Re: apt-get (status file) broken?

["Ian D. Stewart" <idstewart@compuvative.com>]

On 2002.12.31 00:25 Adahma wrote:
> I get the following error when trying to use apt-get or dselect:
>
> Hit http://non-us.debian.org unstable/non-US/non-free Release
> Reading Package Lists... Error!
> E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
> E: Dynamic MMap ran out of room
> E: Error occured while processing liblircclient0 (NewVersion1)
> E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status
> E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.
>
> I'm running Sid.  I have not seen any related list traffic on such
> an error, so I'm guessing it's just my system, and a hosed file.
> Can anyone give direction on how I might rectify such a problem?

I've gotten this when the package cache starts to get largish.  I 
suspect this is an implementation mis-feature, where it tries to store 
the entire package repository in memory, or something like that.  I 
work around it by periodically (i.e., when I get the Dynamic MMap 
error) cleaning out the cache via 'apt-get clean'.


HTH,
Ian