Package: apt
Version: 0.9.7.9+deb7u1
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
*** Please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***
* What led up to the situation?
I was configuring Puppet to manage a number of nodes. Puppetlabs has an 'apt'
module, and they
use code fragments in /etc/apt/preferences.d to control pins. However, my
organization was using
entries in /etc/apt/preferences, so I had to migrate. I decided to put a
comment in
/etc/apt/preferences saying "# This file is managed by Puppet" (similar to what
the puppetlabs/apt
module does for /etc/apt/sources.list), and discovered this caused 'apt-get
upgrade' to fail.
* What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
ineffective)?
This topic has been covered by a previous bug, but the resolution is
poor/unclear. That bug is
641245, archived, and it seems the resolution is "comments should be entered in
/etc/apt/preferences in the form 'Explanation: <comment>'" and the bug was
archived. This does
not work, however, and does not seem to be a good solution. The "#" as a
comment is so ubiquitous
across Linux programs, and files containing only comments are acceptable almost
everywhere.
apt-get should be updated to current expectations.
The bug can be reproduced quite simply by putting a single comment in
/etc/apt/preferences.
For example:
# This file is maintained by Puppet. Contents will be overwritten.
When running apt-get, the output will be:
"E: Unable to parse package file /etc/apt/preferences (1)"
In the discussion of bug 641245, it is mentioned that apt_preferences (5) says
comments should
be indicated with "Explanation:" <comment>. If the only line in
/etc/apt/preferences is like so:
Explanation: This file is maintained by Puppet. Contents will be overwritten.
the output is as follows:
"E: Invalid record in the preferences file /etc/apt/preferences, no Package
header"
A workaround is actually quite simple. As long as "Package: <some text>" is
included, 'apt-get
upgrade' works without complaint. Quite literally, the following is acceptable:
# This file is maintained by Puppet. Contents will be overwritten.
Package: arbitrary_non_existent_package_used_to_demonstrate_the_point
It's clear that apt-get isn't checking the validity of the text following the
"Package:" line, so
why is it a requirement that the "Package:" line be present at all?
-- Package-specific info:
-- apt-config dump --
APT "";
APT::Architecture "amd64";
APT::Build-Essential "";
APT::Build-Essential:: "build-essential";
APT::Install-Recommends "1";
APT::Install-Suggests "0";
APT::Authentication "";
APT::Authentication::TrustCDROM "true";
APT::NeverAutoRemove "";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^firmware-linux.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-firmware$";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-image.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^kfreebsd-image.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-restricted-modules.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^linux-ubuntu-modules-.*";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^gnumach$";
APT::NeverAutoRemove:: "^gnumach-image.*";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections "";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "metapackages";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "restricted/metapackages";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "universe/metapackages";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "multiverse/metapackages";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "oldlibs";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "restricted/oldlibs";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "universe/oldlibs";
APT::Never-MarkAuto-Sections:: "multiverse/oldlibs";
APT::Architectures "";
APT::Architectures:: "amd64";
APT::Compressor "";
APT::Compressor::. "";
APT::Compressor::.::Name ".";
APT::Compressor::.::Extension "";
APT::Compressor::.::Binary "";
APT::Compressor::.::Cost "1";
APT::Compressor::gzip "";
APT::Compressor::gzip::Name "gzip";
APT::Compressor::gzip::Extension ".gz";
APT::Compressor::gzip::Binary "gzip";
APT::Compressor::gzip::Cost "2";
APT::Compressor::gzip::CompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::gzip::CompressArg:: "-9n";
APT::Compressor::gzip::UncompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::gzip::UncompressArg:: "-d";
APT::Compressor::bzip2 "";
APT::Compressor::bzip2::Name "bzip2";
APT::Compressor::bzip2::Extension ".bz2";
APT::Compressor::bzip2::Binary "bzip2";
APT::Compressor::bzip2::Cost "3";
APT::Compressor::bzip2::CompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::bzip2::CompressArg:: "-9";
APT::Compressor::bzip2::UncompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::bzip2::UncompressArg:: "-d";
APT::Compressor::xz "";
APT::Compressor::xz::Name "xz";
APT::Compressor::xz::Extension ".xz";
APT::Compressor::xz::Binary "xz";
APT::Compressor::xz::Cost "4";
