mis-installation of package

[Derek Broughton]

Sean Sieger wrote:

> sean at g41r2f1:~$ sudo aptitude remove gtypist gettext
...
> Removing gettext ...
> install-info: No dir file specified; try --help for more information.
> dpkg: error processing gettext (--remove):
>  subprocess pre-removal script returned error exit status 1
> install-info: No dir file specified; try --help for more information.
> dpkg: error while cleaning up:
>  subprocess post-installation script returned error exit status 1

What I usually do in this situation is:

# sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/gettext.prerm
# sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/gtypist.prerm
# sudo aptitude remove gtypist gettext
# sudo aptitude install gtypist gettext

and if you really didn't want them "remove" or "purge" again, and if you end
up in the same situation, just delete everything related to the packages
in /var/lib/dpkg/info.

The reason for removing, then reinstalling and removing, is that the "prerm"
scripts are presumably trying to do _something_ reasonably worthwhile, and
so you want to try to give it a chance to clean up properly.
-- 
derek