Bug#600571: perl: Fails to complete unpack during installation

[Roger Leigh]

Package: perl
Version: 5.10.1-15
Severity: serious
Justification: Breaks installation

While dist-upgrading my system today, the perl package failed to unpack/configure 
(transcript below) and hung for over an hour until I killed the dpkg process.  After 
running "dpkg --configure -a" and "apt-get -f install" the package then continued to 
configure correctly.  It looks like it was somehow stuck between unpacking and 
configuring.  There was no response in the terminal to any keys (I tried hitting enter, 
but there was no response to the input, so maybe apt-get was doing something odd with 
termios if this wasn't a deliberate action by the perl maintainer scripts).

Looking as the ps listing (below), it looks like dpkg was being run on pts/2 which 
wasn't an open pty in any virtual terminal while apt-get was run on pts/1.  That's not 
typical, and may be the cause of the problem if perl was waiting on input due to a 
conffile change or debconf interaction.  The ps listing doesn't indicate any debconf 
usage though.

I'm afraid I can't give much more detail about the issue.  This may well not be a 
perl-specific bug if perl's pre/postinst isn't doing any messing with ptys.  In this 
case, it may be a bug in apt-get and/or dpkg.


Regards,
Roger


(Reading database ... 285272 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace mount 2.17.2-3.2 (using .../mount_2.17.2-3.3_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement mount ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up mount (2.17.2-3.3) ...
(Reading database ... 285272 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace perl-modules 5.10.1-14 (using .../perl-modules_5.10.1-15_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement perl-modules ...
Preparing to replace perl-suid 5.10.1-14 (using .../perl-suid_5.10.1-15_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement perl-suid ...
Preparing to replace perl 5.10.1-14 (using .../perl_5.10.1-15_amd64.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement perl ...
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg exited unexpectedly


 2793 pts/1    Ss     0:00 /bin/zsh
 2863 pts/1    S+     0:00 sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
 2864 pts/1    S+     0:00 apt-get dist-upgrade
 3248 pts/2    Ss+    0:01 /usr/bin/dpkg --status-fd 18 --unpack --auto-deconfigure /var/cache/


-- System Information:
Debian Release: squeeze/sid
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.35-trunk-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages perl depends on:
ii  libbz2-1.0              1.0.5-6          high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  libc6                   2.11.2-6         Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libdb4.7                4.7.25-9         Berkeley v4.7 Database Libraries [
ii  libgdbm3                1.8.3-9          GNU dbm database routines (runtime
ii  perl-base               5.10.1-15        minimal Perl system
ii  perl-modules            5.10.1-15        Core Perl modules
ii  zlib1g                  1:1.2.3.4.dfsg-3 compression library - runtime

Versions of packages perl recommends:
ii  netbase                       4.42       Basic TCP/IP networking system

Versions of packages perl suggests:
pn  libterm-readline-gnu-perl | l <none>     (no description available)
ii  make                          3.81-8     An utility for Directing compilati
ii  perl-doc                      5.10.1-14  Perl documentation

-- no debconf information