Bug#359989: apt: [apt-get source] fails if dpkg-source is not installed

[Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org>]

On Thu, Mar 30, 2006 at 12:23:45AM +0200, Jari Aalto wrote:
> Package: apt
> Version: 0.6.43.3
> Severity: normal

Thanks for your bugreport.

[..] 
>     test:/tmp# apt-get source jwm
>     Reading Package Lists... Done
>     Building Dependency Tree... Done
>     Need to get 331kB of source archives.
>     Get:1 http://debian.cante.net stable/main jwm 1.1-1 (dsc) [337B]
>     Get:2 http://debian.cante.net stable/main jwm 1.1-1 (tar) [331kB]
>     Fetched 331kB in 0s (397kB/s)
>     sh: dpkg-source: not found
>     Unpack command 'dpkg-source -x jwm_1.1-1.dsc' failed.
>     E: Child process failed
> 
> SUGGESTION
> 
> It would be better if apt checked the existence of dpkg-source before
> attempting download and notify user to install dpkg-dev package.

The error message in the latest apt is:
 _("Unpack command '%s' failed.\n"),S);
 _("Check if the 'dpkg-dev' package is installed.\n"));

This should be sufficient IMHO. I don't think the command should fail
before the download because having the source available may be still
helpful and a subsequent apt-get source (after install dpkg-dev)
should do the right thing and unpack the source.

Cheers,
 Michael



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Linux is not The Answer. Yes is the answer. Linux is The Question. - Neo