package clamav-freshclam 0.99.2+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

[Zemajtis]

no

ProblemType: Package
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 16.04
Package: clamav-freshclam 0.99.2+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.4.0-67.88-generic 4.4.49
Uname: Linux 4.4.0-67-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.1-0ubuntu2.5
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Jun 23 11:28:51 2017
DuplicateSignature:
 package:clamav-freshclam:0.99.2+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.1
 Setting up clamav-freshclam (0.99.2+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) ...
 touch: cannot touch '/var/log/clamav/freshclam.log': No such file or directory
 dpkg: error processing package clamav-freshclam (--configure):
  subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
ErrorMessage: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-02-22 (120 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160420.1)
ProcCmdline: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-67-generic root=UUID=fe93d07c-7763-4c9b-9f52-a7e05e8920ff ro quiet splash vt.handoff=7
RelatedPackageVersions:
 dpkg 1.18.4ubuntu1.2
 apt 1.2.20
SourcePackage: clamav
Title: package clamav-freshclam 0.99.2+dfsg-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 failed to install/upgrade: subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Christian Ehrhardt  (paelzer)]

Hi Zemajtis
Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better.

From the log:
touch: cannot touch '/var/log/clamav/freshclam.log': No such file or directory

Hmm the postinst for freshclam really has on line 151:
      touch "$udlogfile"
Via some indirections that is to the path
   FRESHCLAMLOGFILE=/var/log/clamav/freshclam.log

There is no related mkdir or such around so it really might fail, but I'd assume that dependencies should create the dir.
And there it is - in the postinst of clamav-base, not only would that postinst fail as it chown's the path.
  LOGDIR=/var/log/clamav
But further the package itself owns the path:

$ dpkg -L clamav-base | grep log
/var/log
/var/log/clamav

$ dpkg -S /var/log/clamav
clamav-base: /var/log/clamav

That said, clamav-freshclam which you installed depends on clamav-base so that path should exist if not e.g. manually removed.

Could you check the existence and integrity of clamav-base in your case via:
$ dpkg --verify clamav-base

Those packages should - due to the dependency - always install in the right order, but you could try to reinstall clamav-base and then check integrity again as above. After this the install/upgrade of clamav-freshclam should work.

$ apt install --reinstall clamav-base
$ dpkg --verify clamav-base
$ apt install clamav-freshclam

Since it seems likely to me that this is a local configuration problem, rather than a bug in Ubuntu, I'm marking this bug as Incomplete for now until further info was provided.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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