ubuntu-bug doesn't understand 'alternatives'

[Rory McCann]

Binary package hint: apport

I wanted to report a bug in gvim (#442641 it turns out), so I went "ubuntu-bug /usr/bin/gvim" and I got the following error:

Usage: apport-gtk [options] [symptom|pid|package|program path|.apport/.crash file]

apport-gtk: error: /usr/bin/gvim does not belong to a package.

This confused me immensly, since I had gvim installed and running. I thought I might have compiled it from source, but couldn't remember doing that.

Eventually I entered "ls -l /usr/bin/gvim" and got this output:

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 22 2009-07-07 09:47 /usr/bin/gvim -> /etc/alternatives/gvim

gvim is an alternative.

I only have one gvim installed:

update-alternatives --list gvim
/usr/bin/vim.gnome

Ideally ubuntu-bug should see that the programme (in this case "/usr/bin/gvim") is linked to something in "/etc/alternatives", and then look at the name (in this case "gvim"), see what alternative is selected (in this case "/usr/bin/vim.gnome") and report a bug for that programme, as if the user typed in "ubuntu-bug /usr/bin/vim.gnome".

ProblemType: Bug
ApportLog:

Architecture: i386
CrashReports:
 600:1000:1000:56249:2009-10-29 23:03:00.000000000 +0000:2009-10-30 09:30:42.000000000 +0000:/var/crash/_usr_bin_gwibber.1000.crash
 600:1000:1000:4292667:2009-10-29 20:34:51.000000000 +0000:2009-10-30 09:30:48.000000000 +0000:/var/crash/_usr_bin_totem-gstreamer.1000.crash
 600:1000:1000:14378:2009-10-30 09:30:33.000000000 +0000:2009-10-30 09:31:14.000000000 +0000:/var/crash/_usr_lib_telepathy_telepathy-butterfly.1000.crash
Date: Fri Oct 30 09:57:05 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
Package: apport 1.9.3-0ubuntu4
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_IE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: apport
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2279): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (gnome-settings-daemon:2279): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_propagate_error: assertion `src != NULL' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:2502): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:2462): Eel-CRITICAL **: eel_preferences_get_boolean: assertion `preferences_is_initialized ()' failed
 (gnome-panel:2459): Gtk-WARNING **: gtk_widget_size_allocate(): attempt to allocate widget with width -5 and height 24

[Rory McCann (rorymcc)]

I'm not really sure this is a duplicate of that bug. Both deal with ubuntu-bug making better decisions about what package to match to a name, but this is about alternatives, whereas LP 447751 is about $PATH variables etc. However maybe it's the same area, so I'll leave it up someone cleverer than me.