Entry 60 error, software updater failed; can't find file /etc/apt/sources.list

[Colin Law]

On 5 August 2018 at 17:26, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> wrote:

> On Sunday 05 August 2018 08:29:19 Colin Law wrote:
>
> > On 5 August 2018 at 12:14, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> wrote:
> > > On Sunday 05 August 2018 03:56:36 Colin Law wrote:
> > > > On 4 August 2018 at 22:50, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net>
> wrote:
> > > > > ...
> > > > > If gedit was used on that file before, all bets are off and it
> > > > > may contain most anything but a valid sources.list now. I've had
> > > > > that happen too many times Colin, and nuked gedit from all my
> > > > > systems going on about 2 years ago now.  Neither nano, nor geany
> > > > > (needs X) has ever trashed a file. 60 lines is in fact a
> > > > > possibility, but the usual install is less than 20, and this
> > > > > user is not a "power" user, so 60 lines also raised a red flag
> > > > > for me.
> > > >
> > > > I have never had any problems with gedit, though one must never
> > > > use it with sudo of course, being a graphical app.  The default
> > > > sources.list on 18.04 has 51 lines so where your 'less than 20'
> > > > comes from I don't know.  The guy followed some duff instructions
> > > > on how to install something I believe and that is how it got
> > > > messed up.
> > > >
> > > > Colin
> > >
> > > Well, TBT, I am used to debian now, and the typical sources.list is
> > > shorter.
> > >
> > > But I'll stand by my comments on gedit. We have, quite often after
> > > we have made a very basic .hal file to configure a cnc machine, but
> > > the fawncier stuffs we have to add by hand, and the 3rd time it took
> > > a 700 LOC file and made 1700 lines of nonsensical trash that would
> > > not parse in the interpretor was the back breaker for me, it likes
> > > to pick up 30 lines of random code that didn't start or end with a
> > > linefeed, and insert it midline at random earlier locations in the
> > > code, random numbers of times. Regenerating 700 LOC entirely from
> > > memory is painfull enough and it appeared I had better find a new
> > > editor, which in my case was geany. Which has so far behaved itself
> > > perfectly. If gedit hasn't bitten you yet, feel blessed.
> >
> > I trust you submitted a bug report.
>
> Should have been a ?, yes, but it wasn't printable, I was plenty upset at
> the time and gave it a piece of my mind. Never got a reply or any other
> indication it was actually filed, and haven't checked. Once I am done
> with a product, I'm done. But that doesn't mean I won't attempt to
> advise other users of my experience.
>
> In the case of the last file it trashed, it took about a week to rewrite
> it for satisfactory operation of a small metal lathe I had converted to
> be run by linuxcnc.  A week I spent entirely too much time on,
> occasionally referencing a previous but out of date printout and
> discussing with myself, the authors family tree. I now kill a tree
> everytime I make a mod to those files just in case.
>

I can't help thinking that if this were a general problem with gedit then
others would have noted it.
You could put such files under git control and then commit them every time
you make a significant change.  That is how I generally manage things.
With a remote repo on a remote server there is automatically an offsite
backup and an audit trail.

Colin
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