blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html

   1 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
   2           "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
   3 <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" dir="ltr">
   4   <head>
   5     <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" />
   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</title>
   7     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/style.css" />
   8     <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/vim.css" />
   9
  10
  11   </head>
  12   <body>
  13     <div class="title">
  14  <h1>
  15      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  16
  17  </h1>
  18
  19 </div>
  20
  21
  22     <div class="entry">
  23       <div class="title">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</div>
  24       <div class="date">27th July 2010</div>
  25       <div class="body"><p>I discovered this while doing
  26 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
  27 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
  28 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
  29 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
  30 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
  31
  32 <p>An example is from todays
  33 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
  34 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
  35 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
  36 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
  37 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
  38 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
  39 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
  40
  41 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
  42
  43 <blockquote><pre>
  44 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
  45  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
  46   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
  47 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
  48  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
  49 </pre></blockquote>
  50
  51 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
  52 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
  53 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
  54 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
  55 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
  56 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
  57 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
  58 of dependency loops.</p>
  59
  60 <p>Thanks to
  61 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
  62 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
  63 dependencies
  64 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
  65 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
  66
  67 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
  68 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
  69 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
  70 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
  71 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
  72 it.</p>
  73 </div>
  74
  75       <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.</div>
  76
  77
  78     </div>
  79
  80
  81
  82
  83     <div id="sidebar">
  84
  85
  86
  87 <h2>Archive</h2>
  88 <ul>
  89
  90 <li>2016
  91 <ul>
  92
  93 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
  94
  95 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
  96
  97 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
  98
  99 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (5)</a></li>
 100
 101 </ul></li>
 102
 103 <li>2015
 104 <ul>
 105
 106 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 107
 108 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 109
 110 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
 111
 112 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
 113
 114 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 115
 116 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
 117
 118 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
 119
 120 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 121
 122 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
 123
 124 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 125
 126 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
 127
 128 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 129
 130 </ul></li>
 131
 132 <li>2014
 133 <ul>
 134
 135 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 136
 137 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
 138
 139 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
 140
 141 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 142
 143 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
 144
 145 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 146
 147 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
 148
 149 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
 150
 151 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 152
 153 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
 154
 155 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 156
 157 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
 158
 159 </ul></li>
 160
 161 <li>2013
 162 <ul>
 163
 164 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
 165
 166 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
 167
 168 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
 169
 170 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
 171
 172 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 173
 174 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
 175
 176 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 177
 178 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 179
 180 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
 181
 182 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
 183
 184 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
 185
 186 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 187
 188 </ul></li>
 189
 190 <li>2012
 191 <ul>
 192
 193 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
 194
 195 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
 196
 197 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
 198
 199 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
 200
 201 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
 202
 203 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
 204
 205 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
 206
 207 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 208
 209 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
 210
 211 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
 212
 213 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
 214
 215 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 216
 217 </ul></li>
 218
 219 <li>2011
 220 <ul>
 221
 222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
 223
 224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
 225
 226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
 227
 228 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
 229
 230 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
 231
 232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
 233
 234 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
 235
 236 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
 237
 238 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
 239
 240 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 241
 242 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 243
 244 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
 245
 246 </ul></li>
 247
 248 <li>2010
 249 <ul>
 250
 251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
 252
 253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
 254
 255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
 256
 257 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
 258
 259 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 260
 261 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
 262
 263 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
 264
 265 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
 266
 267 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
 268
 269 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
 270
 271 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
 272
 273 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
 274
 275 </ul></li>
 276
 277 <li>2009
 278 <ul>
 279
 280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
 281
 282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
 283
 284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
 285
 286 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
 287
 288 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
 289
 290 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
 291
 292 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
 293
 294 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
 295
 296 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
 297
 298 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
 299
 300 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
 301
 302 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
 303
 304 </ul></li>
 305
 306 <li>2008
 307 <ul>
 308
 309 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
 310
 311 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
 312
 313 </ul></li>
 314
 315 </ul>
 316
 317
 318
 319 <h2>Tags</h2>
 320 <ul>
 321
 322  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
 323
 324  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
 325
 326  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
 327
 328  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
 329
 330  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
 331
 332  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
 333
 334  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
 335
 336  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
 337
 338  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (124)</a></li>
 339
 340  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (154)</a></li>
 341
 342  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
 343
 344  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
 345
 346  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (21)</a></li>
 347
 348  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
 349
 350  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (309)</a></li>
 351
 352  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
 353
 354  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
 355
 356  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (26)</a></li>
 357
 358  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
 359
 360  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (16)</a></li>
 361
 362  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
 363
 364  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
 365
 366  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (11)</a></li>
 367
 368  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
 369
 370  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
 371
 372  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
 373
 374  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
 375
 376  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
 377
 378  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
 379
 380  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (37)</a></li>
 381
 382  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (7)</a></li>
 383
 384  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (274)</a></li>
 385
 386  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (178)</a></li>
 387
 388  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (23)</a></li>
 389
 390  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
 391
 392  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (58)</a></li>
 393
 394  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (92)</a></li>
 395
 396  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
 397
 398  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
 399
 400  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
 401
 402  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
 403
 404  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
 405
 406  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
 407
 408  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
 409
 410  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
 411
 412  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (46)</a></li>
 413
 414  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
 415
 416  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
 417
 418  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (49)</a></li>
 419
 420  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
 421
 422  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
 423
 424  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (36)</a></li>
 425
 426  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
 427
 428  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
 429
 430  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
 431
 432  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (55)</a></li>
 433
 434  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
 435
 436  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (38)</a></li>
 437
 438 </ul>
 439
 440
 441     </div>
 442     <p style="text-align: right">
 443  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
 444 </p>
 445
 446   </body>
 447 </html>