Bug#2196: ytalk `shell' option can't run dpkg

[Ian Jackson <ian@chiark.chu.cam.ac.uk>]

Package: ytalk
Version: 3.0.2-1

See the screenshot below.  As you can see, the problem is
intermittent.  I can't run `strace' to see what's going wrong, because
ytalk breaks that too.

The code in dpkg that's failing amounts to
  c= fork();  if (c<0) bomb_out();
  if (!c) { exec(); bomb_out(); }
  repeatedly { rc= waitpid(c,&status); error_check(); }
and it's the waitpid that's failing with ECHILD.

For what it's worth I'm using dpkg 1.0.11, and running ytalk in an
xterm.  dpkg runs fine in Emacs shell mode, Emacs terminal-emulator
mode, telnet sessions, script and rlogin sessions.  It even works from
rsh, which doesn't provide it with a controlling terminal.  I dread to
think what ytalk is doing ...

Ian.

---------------------------= YTalk version 3.0 (2) =---------------------------
-chiark:~> really dpkg -i things/debian/upl/hello-1.3-4.deb
(Reading database ... 17439 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace hello (using things/debian/upl/hello-1.3-4.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement hello ...
Setting up hello ...

-chiark:~> really dpkg -i things/debian/upl/hello-1.3-4.deb
(Reading database ... 17439 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace hello (using things/debian/upl/hello-1.3-4.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement hello ...
dpkg: error processing things/debian/upl/hello-1.3-4.deb (--install):
 wait for dpkg-deb --fsys-tarfile failed: No child processes
Errors were encountered while processing:
 things/debian/upl/hello-1.3-4.deb
Processing was halted because there were too many errors.
-chiark:~>


------------------------------= ijackson@chiark =------------------------------