synaptic crashes on "<word> AND" quicksearch

[warren]

Binary package hint: synaptic

probable theme:
type "<word> AND" into synaptic quick search.
synaptic closes unexpectedly.

output:
(synaptic:7540): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tree_view_unref_tree_helper: assertion `node != NULL' failed
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'Xapian::QueryParserError'
Aborted

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Feb 9 19:32:28 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/sbin/synaptic
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.3)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: synaptic 0.62.7ubuntu6
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-19.56-generic
SourcePackage: synaptic
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-19-generic i686
XsessionErrors:
 (xfce4-mixer-plugin:1794): libxfce4mixer-CRITICAL **: xfce_mixer_get_track: assertion `GST_IS_MIXER (card)' failed
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1802): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (xfwm4:1775): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_get_events: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed
 (xfwm4:1775): Gdk-CRITICAL **: gdk_window_get_events: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' failed
 (synaptic:7508): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_tree_view_unref_tree_helper: assertion `node != NULL' failed

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

Thank you for reporting this bug. I am able to confirm it using the current development release, Lucid Lynx. Unfortunately, not only did Synaptic Package Manager fail, but apport failed in trying to attach the log files. I am attaching the complete file from /log/crash, which appears to include the coredump. Fortunately, it was on a test machine, and contains no private matter.

[warren (warren-driscoll)]

Glad to be of assistance.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

The error is triggered in common/rpackagelister.cc in RPackageLister::xapianSearch .
The call to Xapian::Query query = parser.parse_query(unsplitSearchString); fails when the search string is an contains an operator AND, OR, NOT, XOR, ... in upper case.

affecting to xapian-core

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

finally xapian raise the correct exception but synaptic doesn't catch it. reaffecting to synaptic. Sorry for the coming and going.

[Olly Betts (ojwb)]

Yes, this isn't a bug in xapian-core - you need to catch QueryParserError, and you can call get_msg() on it to get an error message to report to the user. You'll want to run the message through i18n as it's always in English currently. The possible errors are:

Unknown range operation
parse error
Syntax: <expression> AND <expression>
Syntax: <expression> AND NOT <expression>
Syntax: <expression> NOT <expression>
Syntax: <expression> OR <expression>
Syntax: <expression> XOR <expression>

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Hi Olly,

Thanks for the information. We catch the exception now and keep the list in it's previous state when it raises.

[Jean-Baptiste Lallement (jibel)]

Fixed in 0.63.1ubuntu2
 * common/rpackagelister.cc:
    - in RPackageLister::xapianSearch() catch xapian exception to
      prevent crash when xapian interprets search string as a syntax
      error