Bug#812679: dpkg: ../../src/unpack.c:123:deb_reassemble: internal error: unexpected exit status 2 from dpkg-split

[Robert Edmonds]

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.18.4
Severity: normal

"dpkg -i" fails with an internal error when invoked on a directory. For
example,

root@debian:~# mkdir /tmp/cats
root@debian:~# dpkg -i /tmp/cats
dpkg-split: error: error reading /tmp/cats: Is a directory
dpkg:../../src/unpack.c:123:deb_reassemble: internal error: unexpected exit status 2 from dpkg-split
Aborted
root@debian:~# echo $?
134

Instead of abort()ing, it should probably handle directories similarly
to how files that are not debian format archives are handled:

root@debian:~# touch /tmp/kitten
root@debian:~# dpkg -i /tmp/kitten
dpkg-deb: error: '/tmp/kitten' is not a debian format archive
dpkg: error processing archive /tmp/kitten (--install):
subprocess dpkg-deb --control returned error exit status 2
Errors were encountered while processing:
/tmp/kitten
root@debian:~# echo $?
1

Thanks!

--
Robert Edmonds
edm...@debian.org

[Guillem Jover]

Hi!

Ah! Indeed, nice catch. I see two bugs here which I'm fixing for dpkg
1.18.5. The first is the one you point out, where dpkg should not
abort on unknown exist codes from dpkg-split. The second is that dpkg
should check beforehand that the arguments passed are at least actual
filenames that exist (the secong check already implemented locally as
part of another recent bug report).

Thanks,
Guillem