Bug#954343: Error message 'Unable to parse package file (1)' unhelpful

[Julian Andres Klode <jak@debian.org>]

On Fri, Mar 20, 2020 at 03:41:06PM +0100, Andras Korn wrote:
> Package: apt
> Version: 2.0.0
> Severity: normal
> 
> Hi,
> 
> with the sources.list entry:
> 
> deb http://winswitch.org/beta/ buster main
> 
> apt-get as of 2.0 update prints the unhelpful error message:
> 
> E: Unable to parse package file  (1)
> 
> apt 1.8.4 has no problem with this repository.
> 
> I could only find out which sources.list entry was causing the issue by way of successive elimination.
> 
> I would suggest the following:
> 
> 1. identify the type of file in the message (e.g. Packages file, Release file, whatever); 'package file' is vague.

It's supposed to print the path, but apparently the path is empty.


> 
> 2. in the message, identify the sources.list entry the problematic file is related to.
> 
> 3. the message should say why the file in question could not be parsed; at the very least, print the number of the line where the problem was encountered.

Those two are not going to happen. Well, 3 might be possible at a later
time, but we don't have information for 2.

-- 
debian developer - deb.li/jak | jak-linux.org - free software dev
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