regression: byte compiling failure on upgrade from lucid

[Steve Langasek]

Yesterday's attempt at upgrading from lucid to precise failed with a byte compiling error when configuring python.

Setting up libdb5.1 (5.1.25-11build1) ...
Setting up python2.7 (2.7.3~rc1-1ubuntu2) ...
Setting up python (2.7.2-9ubuntu2) ...
Sorry: TypeError: ('compile() expected string without null bytes',)
dpkg: error processing python (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 101

https://jenkins.qa.ubuntu.com/view/Precise%20Upgrade%20Testing%20Dashboard/job/precise-upgrade-lucid-main/51/ARCH=amd64,LTS=lts,PROFILE=main-all,label=upgrade-test/artifact/lts-main-all-amd64/apt-term.log

This appears to be a regression in behavior vs. previous upgrade tests, probably related to the new python2.7 version that's been uploaded.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: python 2.7.2-9ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-17.27-generic 3.2.6
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-17-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 1.94.1-0ubuntu2
Architecture: amd64
CheckboxSubmission: 017452a27eca3c8b498abbfa5ef91db9
CheckboxSystem: ecaaad6fa1e0799a0aa1126bf620f39e
Date: Wed Mar 14 12:26:57 2012
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100816.1)
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: python-defaults
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2011-11-08 (126 days ago)

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

<slangasek> doko: so actually, whatever causes it seems to not be included in either the default desktop or server installs - maybe ok to downgrade to 'high' instead of 'critical'
<doko> slangasek, I'll look first to improve the diagnostics for beta2

... and we don't know if another python package did cause the update.

[Matthias Klose (doko)]

... did cause the update failure.

please see if this is reproducible. maybe a bad file system too (null bytes in the file).

[Steve Langasek (vorlon)]

this error hasn't been seen again since, so filesystem corruption is the likely cause. Closing as invalid.