[Pkg-mailman-hackers] Bug#391154: Installation fails if files exist under /var/lib/mailman/qfiles/

[Tim Weippert]

Package: mailman
Version: 2.1.5-8sarge5
Severity: normal

I have difficulties to install the new update Mailman 2.1.5-8sarge5.

p15169043:~# apt-get install mailman
Reading Package Lists... Done
Building Dependency Tree... Done
Suggested packages:
  python2.3-korean-codecs python2.2-korean-codecs python-japanese-codecs
The following packages will be upgraded:
  mailman
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
18 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 6607kB of archives.
After unpacking 623kB disk space will be freed.
Get:1 http://security.debian.org sarge/updates/main mailman
2.1.5-8sarge5 [6607kB]
Fetched 6607kB in 1s (4299kB/s)   
Preconfiguring packages ...
(Reading database ... 28501 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace mailman 2.1.5-8sarge2 (using
.../mailman_2.1.5-8sarge5_i386.deb) ...
Shutting down Mailman's master qrunner
dpkg: error processing
/var/cache/apt/archives/mailman_2.1.5-8sarge5_i386.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
No updates are necessary.
Starting Mailman's master qrunner.
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/mailman_2.1.5-8sarge5_i386.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

After i have investigate a litte time in looking for the problem i see
that there are 2 shunt files within the /var/lib/mailman/qfiles/shunt
directory. 

p15169043:/var/lib/mailman/qfiles# find . -type f
./shunt/1145465662.2810569+61c49717358a01c964da7ae1b486f6e4604bebd8.pck
./shunt/1145466956.072372+84e55081a4239e44812e02da29eabe0cf8df2364.pck

I know that the preinst script looks for such files but it doesn't do
anything with them i think. After manually removal of these two files
the update goes like a charm.

Maybe it results from the empty debconf entry
mailman/queue_files_present:

then i suggest to ask for before the upgrade !?

HTH, 

	tim

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.9
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages mailman depends on:
ii  apache-ssl [httpd]    1.3.33-6sarge3     versatile, high-performance HTTP s
ii  apache2-mpm-prefork [ 2.0.54-5sarge1     traditional model for Apache2
ii  cron                  3.0pl1-86          management of regular background p
ii  debconf               1.4.30.13          Debian configuration management sy
ii  libc6                 2.3.2.ds1-22sarge4 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  logrotate             3.7-5              Log rotation utility
ii  postfix [mail-transpo 2.1.5-9            A high-performance mail transport 
ii  pwgen                 2.03-1             Automatic Password generation
ii  python                2.3.5-2            An interactive high-level object-o
ii  ucf                   1.17               Update Configuration File: preserv

-- debconf information:
* mailman/queue_files_present:
  mailman/default_server_language: en
  mailman/gate_news: false
  mailman/site_languages: de, en
* mailman/used_languages: de en
* mailman/create_site_list: