[Bug 1636922] Re: update-initramfs fails when cp encounters empty directory

[Benjamin Drung]

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** Changed in: initramfs-tools (Ubuntu)
       Status: Confirmed => Incomplete

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Title:
  update-initramfs fails when cp encounters empty directory

Status in initramfs-tools package in Ubuntu:
  Incomplete

Bug description:
  I recently upgraded to UbuntuServer 16.04 but encountered the
  following problem:

      dpkg --configure linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic
      Setting up linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic (4.4.0-45.66) ...
      Running depmod.
      update-initramfs: deferring update (hook will be called later)
      The link /initrd.img is a dangling linkto /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-45-generic
      vmlinuz(/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-45-generic
      ) points to /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-45-generic
       (/boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-45-generic) -- doing nothing at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic.postinst line 491.
      Examining /etc/kernel/postinst.d.
      run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.4.0-45-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-45-generic
      run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 4.4.0-45-generic /boot/vmlinuz-4.4.0-45-generic
      update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-45-generic
      cp: omitting directory '/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules'
      E: /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/udev failed with return 1.
      update-initramfs: failed for /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-45-generic with 1.
      run-parts: /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools exited with return code 1
      Failed to process /etc/kernel/postinst.d at /var/lib/dpkg/info/linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic.postinst line 1052.
      dpkg: error processing package linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic (--configure):
       subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 2
      Errors were encountered while processing:
       linux-image-4.4.0-45-generic

  With a bit of digging I determined the issue was with this line (after
  initially disregarding it):

      cp: omitting directory '/etc/udev/rules.d/70-persistent-net.rules'

  The path specified turned out to be an empty directory, hence why cp
  omitted it, so I simply deleted it and tried again, this time
  successfully.

  It seems that update-initramfs, or some other component of it, is
  treating a cp omission as a failure and erroring out, rather than
  continuing, while looking into the problem I found a few variations of
  the problem (directories other than udev) so it seems like this
  behaviour could do with being changed to prevent this issue in future.

  
  Version information:
      lsb_release -rd
      Description:	Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS
      Release:	16.04

      initramfs-tools:
        Installed: 0.122ubuntu8.5
        Candidate: 0.122ubuntu8.5
        Version table:
       *** 0.122ubuntu8.5 500
              500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main amd64 Packages
              500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial-updates/main i386 Packages
              100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
           0.122ubuntu8 500
              500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
              500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/main i386 Packages

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