[Aptitude-devel] Bug#1069183: aptitude: already running package installs/upgrade get interrupted because of lost dpkg lock

[Christoph Anton Mitterer]

Package: aptitude
Version: 1.21.22
Severity: important


Hey.

May very well be an issue in APT or rather dpkg, still, since I always see it
from aptitude, I report it here. Please re-assign accordingly.


I'm seeing this since quite some releases and also every now and then in unstable
(though probably far less there, as I only run my workstation on unstable, but
all servers on stable).

When I concurrently upgrade my servers (~60) via aptitude, out of that number
arround 10 see the already running install/upgrade process suddenly interrupted
with message like:
Unpacking util-linux-extra (2.38.1-5+deb12u1) over (2.38.1-5+b1) ...
Setting up util-linux-extra (2.38.1-5+deb12u1) ...
dpkg: error: dpkg frontend lock was locked by another process with pid 1064194
Note: removing the lock file is always wrong, can damage the locked area
and the entire system. See <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ#db-lock>.
dpkg: error: dpkg frontend lock was locked by another process with pid 1064194
Note: removing the lock file is always wrong, can damage the locked area
and the entire system. See <https://wiki.debian.org/Teams/Dpkg/FAQ#db-lock>.
Scanning processes...                                                                                                  
Scanning processor microcode...                                                                                        
Scanning linux images...                                                                                               

Running kernel seems to be up-to-date.

The processor microcode seems to be up-to-date.

No services need to be restarted.

No containers need to be restarted.

No user sessions are running outdated binaries.

No VM guests are running outdated hypervisor (qemu) binaries on this host.
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (2)
E: Sub-process dpkg --set-selections returned an error code (2)
E: Couldn't revert dpkg selection for approved remove/purge after an error was encountered!
Processing triggers for man-db (2.11.2-2) ...
Processing triggers for libc-bin (2.36-9+deb12u4) ...
Press Return to continue, 'q' followed by Return to quit.

Performing actions...
Retrieving bug reports... Done

(and then I continue in a new run).


Unfortunately it doesn't tell the name of pid 1064194 and the offending process
is typically always already gone by then.

Could be check_apt from Icinga or could be /usr/share/prometheus-node-exporter-collectors/apt_info.py
from prometheus-node-exporter-collectors .

But in any case, shouldn't apitude/apt/dpkg just permantenly hold the lock
once the process has started until it finishes?

Or could this be a case where something ignores and subsequently breaks the lock?


Thanks,
Chris.