crash with AssertionError: file stream must be in binary mode when trying to save report to file

[Iain Lane]

laney@raleigh> sudo apport-cli nova-common
[...]
What would you like to do? Your options are:
  S: Send report (4.5 KB)
  V: View report
  K: Keep report file for sending later or copying to somewhere else
  I: Cancel and ignore future crashes of this program version
  C: Cancel
Please choose (S/V/K/I/C): k
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/apport-cli", line 366, in <module>
    if not app.run_argv():
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/ui.py", line 558, in run_argv
    return self.run_report_bug()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/ui.py", line 399, in run_report_bug
    response = self.ui_present_report_details(allowed_to_report)
  File "/usr/bin/apport-cli", line 216, in ui_present_report_details
    self.report.write(os.fdopen(fd, 'w'))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 250, in write
    self._assert_bin_mode(file)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 628, in _assert_bin_mode
    assert (type(file) == BytesIO or 'b' in file.mode), 'file stream must be in binary mode'
AssertionError: file stream must be in binary mode

laney@raleigh> apt-cache policy apport
apport:
  Installed: 2.1.1-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 2.1.1-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 2.1.1-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ quantal/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package apport - 2.2.4-0ubuntu1

---------------
apport (2.2.4-0ubuntu1) quantal; urgency=low

  * debian/tests/control: Simplify Depends: line by using "@" and dropping
    packages which are already dependencies of apport's packages.
  * debian/tests/control: Drop undefined "no-build-needed" feature.
  * New upstream bug fix release. Changes since our previous trunk snapshot:
    - apport-cli: Unbreak "keep" option. (LP: #1007826)
    - launchpad.py: Fix str vs. bytes crash for already known bugs.
      (LP: #1015788)
 -- Martin Pitt <email address hidden> Thu, 21 Jun 2012 09:13:56 +0200

[Michael Schaller (misch-9)]

I'm seeing this issue when I do a dist-upgrade via python-apt from Precise to Trusty. Can the fix be backported to Precise?

Log snippet:
2014-04-25 11:34:17 INFO: apt: Processing package kdesdk-scripts (0.2040%)
2014-04-25 11:34:17 DEBUG: dpkg: Unpacking kdesdk-scripts (4:4.13.0-0ubuntu1) over (4:4.8.5-0ubuntu0.1) ...
2014-04-25 11:34:17 DEBUG: dpkg: dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/kdesdk-scripts_4%3a4.13.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb (--unpack):
2014-04-25 11:34:17 DEBUG: dpkg: trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/extractattr', which is also in package pkg-kde-tools 0.14.2ubuntu5
2014-04-25 11:34:17 DEBUG: dpkg: dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
2014-04-25 11:34:17 ERROR: apt: trying to overwrite '/usr/bin/extractattr', which is also in package pkg-kde-tools 0.14.2ubuntu5
2014-04-25 11:34:17 DEBUG: dpkg: Errors were encountered while processing:
2014-04-25 11:34:17 DEBUG: dpkg: /var/cache/apt/archives/kdesdk-scripts_4%3a4.13.0-0ubuntu1_all.deb
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: Error in function:
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: SystemError: E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: Error in sys.excepthook:
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: Traceback (most recent call last):
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport_python_hook.py", line 114, in apport_excepthook
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: mangled_program = re.sub('/', '_', binary)
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/apport/fileutils.py", line 256, in get_recent_crashes
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: pr.load(report, False)
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 124, in load
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: self._assert_bin_mode(file)
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/problem_report.py", line 631, in _assert_bin_mode
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: assert (type(file) == BytesIO or 'b' in file.mode), 'file stream must be in binary mode'
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: AssertionError: file stream must be in binary mode
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg:
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: Original exception was:
2014-04-25 11:34:18 DEBUG: dpkg: SystemError: E:Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)
2014-04-25 11:34:18 INFO: apt: End of package operation

[Iain Lane (laney)]

Michael,

Thanks. I've backported the fix to Precise now.

What this bug needs that I'm hoping you can help me to provide is steps to reproduce the problem. I tried in a chroot with the examples in your log but I couldn't get it to happen. Could reproduce the upgrade failure though (did you report that?).

Can you provide a reproduction recipe? It's so that the update can be verified to fix what it says it does. They won't accept it without that, sadly.

Thanks!

[Iain Lane (laney)]

(ah, I just saw a new kde-dev-tools with what looks like this fix come in)

[Michael Schaller (misch-9)]

Hi Iain,

Sorry for the delay on this one.
So far I am completely unable to come up with reproduction steps but I can reproduce it with my Python dist-upgrade script with each run. Unfortunately I can't simply release the script to public and the script is quite complex as it is completely unattended and uses custom Progress classes for apt/dpkg logging.

Can't you release the updates package to precise-proposed? Then I can report back if the issue is fixed.

Best,

Michael

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Yes, Iain has already uploaded the fix to the precise queue. It needs the SRU team to review/accept:
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/precise/+queue?queue_state=1

[Michael Schaller (misch-9)]

Iain, what is the current state for Precise?
Is there a proposed package that I could test?

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

The Precise Pangolin has reached end of life, so this bug will not be fixed for that release