Generates incorrect Packages file

[KM]

Binary package hint: mini-dinstall

nick@nitrogen$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 8.10
Release: 8.10
nick@nitrogen$ apt-cache policy mini-dinstall
mini-dinstall:
  Installed: 0.6.25ubuntu1
  Candidate: 0.6.25ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 0.6.25ubuntu1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/universe Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

See http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=6350610

The bug might be in apt-ftparchive. The problem is in the use of a database file in the call made by mini-dinstall to apt-ftparchive to generate the Packages file, e.g.:

Dec 12 08:50:06 mini-dinstall [1103288656] DEBUG: Running: apt-ftparchive packages stable --db stable.db

The database appears to retain information from a previous version of the package. The generated Packages file therefore does not match the uploaded package, because it describes the earlier version and apt-get refuses to install it. 'apt-get install <package>' fails on a size mismatch or on an incorrect dependency (incorrect in the older version, fixed in the newer version).

A contributing factor might be that I routinely upload changed or fixed packages without incrementing the version number on my package, to test packages while in development. I do not want to have to increment the version every time I change and redeploy a package in development.

As a workaround, I set my dput post_upload_command to remove the database file after running mini-dinstall. My local package archive is now functional again.

Neither mini-dinstall nor apt-ftparchive appear to offer guidance on the use of the database file, so I cannot tell what might be a more correct solution.

[Jeff Turner (jeffturner)]

I had the same problem, with apt-get persistently reporting 'Size mismatch' errors when fetching files from a local repository containing .debs naughtily rebuilt without revving the version number.

In my case, my ~/.dput.cf post_upload_command calls 'debarchiver -x', which in turn calls apt-ftparchive, which is generating incorrect size information in the Packages file. The solution was to delete /var/cache/debarchiver/cache.db, which I assume debarchiver tells apt-ftparchive to use.

[Bhavani Shankar (bhavi)]

Here is the merge diff for the updated package which closes this bug

Regards

[Andrew Starr-Bochicchio (andrewsomething)]

Sorry for the duplicated work. I did the merge that pulls in this fix the other day, and somehow I didn't notice this patch.

mini-dinstall (0.6.28ubuntu1) maverick; urgency=low

  * Merge from debian unstable. Remaining Ubuntu changes:
    - minidinstall/version.py: set current version.
    - debian/control: modify Suggests to ubuntu-keyring
    - Change all occurrences of /usr/share/keyrings/debian-keyring.gpg to
      /usr/share/keyrings/ubuntu-archive-keyring.gpg.

mini-dinstall (0.6.28) unstable; urgency=low

  [ Christoph Goehre ]
  * [2793c0d] update pkg_version on clean target
  * [ffd2489] lintian: add ${misc:Depends} to mini-dinstall package
  * [4b8155e] bump up Standards-Version to 3.8.4
  * [712898e] lintian: add blank line on debian NEWS file
  * [b7c4ba8] lintian: spelling error in changelog s/incomming/incoming/
  * [3181afb] lintian: depend on debhelper >= 7
  * [d61eb9c] lintian: change Build-Depends python-dev to python
  * [bdd0029] allow to disable 'db' option in apt-ftparchive (Closes: #513847)
  * [3f611de] exit with 1 instead of backtrace by creating mini-dinstall's
    folder
  * [df7be9f] support Source format 3.0 (Closes: #571226)
  * [4b3e336] disable tweeting on default and document tweet options in
    manpage
  * [37ca547] Switch to dpkg-source 3.0 (native) format

  [ Julian Andres Klode ]
  * [db1a6cd] Upgrade to the new python-apt API. (Closes: #572069)

  [ Christopher R. Gabriel ]
  * [92b2b34] added twitting support (e.g. for twitter/identi.ca)

 -- Andrew Starr-Bochicchio <email address hidden> Fri, 18 Jun 2010 14:28:59 -0400