[debian-mysql] Bug#803146: Upgrade fails to handle shortage of disk space

[Matthew Vernon]

Package: mysql-server
Version: 5.5.46-0+deb8u1
Severity: important

Hi,

One of my Debian boxes (running stable) failed to install the security update yesterday, with a rather confusing error message:

Preparing to unpack .../mysql-server-5.5_5.5.46-0+deb8u1_amd64.deb ...
cp: cannot overwrite directory '/var/lib/mysql-upgrade/DATADIR.link/mysql' with non-directory
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/mysql-server-5.5_5.5.46-0+deb8u1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 subprocess new pre-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/mysql-server-5.5_5.5.46-0+deb8u1_amd64.deb

The machine had a full disk (>99% usage), and I think that this is the
root cause of the above error. But that error case should be handled
correctly - which might well be the upgrade failing, but it should
fail in a way that reports "out of disk space".

Thanks,

Matthew