Packages fail to install due to post-install scripts failing

[rhkramer@gmail.com]

I installed Jessie on a new machine not very long ago, specifically to do some 
development.

I've had several packages fail to install with a message saying that the post-
install script failed (returned a 1, iirc).  (I'm writing from my Wheezy 
machine.)

The most recent such package was doxygen (as well as the doxygen-doc) package.

Because several packages have failed the same way, I almost think it is 
something generic rather than specific to one or more packages.

Has anybody been having similar problems?  Any hints as to why or how to 
overcome the problem?

Thanks!