don't collect version info for packages not installed

[Oliver Grawert]

Binary package hint: apport

if i file a bug on a package i dont have installed using "ubuntu-bug -p <packagename>" no version info is attached to the report. instead of not adding any info, apport should look in the package DB and default to the most recent version found there.

ProblemType: Bug
ApportLog:

Architecture: i386
CrashReports: 600:7:7:1068205:2009-08-16 17:37:20.000000000 +0200:2009-08-16 17:38:12.000000000 +0200:/var/crash/_var_build_karmic-arm-chroot_usr_bin_qemu-arm-static.7.crash
Date: Sat Aug 22 10:17:35 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: apport 1.7-0ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=de_DE.UTF-8
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-6.25-generic
SourcePackage: apport
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-6-generic i686

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

It should just plain fail if a package isn't installed, because then you don't have its package hook installed either, and can't collect any sensible information (i. e. nothing that isn't already publicly known, such as what the current version of that package is).

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

apport/ubuntu r1509

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package apport - 1.8.1-0ubuntu1

---------------
apport (1.8.1-0ubuntu1) karmic; urgency=low

  * New upstream bug fix release:
    - data/general-hooks/generic.py: Check $HOME, not /home for enough space.
      (LP: #422658)
    - launchpad.py: Intercept httplib2.ServerNotFoundError as well, to avoid
      crashes when being offline. (LP: #396276)
    - apport-cli: Save reports with .apport extension instead of .txt. Thanks
      to Steve Beattie! (LP: #401983)
    - fileutils.py, likely_packaged(): Ignored crashes in /var, packages don't
      ship executables there, and it creates false positives. (LP: #414368)
    - packaging-apt-dpkg.py, get_modified_files(): Fix crash with empty lines.
      (LP: #408280)
    - packaging-apt-dpkg.py: Use installed version instead of candidate
      version where appropriate. This also fixes a crash where an obsolete
      package is not available any more. (LP: #423511)
    - hookutils.py, attach_gconf(): Fix crash with keys which do not have a
      schema default. (LP: #422277)
    - launchpad.py: Remove LP #353805 workaround, seems fixed now.
    - launchpad.py: Talk to staging if $APPORT_STAGING is set.
    - launchpad.py: Explicitly supply content_type for addAttachment, current
      wadllib requires it now.
    - apport_python_hook.py: Paper over inexplicable import error.
      (LP: #348250)
    - apport_python_hook.py: Protect against nonexisting sys.argv.
      (LP: #418051)
    - apport/ui.py, load_report(): Check that report has ProblemType field.
      (LP: #198543)
    - ui.py: Fix handling of complete vs. reduced report size. (LP: #92653).
      This also fixes a race condition crash with os.path.getsize().
      (LP: #348137)
    - fi.po: Fix mistranslation of "&Cancel". (LP: #355303)
    - apport-{gtk,kde}: Check for having $DISPLAY at startup to avoid crashes.
      (LP: #411276)
    - report.py, add_gdb_info(): Fix race condition in unlink_core, thanks to
      Tommi Komulainen! (LP: #397945)
    - ui.py, load_report(): Robustify check whether program is still
      installed. (LP: #329184)
    - packaging-apt-dpkg.py, install_retracing_packages(): Install package for
      ExecutablePath/InterpreterPath if missing; this can happen with package
      hooks which reassing package
    - launchpad.py: Add a comment when marking a bug as a duplicate.
      (LP: #418871)
  * Move gdb dependency from apport to GUI packages to avoid pulling in gdb on
    Ubuntu server. Thanks to Steve Beattie! (LP: #354172)
  * ubuntu-bug: Fix handling of .crash file arguments, thanks to Marco
    Rodrigues for pointing this out! (LP: #422881)
  * debian/local/apport-collect: Set content_type and description, wadllib
    requires them now. (LP: #423512) Also drop the ASCII reencoding
    workaround, this doesn't seem to be necessary any more.
  * apport/hookutils.py, attach_conffiles(): Fix crash with obsolete
    conffiles. (LP: #412132)
  * debian/local/apport-collect: Do not upload data if the affected package
    isn't installed and there is no source package hook available either.
    (LP: #417277)
  * debian/local/ubuntu-bug: Accept .apport extension, too; thanks to Steve
    ...

[Loïc Minier (lool)]

Err what if I'm trying to report a bug about a package being uninstallable for instance?

[Martin Pitt (pitti)]

Loïc Minier [2009-09-04 7:19 -0000]:
> Err what if I'm trying to report a bug about a package being
> uninstallable for instance?

You still can report bugs about uninstalled packages, but you can't
call apport-collect on an existing bug for a package you don't have
installed. There is no data you could collect from that, after all?

[Oliver Grawert (ogra)]

but getting the version via grep-dctrl or some such would help to identify *which* package version had that install problem :)