[Bug 1351380] Lintian crashes with "undefined value" if deb lacks intermediate directories

Sat May 30 08:49:14 UTC 2015

On 2014-08-01 18:23, Stian Soiland-Reyes wrote:
> Public bug reported:
> 
> If I create a deb with install4j that installs to /opt/test/ - then
> lintian crashes:
> 
> [...]

Hi,

Thanks for the report and the following analysis of the problem.

Should you run into future crash issues with lintian, please consider
filing the bug against lintian upstream.

I have applied a few patches upstream for this issue:
 * [f89954f] - Fixes the crash
 * [4d6bb4e] - Adds a warning for not having intermediate directories

These are scheduled for inclusion in lintian 2.5.32.

 * I am not maintaining the Ubuntu package, so I /cannot/ comment on
   whether this will be fixed in / backported to your current Ubuntu
   release.

> 
> [...]
> 
> However no special case is done for the missing intermediate
> directories, and the above does not initialize.
> 
> Adding so it ends with:
> 
>         $idxh{''} = \%cpy;
>         $children{''} = [] unless exists $children{''};
>     }
> 
> Fixes the problem:
> 
> [...]

This indeed avoided the crash.  However, it would leave the path
structure disconnected causing several checks to report incorrect
results (in particular in Lintian/2.5.28).

Therefore I have solved this differently by constructing all missing
intermediate directories (see [f89954f]), which also trivially allowed
for us to discover/report the missing intermediate directories.

Once again, thanks for the report and the following analysis.

Thanks,
~Niels

[f89954f]:
https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/lintian/lintian.git/commit/?id=f89954f8e87515c839849c59568261be256c7081
[4d6bb4e]:
https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/lintian/lintian.git/commit/?id=4d6bb4edd26d74f675fb5bcad853d6e05e7fca3f

Bug handling:
 bug 1351380
 tag patch
 status fixcommitted

** Changed in: lintian (Ubuntu)
       Status: New => Fix Committed

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1351380

Title:
  Lintian crashes with "undefined value"  if deb lacks intermediate
  directories

Status in lintian package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Committed

Bug description:
  If I create a deb with install4j that installs to /opt/test/ - then
  lintian crashes:

  stain at stain-VirtualBox:~$ lintian lintian-test-intermediate-folders_linux_0_1_0.deb 
  Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /usr/share/perl5/Lintian/Collect/Package.pm line 513, <$_[...]> line 2.
  warning: collect info md5sums about package lintian-test-intermediate-folders failed
  warning: skipping check of binary package lintian-test-intermediate-folders

  If I make it install to /opt instead, lintian is happy (but reports the missing bits as it should):

  stain at stain-VirtualBox:~$ lintian lintian-test-intermediate-folders_linux_0_2_0.deb 
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: changelog-file-missing-in-native-package
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: control-file-is-empty md5sums
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: no-copyright-file
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: description-starts-with-package-name
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: extended-description-is-empty
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: maintainer-name-missing
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: maintainer-address-missing
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: no-section-field
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: empty-binary-package
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: dir-or-file-in-opt opt/test/
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: maintainer-script-ignores-errors prerm
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: maintainer-script-ignores-errors postinst

  This causes install4j debian packages - including install4j to not install in Ubuntu Software Centre, as it will report the equivalent of:

  The package is of bad quality.
  The installation of a package which violates the quality standards isn't allowed. This could cause serious problems on your computer. Please contact the person or organisation who provided this package file and include the details beneath.
  Lintian check results for /home/scmjpg/Desktop/taverna-workbench-biodiversity-2.5.0-linux_amd64.deb:
  Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /usr/share/perl5/Lintian/Collect/Package.pm line 513, <$_[...]> line 2853.
  Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /usr/share/perl5/Lintian/Collect/Package.pm line 513, <$_[...]> line 2853.
  warning: collect info md5sums about package taverna-workbench-biodiversity failed
  warning: skipping check of binary package taverna-workbench-biodiversity
  warning: collect info scripts about package taverna-workbench-biodiversity failed
  warning: skipping check of binary package taverna-workbench-biodiversity
  Can't use an undefined value as an ARRAY reference at /usr/share/perl5/Lintian/Collect/Package.pm line 513, <$_[...]> line 2853.
  warning: collect info file-info about package taverna-workbench-biodiversity failed
  warning: skipping check of binary package taverna-workbench-biodiversity

  Looking at /usr/share/perl5/Lintian/Collect/Package.pm , the bug seems
  to be caused by the deb from install4j not listing the intermediate
  directories to the target directory, causing $children{$file} to be
  unitialized. This is otherwise initialized as a side-effect of

  $children{$parent} = [] unless exists $children{$parent};

  but lint does also a special case if the root entry is missing:

      if (!exists($idxh{''})) {
          # The index did not include a "root" dir, so fake one.
          # Note we have to do a copy here, since we will eventually
          # add a "children" field.
          my %cpy = %ROOT_INDEX_TEMPLATE;
          if ($num_idx) {
              $cpy{'uid'} = 0;
              $cpy{'gid'} = 0;
          }
          $idxh{''} = \%cpy;
      }

  However no special case is done for the missing intermediate
  directories, and the above does not initialize.

  Adding so it ends with:

          $idxh{''} = \%cpy;
          $children{''} = [] unless exists $children{''};
      }

  Fixes the problem:

  stain at stain-VirtualBox:~$ lintian lintian-test-intermediate-folders_linux_0_1_0.deb 
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: changelog-file-missing-in-native-package
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: control-file-is-empty md5sums
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: no-copyright-file
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: description-starts-with-package-name
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: extended-description-is-empty
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: maintainer-name-missing
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: maintainer-address-missing
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: no-section-field
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: empty-binary-package
  Use of uninitialized value in exists at /usr/share/lintian/checks/files.pm line 339.
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: dir-or-file-in-opt opt/lint-test/
  E: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: dir-or-file-in-opt opt/lint-test/test/
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: maintainer-script-ignores-errors prerm
  W: lintian-test-intermediate-folders: maintainer-script-ignores-errors postinst

  and thus after this the deb can be installed in Ubuntu Software
  Centre.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 14.04
  Package: lintian 2.5.22ubuntu1
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.13.0-32.57-generic 3.13.11.4
  Uname: Linux 3.13.0-32-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.14.1-0ubuntu3.2
  Architecture: amd64
  CurrentDesktop: Unity
  Date: Fri Aug  1 17:12:48 2014
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2014-08-01 (0 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS "Trusty Tahr" - Release amd64 (20140722.2)
  PackageArchitecture: all
  SourcePackage: lintian
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

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