[Aptitude-devel] Bug#834790: aptitude hangs at "Loading cache" when unable to download package list

[Kipp Cannon]

Package: aptitude
Version: 0.8.3-1
Severity: normal
Tags: d-i

Dear Maintainer,

After doing an update (pressing "u"), if an entry in /etc/apt/sources.list
was invalid or the server did not respond, then upon returning from the
screen of package list download progress bars aptitude displays "Loading
cache" in a box and then stops and makes any further progress.  The program
is somewhat responsive, for example, pressing "q" presents an option to
quit the program, but it is impossible to use the program to install or
upgrade any software until all servers in sources.list are responding
again.  This might negatively impact a first-time install if a bad mirror
is chosen.

How to reproduce:  put a typo in /etc/apt/sources.list, e.g., replace
"stretch" with "strecth", run aptitude, press "u".

-- Package-specific info:
Terminal: xterm-256color
$DISPLAY is set.
which aptitude: /usr/bin/aptitude

aptitude version information:
aptitude 0.8.3
Compiler: g++ 6.1.1 20160802
Compiled against:
  apt version 5.0.0
  NCurses version 6.0
  libsigc++ version: 2.8.0
  Gtk+ support disabled.
  Qt support disabled.

Current library versions:
  NCurses version: ncurses 6.0.20160625
  cwidget version: 0.5.17
  Apt version: 5.0.0

aptitude linkage:
	linux-vdso.so.1 (0x00007ffe0f721000)
	libapt-pkg.so.5.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libapt-pkg.so.5.0 (0x00007f85971bb000)
	libncursesw.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libncursesw.so.5 (0x00007f8596f8b000)
	libtinfo.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libtinfo.so.5 (0x00007f8596d60000)
	libsigc-2.0.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsigc-2.0.so.0 (0x00007f8596b59000)
	libcwidget.so.3 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libcwidget.so.3 (0x00007f859685c000)
	libsqlite3.so.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libsqlite3.so.0 (0x00007f8596557000)
	libboost_iostreams.so.1.61.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_iostreams.so.1.61.0 (0x00007f859633f000)
	libboost_filesystem.so.1.61.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_filesystem.so.1.61.0 (0x00007f8596126000)
	libboost_system.so.1.61.0 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libboost_system.so.1.61.0 (0x00007f8595f21000)
	libxapian.so.22 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxapian.so.22 (0x00007f8595b1d000)
	libpthread.so.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libpthread.so.0 (0x00007f8595900000)
	libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6 (0x00007f859557e000)
	libm.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libm.so.6 (0x00007f8595279000)
	libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgcc_s.so.1 (0x00007f8595063000)
	libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007f8594cc1000)
	libdl.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libdl.so.2 (0x00007f8594abd000)
	libresolv.so.2 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libresolv.so.2 (0x00007f85948a6000)
	libz.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libz.so.1 (0x00007f859468a000)
	libbz2.so.1.0 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libbz2.so.1.0 (0x00007f859447a000)
	liblzma.so.5 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblzma.so.5 (0x00007f8594257000)
	liblz4.so.1 => /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/liblz4.so.1 (0x00007f8594044000)
	librt.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/librt.so.1 (0x00007f8593e3c000)
	libuuid.so.1 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libuuid.so.1 (0x00007f8593c36000)
	/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x000055ca80b6f000)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.6.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_CA.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_CA.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages aptitude depends on:
ii  aptitude-common            0.8.3-1
ii  libapt-pkg5.0              1.3~rc1
ii  libboost-filesystem1.61.0  1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libboost-iostreams1.61.0   1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libboost-system1.61.0      1.61.0+dfsg-2.1
ii  libc6                      2.23-4
ii  libcwidget3v5              0.5.17-4+b1
ii  libgcc1                    1:6.1.1-11
ii  libncursesw5               6.0+20160625-1
ii  libsigc++-2.0-0v5          2.8.0-2
ii  libsqlite3-0               3.13.0-1
ii  libstdc++6                 6.1.1-11
ii  libtinfo5                  6.0+20160625-1
ii  libxapian22v5              1.2.23-1

Versions of packages aptitude recommends:
ii  libparse-debianchangelog-perl  1.2.0-10
ii  sensible-utils                 0.0.9

Versions of packages aptitude suggests:
pn  apt-xapian-index                <none>
ii  aptitude-doc-en [aptitude-doc]  0.8.3-1
pn  debtags                         <none>
ii  tasksel                         3.35

-- no debconf information