Debian bug report logs - #967, boring messages

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#967: dselect lock?
Reply-To: jimr@simons-rock.edu, debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-To: debian-devel@pixar.com
Resent-From: "James A. Robinson" <jimr@simons-rock.edu>
Resent-Sender: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk
Resent-Date: Thu, 08 Jun 1995 12:33:21 GMT
Resent-Message-ID: <debian-bugs-handler.967.060812215216926@pixar.com>
Message-Id: <m0sJgZQ-00000zC@plato.simons-rock.edu>
To: Debian Bugs <debian-bugs@pixar.com>
Dcc:
Date: Thu, 08 Jun 1995 08:20:20 -0400
From: "James A. Robinson" <jimr@simons-rock.edu>

Package: dselect
Version: 0.93.42

Dselect dumped core on me once when I ran it (I was on an NFS file
system), but I have not been able to duplicate it.  It might have had
to dow ith the fact that the available file I posted to debian-bugs
about before was corrupted.  In any case, when I re-ran it and choose
"[L]ist"it complained about being locked.  I removed the two files
that locked like lock files in /var/lib/dpkg, and it worked fine.  I
wondering if there is any way to check and see if dselect or dpkg is
really running, and use that to see if one can wipe the lock file?
Something like a pid in /var/run?  I don't know if it already does
something like this.

Jim

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: jimr@simons-rock.edu
Subject: Bug#967: Acknowledgement (was: dselect lock?)
In-Reply-To: <m0sJgZQ-00000zC@plato.simons-rock.edu>
References: <m0sJgZQ-00000zC@plato.simons-rock.edu>

Thank you for the problem report you have sent regarding Debian GNU/Linux.
This is an automatically generated reply, to let you know your message has
been received.  It is being forwarded to the developers' mailing list for
their attention; they will reply in due course.

If you wish to submit further information on your problem, please send
it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, but please ensure that the Subject
line of your message starts with "Bug#967" or "Re: Bug#967" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Message sent to debian-devel@pixar.com:

Subject: Bug#967: dselect lock?
Reply-To: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson), debian-bugs@pixar.com
Resent-To: debian-devel@pixar.com
Resent-From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
Resent-Sender: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk
Resent-Date: Sat, 10 Jun 1995 19:03:10 GMT
Resent-Message-ID: <debian-bugs-handler.967.061019012828130@pixar.com>
Message-Id: <m0sKQQC-0000XfZ@chiark.al.cl.cam.ac.uk>
Date: Sat, 10 Jun 95 14:17 BST
From: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: debian-bugs@pixar.com

James A. Robinson writes ("Bug#967: dselect lock?"):
> Dselect dumped core on me once when I ran it (I was on an NFS file
> system), but I have not been able to duplicate it.  It might have had
> to dow ith the fact that the available file I posted to debian-bugs
> about before was corrupted.

Oh.  dselect shouldn't ever dump core even if presented with garbage -
if you can persuade (a recent version of) it to do it again please let
me know.

>  In any case, when I re-ran it and choose
> "[L]ist"it complained about being locked.  I removed the two files
> that locked like lock files in /var/lib/dpkg, and it worked fine.  I
> wondering if there is any way to check and see if dselect or dpkg is
> really running, and use that to see if one can wipe the lock file?
> Something like a pid in /var/run?  I don't know if it already does
> something like this.

This is a known problem - it's due to the transition between Perl dpkg
and C dpkg; dselect is written in C and doesn't have the
stale-lock-breaking code.

You can clear the lock `automatically' by using `dpkg --status dpkg'
or some similar thing.

The C version of dpkg will use a different locking scheme which won't
suffer from stale locks.

Ian.

Message sent:

From: iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
To: iwj10@cus.cam.ac.uk (Ian Jackson)
Subject: Bug#967: Info received (was Bug#967: dselect lock?)
In-Reply-To: <m0sKQQC-0000XfZ@chiark.al.cl.cam.ac.uk>
References: <m0sKQQC-0000XfZ@chiark.al.cl.cam.ac.uk>

Thank you for the additional information you have supplied regarding
this problem report.  It has been forwarded to the developers to
accompany the original report.

If you wish to continue to submit further information on your problem,
please do the same thing again: send it to debian-bugs@pixar.com, ensuring
that the Subject line starts with "Bug#967" or "Re: Bug#967" so that
we can identify it as relating to the same problem.

Please do not reply to the address at the top of this message,
unless you wish to report a problem with the bug-tracking system.

Ian Jackson
(maintainer, debian-bugs)

Ian Jackson / iwj10@thor.cam.ac.uk, with the debian-bugs tracking mechanism

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