Bug#628150: partman-auto: Conspires to commit inappropriate error reporting when expert recipe fails to parse

[Andrew Suffield <asuffield@acunu.com>]

Package: partman-auto

When there is a parse error in the start of a line in an expert recipe, it responds as follows:

The minimum partition size is set to 2200000000, with a comment in the source remarking "there is no so big storage device jet".

Since the recipe does not fit on the disk, it files this message in syslog:

"Available disk space ($free_size) too small for expert recipe ($(min_size)); skipping"

And then it proceeds to use the default recipe. Since I'm using this in a fully preseeded install, it does this silently and without any indication that an error has occurred. I simply get a system installed with a (hilariously inappropriate, would not boot at all) partition layout.

Here's an example of a suitably broken recipe:

d-i partman-auto/expert_recipe string \
        xenhost :: \
        25000 50000 25000 ext3 \
        $primary{ } method{ format } format{ } use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 } mountpoint{ / } \
        . \
        100 1000 1000000000 ext3 \
        $defaultignore{ } \
        $primary{ } \
        method{ lvm } \
        device{ /dev/sda } \
        vg_name{ vg1 } . \
        . \
        100 1000 1000000000 ext3 \
        $defaultignore{ } \
        $primary{ } \
        method{ lvm } \
        device{ /dev/sdb } \
        vg_name{ vg2 } . \
        . \
        100 1000 1000000000 ext3 \
        $defaultignore{ } \
        $primary{ } \
        method{ lvm } \
        device{ /dev/sdc } \
        vg_name{ vg3 } . \
        . \
        100 1000 1000000000 ext3 \
        $defaultignore{ } \
        $primary{ } \
        method{ lvm } \
        device{ /dev/sdd } \
        vg_name{ vg4 } . \
        .

(Note the spurious extra . at the end of each block)

This error non-reporting needs to be stopped. The install should be interrupted with an actual error, not continue with an entirely different layout and quietly mention it in syslog.