Bug#629624: python-apt: acquire.run() should fail when the lists/partial directory is missing

[Raphaël Hertzog <hertzog@debian.org>]

Package: python-apt
Version: 0.8.0
Severity: normal

Consider the following code:
import sys
import apt_pkg

apt_pkg.init_config()
apt_pkg.config["Dir::Etc"] = "/home/rhertzog/deb/core/rolling/sat-britney/apt-etc"
apt_pkg.config["Dir::State"] = "/home/rhertzog/deb/core/rolling/sat-britney/apt-state"
apt_pkg.config["Dir::Cache"] = "/home/rhertzog/deb/core/rolling/sat-britney/apt-cache"
apt_pkg.init_system()

acquire = apt_pkg.Acquire()
srclist = apt_pkg.SourceList()
if not srclist.read_main_list():
    sys.stdout.write("Failed to read sources.list")
if srclist.get_indexes(acquire, True):
    sys.stdout.write("Update OK\n")
else:
    sys.stdout.write("Update failed\n")
res = acquire.run()
if res == apt_pkg.Acquire.RESULT_CONTINUE:
    sys.stdout.write("Download OK\n")
else:
    sys.stdout.write("Download failed\n")

I have a created a simple sources.list in Dir::Etc (listing an http:// URL) but
I'm missing a partial directory in Dir::State::lists. The code will execute
without errors but no files will be downloaded.

Either it should auto-create the "partial" sub-dir or it should fail
with a proper error/exception. The current behavior is sub-optimal.

Cheers,

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers stable-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'proposed-updates'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (150, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.38-2-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.utf8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages python-apt depends on:
ii  apt [libapt-pkg4.10]         0.8.14.1    Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii  apt-utils [libapt-inst1.2]   0.8.14.1    APT utility programs
ii  libc6                        2.13-5      Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libgcc1                      1:4.6.0-11  GCC support library
ii  libstdc++6                   4.6.0-11    The GNU Standard C++ Library v3
ii  python                       2.6.6-14    interactive high-level object-orie
ii  python-apt-common            0.8.0       Python interface to libapt-pkg (lo
ii  python2.6                    2.6.6-10    An interactive high-level object-o
ii  python2.7                    2.7.2~rc1-2 An interactive high-level object-o

Versions of packages python-apt recommends:
ii  iso-codes                     3.26-1     ISO language, territory, currency,
ii  lsb-release                   3.2-27     Linux Standard Base version report
ii  python2.6                     2.6.6-10   An interactive high-level object-o

Versions of packages python-apt suggests:
pn  python-apt-dbg                <none>     (no description available)
ii  python-apt-doc                0.8.0      Python interface to libapt-pkg (AP
ii  python-gtk2                   2.24.0-2   Python bindings for the GTK+ widge
ii  python-vte                    1:0.28.0-2 Python bindings for the VTE widget

-- no debconf information