Upgrade from 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.3 to 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.5 leads to segfault at 6c8b48f8 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0

[Philipp Kern]

Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release: 12.04
On: amd64

From the kernel log:

[6846551.444387] apt-config[8190]: segfault at 6c8b48f8 ip 00007fe84340ef84 sp 00007fff76182160 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7fe8433d6000+121000]
[6846551.445957] apt-config[8191]: segfault at 6c8b48f8 ip 00007fc124b41f84 sp 00007fffa27470a0 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7fc124b09000+121000]
[6846551.512757] apt-get[8196]: segfault at 6c8b48f8 ip 00007f754558bf84 sp 00007fff27275a50 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7f7545553000+121000]
[6846580.877901] package-data-do[8538]: segfault at 7fe440e96010 ip 00007fe3d348cf84 sp 00007fff9e8ac0f0 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7fe3d3454000+121000]
[6869450.441332] apt-config[27050]: segfault at 6c8b48f8 ip 00007eff7923bf84 sp 00007ffff97a1a30 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7eff79203000+121000]
[6869450.443617] apt-config[27051]: segfault at 6c8b48f8 ip 00007f5048b95f84 sp 00007fff8a6e9a70 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7f5048b5d000+121000]
[6869450.497879] apt-config[27095]: segfault at 6c8b48f8 ip 00007f9543001f84 sp 00007fffd7d0b2c0 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7f9542fc9000+121000]
[6869450.500143] apt-config[27096]: segfault at 6c8b48f8 ip 00007fabaa460f84 sp 00007fff82255ac0 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7fabaa428000+121000]
[6869456.275296] apt-get[27222]: segfault at 6c8b48f8 ip 00007fa75199ef84 sp 00007fffe2239f40 error 6 in libapt-pkg.so.4.12.0[7fa751966000+121000]

Tail of strace apt-get update:

mmap(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0) = 0x7f1efdf71000
mprotect(0x7f1efda1a000, 32768, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f1efdd5a000, 16384, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x62d000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
mprotect(0x7f1efdf82000, 4096, PROT_READ) = 0
munmap(0x7f1efdf78000, 32702) = 0
brk(0) = 0x1cf7000
brk(0x1d18000) = 0x1d18000
open("/dev/null", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, 0666) = 3
open("/usr/lib/locale/locale-archive", O_RDONLY|O_CLOEXEC) = 4
fstat(4, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=4447600, ...}) = 0
mmap(NULL, 4447600, PROT_READ, MAP_PRIVATE, 4, 0) = 0x7f1efc40c000
close(4) = 0
stat("/var/lib/apt/.", {st_mode=S_IFDIR|0755, st_size=4096, ...}) = 0
--- SIGSEGV (Segmentation fault) @ 0 (0) ---
+++ killed by SIGSEGV +++
Segmentation fault

Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Conf-files/Unpacked/halF-conf/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Reinst-required (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-===============================================-===============================================-==============================================================================================================
ii apt 0.8.16~exp12ubuntu10.5 commandline package manager

dpkg.log of the recent upgrade from .3 to .5 attached. (I.e. there was also other stuff upgraded at the same time.)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ken Sharp (kennybobs)]

Does setting the following help?
APT::Cache-start 200000000;
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt/+bug/1445436/comments/3

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for apt (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]