Request for SRU
===============
1. Statement explaining the impact
If you happen to have a package that has an incorrect installed-size field which is not all numeric, smart will crash. For Landscape users, since Landscape uses smart on the client side, it means the managed machine will stop reporting package information to the server and any package activity won't work.
2. How has the bug been addressed
The bug was fixed by upstream in smart 1.3.1. For this SRU, that specific change has been used for a patch which applied cleanly.
3. Patch
The patch is attached to this bug report as a debdiff for each nominated ubuntu release. It includes the fix for the deb backend, a similar fix for the rpm backend and a test. It was taken from smart trunk and applies cleanly.
4. How to reproduce
a) With the affected version of smart installed, edit /var/lib/dpkg/status and change the installed size field of the first package you see in there to include the letter "k" after the number. For example:
"""
Package: xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: x11
Installed-Size: 176
(...)
"""
Change it to:
"""
Installed-Size: 176k
(...)
"""
b) Run "/usr/share/smart/smart info xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse" (or the package that you changed). You will get a backtrace
c) Install the fixed version of python-smartpm
d) Run the command from (c) again. No backtrace this time, and installed size will be reported as unknown.
5. Regression potential
Minimal. The patch is very focused and has been in smart since 1.3.1. Upstream is now at 1.4.0.
If suddenly many packages start reporting this field with a letter, smart, by ignoring it, would probably not be able to tell if there would be enough disk space after the installation, so users could be left with an out of disk error after installations. I don't know what apt does with that field. A quick test shows that installed-size is displayed when it has a letter, but I don't know if it's interpreted and taken into account in the disk free space calculations.
Original bug description below
-------------------------------
Happened with a support customer:
2010-01-24 16:26:20,947 ERROR [MainThread] None
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/twisted/internet/defer.py", line 317, in _runCallbacks
self.result = callback(self.result, *args, **kw)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/landscape/package/reporter.py", line 47, in <lambda>
result.addCallback(lambda x: self.handle_tasks())
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/landscape/package/taskhandler.py", line 37, in handle_tasks
self._handle_next_task(None, deferred)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/landscape/package/taskhandler.py", line 49, in _handle_next_task
result = self.handle_task(task)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/landscape/package/reporter.py", line 163, in handle_task
return self._handle_package_ids(message)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/landscape/package/reporter.py", line 191, in _handle_package_ids
result = self._handle_unknown_packages(unknown_hashes)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/landscape/package/reporter.py", line 234, in _handle_unknown_packages
skeleton = self._facade.get_package_skeleton(package)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/landscape/package/facade.py", line 127, in get_package_skeleton
return build_skeleton(pkg, with_info)
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/landscape/package/skeleton.py", line 89, in build_skeleton
skeleton.installed_size = info.getInstalledSize()
File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/smart/backends/deb/loader.py", line 71, in getInstalledSize
return long(size)*1024
ValueError: invalid literal for long() with base 10: '221M'
I'm im touch with him to discover which package this is.
Sounds like a bogus .deb ?
http://