Bug#658361: accessing priority of package causes a segmentation fault

[sita krishnakumar <sita.krishnakumar@gmail.com>]

Package: python-apt
version: 0.7.7.1+nmu1

I get a seg fault on a Debian 5 machine when i access a package's priority. My python version is 2.5.2.

Here is a simple python script to test out the same.

import apt

cache = apt.Cache()
cache.update()
cache.open(None)
cache.upgrade()

for pkg in cache:
    print pkg.name
    print pkg.priority

This happened all on a sudden since today feb 2, 2012. I have been running it w/o any issues for past few months. initially i thought it was due to lack of no updates available, but further digging proved it to be due to accessing of priorities. And now it consistently happens. Not sure if the repository against which apt checks has been handed over to a new machine, for it used to list updates earlier. Without my upgrading, now there are 0 updates available. How is this possible?

I am running debian 5 as a VM on my laptop. I have tried it out on other standalone machines also and the problem persists.

Please contact me if you would like further information.

Thanks,

Sita

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Sita S. Krishnakumar, PhD
+91-9003070867