[Bug 983571] Re: package-data-downloader crashed with ValueError in command(): invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''

[TJ]

I've been doing some analysis of this bug. It's difficult to follow for
a debconf outsider since it encompasses Python and PERL modules and
inter-process pipes and so on, but from the reading the source-code and
looking at our tracebacks it seems that the debconf "version" command is
returning an empty string:

  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/debconf.py", line 81, in command
    status = int(status)
ValueError: invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''

The '' at the end of the ValueError line indicates that

status = ''

It is set in one of two ways based reading the inter-process pipe to
debconf-communicate (/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/debconf.py):

        if ' ' in resp:
            status, data = resp.split(' ', 1)
        else:
            status, data = resp, ''

This gives two possibilities for the contents of the 'resp' list
returned from debconf-communicate:

1. a single space
2. an empy string

After reading the Python 2.7 documentation for the subprocess module I
suspect this warning might give us some insight into the cause of this
bug:


"Warning: Use communicate() rather than .stdin.write, .stdout.read or
.stderr.read to avoid deadlocks due to any of the other OS pipe buffers
filling up and blocking the child process."

Source:
http://docs.python.org/library/subprocess.html#subprocess.Popen.kill

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/983571

Title:
  package-data-downloader crashed with ValueError in command(): invalid
  literal for int() with base 10: ''

Status in “update-notifier” package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed

Bug description:
  I have no idea about it

  ProblemType: Crash
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
  Package: update-notifier-common 0.119ubuntu7
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic-pae 3.2.14
  Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae i686
  ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu3
  Architecture: i386
  Date: Tue Apr 17 07:33:16 2012
  ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloader
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.04 LTS "Precise Pangolin" - Beta i386 (20120328)
  InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.7
  PackageArchitecture: all
  ProcCmdline: /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloader
  ProcEnviron:
   LANG=en_US.UTF-8
   PATH=(custom, no user)
   TERM=xterm
   SHELL=/bin/bash
  PythonArgs: ['/usr/lib/update-notifier/package-data-downloader']
  SourcePackage: update-notifier
  Title: package-data-downloader crashed with ValueError in command(): invalid literal for int() with base 10: ''
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
  UserGroups:

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