APT::Compressor::xz::CompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::xz::CompressArg:: "-6";
APT::Compressor::xz::UncompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::xz::UncompressArg:: "-d";
APT::Compressor::lzma "";
APT::Compressor::lzma::Name "lzma";
APT::Compressor::lzma::Extension ".lzma";
APT::Compressor::lzma::Binary "xz";
APT::Compressor::lzma::Cost "5";
APT::Compressor::lzma::CompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::lzma::CompressArg:: "--format=lzma";
APT::Compressor::lzma::CompressArg:: "-9";
APT::Compressor::lzma::UncompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::lzma::UncompressArg:: "--format=lzma";
APT::Compressor::lzma::UncompressArg:: "-d";
APT::Compressor::::Name "";
APT::Compressor::::Extension ".";
APT::Compressor::::Binary "";
APT::Compressor::::Cost "100";
APT::Compressor::::CompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::::CompressArg:: "-9";
APT::Compressor::::UncompressArg "";
APT::Compressor::::UncompressArg:: "-d";
Dir "/";
Dir::State "var/lib/apt/";
Dir::State::lists "lists/";
Dir::State::cdroms "cdroms.list";
Dir::State::mirrors "mirrors/";
Dir::State::extended_states "extended_states";
Dir::State::status "/var/lib/dpkg/status";
Dir::Cache "var/cache/apt/";
Dir::Cache::archives "archives/";
Dir::Cache::srcpkgcache "srcpkgcache.bin";
Dir::Cache::pkgcache "pkgcache.bin";
Dir::Etc "etc/apt/";
Dir::Etc::sourcelist "sources.list";
Dir::Etc::sourceparts "sources.list.d";
Dir::Etc::vendorlist "vendors.list";
Dir::Etc::vendorparts "vendors.list.d";
Dir::Etc::main "apt.conf";
Dir::Etc::netrc "auth.conf";
Dir::Etc::parts "apt.conf.d";
Dir::Etc::preferences "preferences";
Dir::Etc::preferencesparts "preferences.d";
Dir::Etc::trusted "trusted.gpg";
Dir::Etc::trustedparts "trusted.gpg.d";
Dir::Bin "";
Dir::Bin::methods "/usr/lib/apt/methods";
Dir::Bin::solvers "";
Dir::Bin::solvers:: "/usr/lib/apt/solvers";
Dir::Bin::dpkg "/usr/bin/dpkg";
Dir::Bin::bzip2 "/bin/bzip2";
Dir::Bin::xz "/usr/bin/xz";
Dir::Media "";
Dir::Media::MountPath "/media/cdrom";
Dir::Log "var/log/apt";
Dir::Log::Terminal "term.log";
Dir::Log::History "history.log";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently "";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "~$";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "\.disabled$";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "\.bak$";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "\.dpkg-[a-z]+$";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "\.save$";
Dir::Ignore-Files-Silently:: "\.orig$";
Acquire "";
Acquire::cdrom "";
Acquire::cdrom::mount "/media/cdrom";
Acquire::Languages "";
Acquire::Languages:: "none";
DPkg "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs "";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/bin/apt-listchanges --apt || test $? -ne 10";
DPkg::Pre-Install-Pkgs:: "/usr/sbin/dpkg-preconfigure --apt || true";
DPkg::Tools "";
DPkg::Tools::Options "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/bin/apt-listchanges "";
DPkg::Tools::Options::/usr/bin/apt-listchanges::Version "2";
CommandLine "";
CommandLine::AsString "apt-config dump";
-- /etc/apt/preferences --
#This file is maintained by puppet. Local changes will be overwritten. Changes
#must be made via the git repo only.
#Pin for the 3.2.7-3 version of gluster
#At one point "unstable" went to 3.2.7-5. According to the
#package maintainers there is no problem reverting to 3.2.7-3
#from 3.2.7-5, and there are no plans to put 3.2.7-5 in wheezy.
Package: glusterfs-client glusterfs-server glusterfs-common
Pin: release n=wheezy
Pin-Priority: 2001
Package: *
Pin: release n=wheezy
Pin-Priority: 1001
Package: *
Pin: release a=testing
Pin-Priority: 60
Package: *
Pin: release a=unstable
Pin-Priority: 50
-- /etc/apt/sources.list --
#This file is maintained by puppet. Local changes will be overwritten. Changes
#must be made via the git repo only.
deb http://mirror.qualvu.dev/debian/ wheezy main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main non-free contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/ wheezy/updates main contrib non-free
# wheezy-updates, previously known as 'volatile'
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy-updates main contrib non-free
# Wheezy for glusterfs 3.2+; Jessie is now at 3.4
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main non-free
deb-src http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main non-free
-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.3
APT prefers stable
APT policy: (1001, 'stable'), (500, 'stable-updates')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.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 1.4.12-7+deb7u3
ii libapt-pkg4.12 0.9.7.9+deb7u1
ii libc6 2.13-38
ii libgcc1 1:4.7.2-5
ii libstdc++6 4.7.2-5
apt recommends no packages.
Versions of packages apt suggests:
pn apt-doc <none>
ii aptitude 0.6.8.2-1
ii dpkg-dev 1.16.12
ii python-apt 0.8.8.2
ii xz-utils 5.1.1alpha+20120614-2
-- no debconf information
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