Bug#35573: dpkg: dpkg --info <two_or_more_deb_files> returns garbage

[Raphael Hertzog <rhertzog@hrnet.fr>]

Le Mon, Apr 05, 1999 at 07:54:20AM +0000, Michele Bini écrivait:
> Package: dpkg
> Version: 1.4.0.33
> 
> This bug seems trivial to reproduce:
> 
> 'dpkg --info <deb_file>' works fine, but,
> 'dpkg --info <deb_file1 deb_file2 ...>' returns an output
> similar to 'cat /dev/urandom', probably compressed data.

This commande will never do what you expected. Read the man page :
[dpkg manual]
	      dpkg -I | --info filename [control-file]
                  Show information about a package.
[dpkg-deb manual]
       --info, -I
              Provides  information  about   a   binary   package
              archive.

              If no control-file-names are specified then it will
              print a summary of the contents of the  package  as
              well as its control file.

              If   any   control-file-names  are  specified  then
              dpkg-deb will print them in  the  order  they  were
              specified; if any of the components weren't present
              it will print an error message to stderr about each
              one and exit with status 2.


The second argument may not be a second package filename but the
name of the control-file to look for. And if the name isn't valid
it produces an error like that :
~@p200$ LC_ALL=C dpkg -I perl-base_5.005.02-2_i386.deb deb
dpkg-deb: `perl-base_5.005.02-2_i386.deb' contains no control component `deb'
dpkg-deb: at least one requested control component missing

I'm using dpkg 1.4.0.34 here.

I think that you should give us the precise command-line that produced 
the strange ouput ...

Cheers,
-- 
Hertzog Raphaël >> 0C4CABF1 >> http://prope.insa-lyon.fr/~rhertzog/