Add option to wait for /var/lib/dpkg/lock to become free

Bug #647835 reported by seahen
38
This bug affects 8 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
aptitude
Fix Released
Unknown
apt (Debian)
New
Undecided
Unassigned
apt (Ubuntu)
Confirmed
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: apt

Today I was waiting for texlive-full to install when I discovered that I would also need texmaker. Also, I plan to add apt-get full-upgrade to my nightly crontab, but I don't want it to fail if I happen to be manually installing a package at the same time.

For both of the above situations, it would be useful to have a command-line flag that wouldd make apt-get wait for /var/lib/dpkg/lock to become free, rather than giving up immediately. I suggest -w and --wait, since they're not being used for anything.

Changed in apt (Ubuntu):
status: New → Confirmed
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
Changed in aptitude:
status: Unknown → New
Daniel Hartwig (wigs)
Changed in aptitude:
importance: Unknown → Wishlist
Changed in aptitude:
importance: Wishlist → Unknown
Changed in aptitude:
status: New → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Brian G. Shacklett (bgshacklett) wrote :

This type of situation can have a significant impact on scripted configuration. The situation first and foremost on my mind is adding packages via either UserData or Cfn-Init inside of the AWS EC2 service. Additionally, Packer and Vagrant using the Shell provisioner would be affected, and I'm sure there are many other cases, as well. My point is that this has the potential to affect far more than just a one-time single user interaction, but it would actually make it easier to remove some kludgey workarounds that may be necessary to overcome dpkg locks in an enterprise environment.

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