apt-get doesn't handle well the case of a full disk/partition

[Andreas Hasenack]

Using Oneiric, just updated, and apt 0.8.16~exp5ubuntu12.

I ran apt-get install ubuntu-desktop on a server machine, to get it to download a big lot of packages. In parallel, another terminal, I filled up the disk with dd while the apt download was happening.

Sure enough, suddenly apt stopped and stalled:
(...)
Get:133 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main liblaunchpad-integration-3.0-1 i386 0.1.54 [8,554 B]
Get:134 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libaspell15 i386 0.60.6-6 [609 kB]
Get:135 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libhunspell-1.2-0 i386 1.2.14-4 [145 kB]
Get:136 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libenchant1c2a i386 1.6.0-3 [85.9 kB]
Get:137 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libgail-3-0 i386 3.2.0-0ubuntu2 [23.9 kB]
Get:138 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libgstreamer0.10-0 i386 0.10.35-1 [763 kB]
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libgstreamer0.10-0 i386 0.10.35-1
  Error writing to output file - write (28: No space left on device) [IP: 91.189.92.170 80]
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-0 i386 0.10.35-1
  Bad header line [IP: 91.189.92.170 80]
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libicu44 i386 4.4.2-2
  Bad header line [IP: 91.189.92.170 80]
Get:139 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libproxy0 i386 0.3.1-2ubuntu6 [37.2 kB]
Get:140 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main gsettings-desktop-schemas all 3.2.0-0ubuntu1 [15.9 kB]
Get:141 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main glib-networking i386 2.30.0-0ubuntu1 [47.2 kB]
Get:142 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libsoup2.4-1 i386 2.36.0-0ubuntu1 [198 kB]
Get:143 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libxslt1.1 i386 1.1.26-7 [164 kB]
Get:144 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libwebkitgtk-3.0-common all 1.4.3-0ubuntu3 [554 kB]
Get:145 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 i386 1.4.3-0ubuntu3 [7,052 kB]
Err http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ oneiric/main libwebkitgtk-3.0-0 i386 1.4.3-0ubuntu3
  Error writing to output file - write (28: No space left on device) [IP: 91.189.88.40 80]
12% [Waiting for headers]

It just stays there, timing out for each package, and then tries the next one, times out again, and so on. It will take forever. We hit this problem in Landscape, where an activity would stay apparently stuck forever.

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

Sorry, the above was in oneiric, just updated, using apt 0.8.16~exp5ubuntu12

[Torsten Spindler (tspindler)]

What would be a better behaviour of apt? Should there be an option to err out on a failed write?