aptitude does not return to command-line prompt

[Rolf Leggewie]

recently, aptitude will frequently not return to the command-line prompt. I believe this is only after installing/updating packages. The program has to be killed with ctrl+c.

aptitude 0.4.11.11-1ubuntu10lucid1 on an up-to-date lucid system.

[Paul Manners (paulmanners)]

If I do something like:

 aptitude -d install chromium-browser

I find that aptitude sits waiting, never returning to the command line.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Daniel Hartwig (wigs)]

On 31 August 2012 15:30, Paul Manners <email address hidden> wrote:
> If I do something like:
>
> aptitude -d install chromium-browser
>
> I find that aptitude sits waiting, never returning to the command line.

That specific issue is bug #975793 and fixed in 0.6.7-1 (Quantal) and
a proposed 0.6.6-1ubuntu2 (Precise). On that bug report you can find
and test packages for 0.6.6-1ubuntu2.

[Daniel Hartwig (wigs)]

> recently, aptitude will frequently not return to the command-line prompt. I
> believe this is only after installing/updating packages. The program has to
> be killed with ctrl+c.

Rolf, does your original report refer to:
- quitting from the interactive interface (i.e. debbugs #658271, which I previously assigned under presumption); or
- terminating after “aptitude install foo” (which is similar to bug #675895 and bug #975793, the later is recently fixed)?

I have failed several times to reproduce either case, though several reports confirm that each does happen.

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Daniel, thank you for your questions. From a cursory look, I am not sure that either of the two problems in launchpad is what I see. But of course it's hard to completely rule this out. The debbug sounds more similar to what I have but it's still not completely the same.

What I do is run "sudo aptitude" from the command line. Press U to update the package list and then install the updated packages with G. When the installation is finished I press Q to exit aptitude which goes through some calculations from which it then never returns. Unlike the report in the Debian BTS, the last aptitude "tab/window" is closed, but the program then does not return to the command line.

This is not 100% reproducible but has happened frequently enough to be slightly annoying.

[Daniel Hartwig (wigs)]

status confirmed

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

It's become reproducible almost 100% of the time recently.

[Daniel Hartwig (wigs)]

> It's become reproducible almost 100% of the time recently.

This claim is also made on the linked report. It remains a mystery to me as I have never reproduced it and examining the code paths involved does not reveal an obvious error.

Which versions of aptitude, apt, dpkg?

Can you also provide the output of:

$ sudo apt-config -c ~/.aptitude/config -c ~root/.aptitude/config dump

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

ii apt 0.7.25.3ubuntu9.13 Advanced front-end for dpkg
ii aptitude 0.4.11.11-1ubuntu10lucid1 terminal-based package manager
ii dpkg 1.15.5.6ubuntu4.6 Debian package management system

I have started to wonder if this might have something to do with the etckeeper hooks? aptitude hangs always after installing or updating some packages.

[Daniel Hartwig (wigs)]

Thanks for the extra info.

On 26 September 2012 00:39, Rolf Leggewie <email address hidden> wrote:
> I have started to wonder if this might have something to do with the
> etckeeper hooks? aptitude hangs always after installing or updating
> some packages.

Possible, however I would expect apt-get to also hang if that were the
case. It would be interesting to know if there is a subprocess active
at the time.

I wouldn't think any of that would cause a hang-at-exit, unless there
is a forked sub-process which is waiting to be reaped…

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

The bug linked to in the Debian BTS is not what I experienced.

That being said, I haven't experienced the problem for quite a while.