Do not gave up on lock while running apt

Question

I have a script that uses apt heavily and currently it faces a locking issue, as:

E: Could not get lock /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (11: Resource temporarily unavailable)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), is another process using it?

I want that apt tries to get the lock other than aborting. Is it possible?

Why do not use a query in your program and wait with the further execution until a lock is possible again? — A.B., Apr 14 '15 at 19:10
possible duplicate of Is there a way to install packages via a a queue even when there is another instance of an installation or upgrade is running? — muru, Apr 15 '15 at 18:27
Or http://askubuntu.com/questions/132059/how-to-make-a-package-manager-wait-if-another-instance-of-apt-is-running — muru, Apr 15 '15 at 18:27

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 14 '15 at 19:22

As far as I know, getting apt to not lock is impossible. The error is happening because the script is trying to run multiple apt sessions simultaneously. I think it would be best if you could modify the script so that apt operations are run after each other, in a queue maybe.

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Apr 15 '15 at 16:37

1

in addition to @Wilhelm's advice (which is good) if you are left with a stale lock file that will not go away (this happens some times) you must remove it manually.

sudo rm -rf /var/lib/dpkg/lock

But be very careful that you have the path exactly correct as the sudo rm -rf will remove files (even system files) in use if you point it to them and can thus permanently break your system.

edited Apr 15 '15 at 16:37

Wilhelm Erasmus

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answered Apr 14 '15 at 19:56

Charles Wright

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Good point, I didn't think of that. – Wilhelm Erasmus Apr 15 '15 at 16:12

Do not gave up on lock while running apt

2 Answers2