[Aptitude-devel] Bug#769222: aptitude: Frequent pending actions left

[Cesare Leonardi]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.6.11-1+b1
Severity: normal

On three different PCs (Debian unstable, i386, 32 bit) i'm frequently
encountering a problem, where aptitude (curses interface), without any
error to the user, leaves some package in an incomplete state.

I usually follow these steps:
- run aptitude from the curses interface.
- update the package list.
- install all the available upgrade.

This process always goes fine, but if after run deborphan it says:
-----------
deborphan: The status file is in an improper state.
One or more packages are marked as half-installed, half-configured,
unpacked, triggers-awaited or triggers-pending. Exiting.
-----------

And it is right, because if i return to aptitude, and press "g", i find
a list of some partially installed package.

For example, today in the machine from where i'm reporting this bug, i
can see the attached situation.

If i run "dpkg -C" it says:
-----------
The following packages are awaiting processing of triggers that they
have activated in other packages.  This processing can be requested
using
dselect or dpkg --configure --pending (or dpkg --triggers-only):
 libwmf0.2-7:amd64    Windows metafile conversion library

The following packages have been triggered, but the trigger processing
has not yet been done.  Trigger processing can be requested using
dselect or dpkg --configure --pending (or dpkg --triggers-only):
 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0:amd64 GDK Pixbuf library
-----------

Aptitude seems not able to correct this situation: if you press "g",
then "g" to repeat the install process, nothing happens. Using the
aptitude curses interface i'm usually able to clean this situation
reinstalling ("L") the packages listes as partially installed.
But i prefer to resolve with this command:
dpkg --configure -a

I'm not sure, but i believe that this problem appeared after one of the
recent dpkg upgrade.

Cesare.


-- Package-specific info:
Terminal: xterm
$DISPLAY is set.
which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude

aptitude version information:
aptitude 0.6.11 compiled at Nov  8 2014 13:34:39
Compiler: g++ 4.9.1
Compiled against:
  apt version 4.12.0
  NCurses version 5.9
  libsigc++ version: 2.4.0
  Gtk+ support disabled.
  Qt support disabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 5.9.20140913
  cwidget version: 0.5.17
  Apt version: 4.12.0

aptitude linkage:
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007fff8bb9b000)
	libapt-pkg.so.4.12 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.4.12 (0x00007f81267fa000)
	libncursesw.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5 (0x00007f81265c4000)
	libtinfo.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5 (0x00007f8126399000)
	libsigc-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f8126193000)
	libcwidget.so.3 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcwidget.so.3 (0x00007f8125e7d000)
	libsqlite3.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007f8125bb4000)
	libboost_iostreams.so.1.55.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_iostreams.so.1.55.0 (0x00007f812599c000)
	libxapian.so.22 => /usr/lib/libxapian.so.22 (0x00007f812558b000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f812536d000)
	libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f8125062000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f8124d61000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f8124b4a000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f81247a1000)
	libutil.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libutil.so.1 (0x00007f812459e000)
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f8124399000)
	libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f812417e000)
	libbz2.so.1.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 (0x00007f8123f6e000)
	liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007f8123d4a000)
	librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007f8123b42000)
	libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007f812393c000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007f81271cf000)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: jessie/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.16.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=it_IT.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=it_IT.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common           0.6.11-1
ii  libapt-pkg4.12            1.0.9.3
ii  libboost-iostreams1.55.0  1.55.0+dfsg-3
ii  libc6                     2.19-13
ii  libcwidget3               0.5.17-2
ii  libgcc1                   1:4.9.2-1
ii  libncursesw5              5.9+20140913-1
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0c2a        2.4.0-1
ii  libsqlite3-0              3.8.7.1-1
ii  libstdc++6                4.9.2-1
ii  libtinfo5                 5.9+20140913-1
ii  libxapian22               1.2.19-1

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
pn  aptitude-doc-en | aptitude-doc  <none>
ii  libparse-debianchangelog-perl   1.2.0-1.1
ii  sensible-utils                  0.0.9

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
pn  apt-xapian-index  <none>
pn  debtags           <none>
ii  tasksel           3.29

-- no debconf information