3

Update 2: This seems to be a upstream packaging issue with empty Contents-amd64.gz files in the repository. Therefore I reported a bug in Launchpad.

I'm a heavy user of apt-file. Most of the file I use it to find out about packages I need to install a specific, missing file or vice-versa find out about which package is responsible / owns a specific file.

It seems that since my last update to eoan apt-file has completely lost its functionality. It also seems to be a different implementation, because apt-file update no longer downloads those *Contents-amd64.diff.gz: Instead it does a simple apt-get update

$ sudo -H apt-file update
Hit:1 http://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable InRelease
Hit:2 http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu eoan InRelease                                                                                   
Hit:3 http://ppa.launchpad.net/bit-team/testing/ubuntu eoan InRelease                                                                      
Hit:4 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan InRelease                                                                                      
Hit:5 http://shop.softmaker.com/repo/apt wheezy InRelease                                                                                  
Hit:6 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease                                                                              
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/marko-preuss/hibiscus/ubuntu eoan InRelease                                
Hit:8 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan-updates InRelease                      
Hit:9 http://ppa.launchpad.net/morphis/anbox-support/ubuntu disco InRelease        
Hit:10 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan-security InRelease
Hit:11 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan-backports InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.

Also i do no longer get any result at all…

$ apt-file search /bin/bash
$ apt-file show bash

I know about dpkg -L <x>: this i not want I need. I also do not want to leave my terminal and go web surfing.

Update

In fact it does return some results but not the complete lists. On running a simple apt-file search bash i in fact do get a few rare results from very exotic packages only

$ apt-file search bash
code: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/code
code: /usr/share/code/resources/app/extensions/emmet/node_modules/dashdash/etc/dashdash.bash_completion.in
…
code: /usr/share/code/resources/completions/bash/code
code-exploration: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/code
code-exploration: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/code-exploration
…
code-insiders: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/code
code-insiders: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/code-insiders
…
linux-tools-common: /usr/share/bash-completion/completions/bpftool

Here in contrast the result on a Linux Mint 19.2 equivalent Ubuntu 18.04 installation:

 $ apt-file search /bin/bash
bash: /bin/bash
bash: /usr/bin/bashbug
bash-static: /bin/bash-static
bashburn: /usr/bin/bashburn
pbh5tools: /usr/bin/bash5tools
pbh5tools: /usr/bin/bash5tools.py
bentolor
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    `apt-file -v search /bin/bash` gives maybe a hint what is wrong. – nobody Oct 29 '19 at 18:22
  • @nobody Thanks for the tip. This helps, though I don't know how to fix: It misses many `*Contents-amd64.lz` files in direct comparison: https://gist.github.com/bentolor/356ac406b867dffa9ec1d15013f5743b – bentolor Oct 30 '19 at 09:43
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    Ok: Got it: The upstream files are just empty for eoan: Compare the sizes of the Contents-amd64.gz in http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/eoan/ vs. http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/bionic/ – bentolor Oct 30 '19 at 09:50
  • `grep -r deb /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/` please. – nobody Oct 30 '19 at 09:51
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    @nobody Thanks for you support: [The bug now has been fixed upstream](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apt-file/+bug/1848768) – bentolor Oct 31 '19 at 09:37

1 Answers1

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This was an upstream packaging bug and has been fixed within the last hours. A new apt-file update and subsequent apt-file search /bin/bash now delivers the expected results even under Ubuntu eoan.

bentolor
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