Bug#1114824: libc-bin: ldd fails when "set -u" is used

[Aurelien Jarno <aurel32@debian.org>]

Hi,

On 2025-09-10 12:53, Johan Palmqvist wrote:
> Package: libc-bin
> Version: 2.36-9+deb12u13
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch upstream
> X-Debbugs-Cc: johan.palmqvist@gmail.com
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> *** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***
> 
>    * What led up to the situation?
> 
> ldd fails due to unbound variable named "unused" when run from scripts where "set -u" is used. This in turn makes update-initramfs silently generate truncated initrd's which refuse to boot properly due to missing "/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/*".

Thanks for reporting the issue. While I agree this is something that 
can be fixed, I have problem to understand how it causes issues 
with update-initramfs:

1) Calling a script from another doesn't apply the shell options from 
   the caller to the callee
2) This is even more true given that your /bin/sh links to dash, and 
   update-initramfs uses /bin/sh while ldd explicitly uses /bin/bash.
3) Could you please tell me where initramfs-tools uses "set -u"?

Given you reported the issue against the version in oldstable, this is 
important to understand the severity of the bug and the need to get it 
fixed in oldstable with regard to your claim that it prevents systems 
booting.

Regards
Aurelien

-- 
Aurelien Jarno                          GPG: 4096R/1DDD8C9B
aurelien@aurel32.net                     http://aurel32.net