing the
+    standard error stream.
+  * Always prefix 'apt-cache policy' and 'cupt policy' calls with LC_MESSAGES.
+  * Apt and Cupt back-ends: fixed suppressing the standard error stream at
+    building lists of packages when showing short descriptions is turned off.
+
+ -- Eugene V. Lyubimkin <jackyf@debian.org>  Sun, 27 Nov 2011 16:45:42 +0200
+
 daptup (0.12.2) unstable; urgency=low
 
   * The action '--last' does not require root privileges anymore.