Bug#677887: apt-get download: unhelpful "E: FindIndex failed"

[Jakub Wilk <jwilk@debian.org>]

Package: apt
Version: 0.9.6
Severity: minor

When trying to download a package that is not available on a remote 
location (i.e. locally installed), apt-get fails with an unhelpful 
message. E.g.:

# apt-cache policy vrms
vrms:
  Installed: 1.16+nmu0+jwilk20110827
  Candidate: 1.16+nmu0+jwilk20110827
  Version table:
 *** 1.16+nmu0+jwilk20110827 0
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     1.16 0
        990 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main i386 Packages

# apt-get download vrms
E: FindIndex failed


I wish that:
1) the error message actually explained what the problem is;
2) more importantly, it pointed out which package is at fault (I often 
hit this bug when downloading dozens or even hundreds packages at 
once...).


-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (990, 'unstable'), (500, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: amd64

Kernel: Linux 3.4-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=pl_PL.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages apt depends on:
ii  debian-archive-keyring  2012.4
ii  gnupg                   1.4.12-4
ii  libapt-pkg4.12          0.9.6
ii  libc6                   2.13-33
ii  libgcc1                 1:4.7.1-1
ii  libstdc++6              4.7.1-1

--
Jakub Wilk