A Frequently Reported Bug: "process_queue: Assertion `dependtry <= 4' failed." in dpkg

[Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho <gaia@iki.fi>]

If you get the following message from dpkg

dpkg: ../../../main/packages.c:191: process_queue: Assertion `dependtry <= 4' failed.
Aborted (core dumped)

DO NOT report it as a bug against dpkg.  There are already too many
duplicate reports on this.

There are two known triggers for that bug:

  * A package depends on itself.  (This is a bug in the package.)

  * There is a dependency loop which involves a virtual package.
    (This would be valid use of the dependency fields, if this bug did
    not exist.)

There are workarounds:

  * If you get that error when installing a package, try using
    --force-depends with dpkg.
    
  * If you are putting together a package and hit this bug when
    testing, you should check whether the package depends on itself or
    whether it is involved in a dependency loop that includes virtual
    packages.  In the first case, a fix is obvious.  In the second case,
    the package which depends on the virtual package should list
    real packages as alternatives to the virtual package so that
    the loop no longer includes the virtual package.

Thanks.

-- 
%%% Antti-Juhani Kaijanaho % gaia@iki.fi % http://www.iki.fi/gaia/ %%%

   "... memory leaks are quite acceptable in many applications ..."
    (Bjarne Stroustrup, The Design and Evolution of C++, page 220)