Bug#349233: apt: Segmentation faulty tree... 50%
Package: apt
Version: 0.6.43.2
Severity: grave
REASONING for grave
apt-get becomes unusable to the whole system. Can't install, remove or
query any information.
PROBLEM
Without any notice (under testing) apt-get stopped working and
printing message
Segmentation faulty tree... 50%
I've done some GOOGLING and it seems this bug has been seen before,
but no intelligent handling has been added to apt. See bug Bug#84277
where Jason Gunthorpe <jgg@debian.org> writes:
> apt-get segfaults w/out (in my opinion) any reason:
This has always been traced back to file corruption in /var/cache/apt/*.bin
If you can erase those files and run the apt command and have it work then
that is definately the problem.
Nobody has ever been able to reproduce it, unless they have buggy hardware
:>
Jason
This machine does not not have buggy hardware; apt has been working fine
from the start.
SUGGESTION:
As it seems that apt-get is able to start (and does not segfault),
would it be possible to add a signal handler or error handler that -
when encountering this problem - would print a messsage:
Hm, I suspect corrupted data files. Please delete
/var/cache/apt/*.bin followed by "apt-get update" to reset apt.
Which indeed fixed this error condition.
-- Package-specific info:
-- (no /etc/apt/preferences present) --
-- (/etc/apt/sources.list present, but not submitted) --
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.14-2-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ISO-8859-1) (ignored: LC_ALL set to en_US)
Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii libc6 2.3.5-12 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii libgcc1 1:4.0.2-7 GCC support library
ii libstdc++6 4.0.2-7 The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
Versions of packages apt recommends:
pn debian-archive-keyring <none> (no description available)
-- no debconf information
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