[Aptitude-devel] Bug#814240: systemd triggers break upgrades within unstable

[Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo]

Hi Zack,

2016-03-01 17:27 Zack Weinberg:
>On Mon, Feb 29, 2016 at 12:18 PM, Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo wrote:
>>
>>> DPkg::NoTriggers "true";
>>> DPkg::ConfigurePending "true";
>>> DPkg::TriggersPending "true";
>>
>>
>> After talking about this bug a few days ago with APT Deities (David
>> Kalnischkies, in this case), he told me that apt doesn't use "dpkg
>> --triggers-only" by default.
>>
>> He believes that apt /could/ issue that command when
>> "DPkg::TriggersPending" or "DPkg::ConfigurePending" are enabled, and
>> possibly other similar ones (he didn't mention the specifics).
>>
>> Such options as marked as experimental and dangerous (man apt.conf) so
>> maybe they are better left disabled unless there's a specific need to
>> use them.
>
>On the system with the problem, that setting comes from a file named
>/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/triggers, whose entire contents are
>
># cat /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/triggers
>DPkg::NoTriggers "true";
>PackageManager::Configure "smart";
>DPkg::ConfigurePending "true";
>DPkg::TriggersPending "true";
>
>It was last modified in 2011.  I have no memory of having created this
>file, but it doesn't belong to any package either.  Searching the 'net
>for that combination of options brings me to
>https://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/05/30/trying-to-make-dpkg-triggers-more-useful-and-less-painful/
>and bug #626599.  It is probable that I saw Raphael's blog post go by
>and decided to try it out.

I guessed that it would be something like that that triggered (pun maybe
intended) people to use such options.


>I have another computer that runs unstable, and which had not yet
>received the systemd 229-2 update; I verified that it does *not* have
>any of these settings and then ran the update.  It went through with
>no problems.
>
>So that's a pretty strong indicator that this non-default mode is the
>cause of the problem.  And it's corroborated by the dpkg/apt logs on
>the computer that didn't have these settings, which show no sign of
>the problem in the past, as far as I can tell.  But just to make sure,
>I would like to leave this bug open until another systemd update comes
>along and I can confirm that disabling these settings addresses the
>problem on the computer that definitely did have it.

Good, please do inform when that happens.


I suppose that APT folks will want to reassign/clone the bug to
themselves, and either fix the problem or remove the use of these
variables.


Cheers.
-- 
Manuel A. Fernandez Montecelo <manuel.montezelo at gmail.com>