Bug#61327: unhelpful error messages

[Richard Kettlewell <richard@elmail.co.uk>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.3.10slink11

Trying to use the `apt' method in apt, I got the following messages:

    Err http://www.mirror.ac.uk slink/main Packages
      Undetermined Error
    Err http://www.mirror.ac.uk slink/main Release
      Undetermined Error
    Err http://www.mirror.ac.uk slink/contrib Packages
      Undetermined Error
    Err http://www.mirror.ac.uk slink/contrib Release
      Undetermined Error
    Err http://www.mirror.ac.uk slink/non-free Packages
      Undetermined Error
    Err http://www.mirror.ac.uk slink/non-free Release
      Undetermined Error
    Err http://www.mirror.ac.uk slink/non-US Packages
      Undetermined Error
    Err http://www.mirror.ac.uk slink/non-US Release
      Undetermined Error
    Reading Package Lists... Error!
    E: Malformed Priority line
    E: Error occured while processing svgalib (NewVersion1)
    E: Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status
    E: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

    update available list script returned error exit status 100.
    Press RETURN to continue.

As it turns out the error was an incorrectly set http_proxy variable.
But the error messages don't information to determine this.  They
should indicate what the problem was clearly.

ttfn/rjk