update-alternatives parsing failure under non-English locales

[Matthias Lohr]

This problem occured due an upgrade from 12.04LTS to 14.04LTS.

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
Package: postgresql-client-9.3 9.3.3-1bzr2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-60.91-generic 3.2.55
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-60-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.13.3-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
Date: Mon Mar 17 14:58:14 2014
DuplicateSignature: package:postgresql-client-9.3:9.3.3-1bzr2:ErrorMessage: Unterprozess installiertes post-installation-Skript gab den Fehlerwert 2 zurück
ErrorMessage: ErrorMessage: Unterprozess installiertes post-installation-Skript gab den Fehlerwert 2 zurück
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-12-27 (444 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-Server 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Release amd64 (20120424.1)
SourcePackage: postgresql-9.3
Title: package postgresql-client-9.3 9.3.3-1bzr2 failed to install/upgrade: ErrorMessage: Unterprozess installiertes post-installation-Skript gab den Fehlerwert 2 zurück
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to trusty on 2014-03-17 (0 days ago)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Alexander Schlarb (alexander255)]

The reason this is happening is because the function `_link_manpages` in the file `/usr/share/postgresql-common/maintscripts-functions` searches for the string "auto mode" in the output of the command `update-alternatives --display postmaster.1.gz 2> /dev/null` however (since both mine and his system are using the german locale the string that is printed by `update-alternatives` is actually "Auto-Modus".

I can't test this anymore (applied the workaround given below already), but the solution would probably be to change the problematic command to `env LANGUAGE=C update-alternatives --display postmaster.1.gz 2> /dev/null`.

WORKAROUND:
 * Run this command: sudo update-alternatives --remove postmaster.1.gz /usr/share/postgresql/9.1/man/man1/postmaster.1.gz
 * Retry the upgrade using: sudo aptitude safe-upgrade

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Thanks! Fixed in bzr.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package postgresql-common - 160

---------------
postgresql-common (160) unstable; urgency=medium

  [ Martin Pitt ]
  * supported-versions: Set 9.4 as default for Ubuntu 14.10.
  * debian/maintscripts-functions: Call update-alternatives under C locale to
    fix parsing for non-English locales. (LP: #1293596)
  * pg_createcluster: Fix test if specified owner/group ID is numeric. Thanks
    Sven Berkvens-Matthijsse! (LP: #1329227)

  [ Christoph Berg ]
  * Use dh-systemd to enable postgresql.service on install. (Closes: #757612)
  * Set Multi-Arch: foreign in postgresql-common, postgresql-client-common,
    postgresql-client, and postgresql-doc, and document this in
    doc/dependencies.{dia,png}. (Closes: #757520)
  * Update examples in README.Debian for 9.4. (Closes: #756007)
  * Install README.systemd.

 -- Christoph Berg <email address hidden> Mon, 11 Aug 2014 15:39:39 +0200