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

[Stian Soiland-Reyes]

** Attachment added: "debian file that does not fail lintian as it installs to /opt"
   https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/lintian/+bug/1351380/+attachment/4167514/+files/lintian-test-intermediate-folders_linux_0_2_0.deb

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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:
  New

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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