Error updating mailman

Question

Received this error message today doing apt-get upgrade

Setting up mailman (1:2.1.16-2ubuntu0.1) ...
Looking for enabled languages (this may take some time) ... done.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/eu  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/eu not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/no  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/no not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/he  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/he not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/tr  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/tr not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/pt_BR  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/pt_BR not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/lt  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/lt not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/sk  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/sk not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/nl  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/nl not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/et  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/et not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/hr  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/hr not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/de  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/de not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/it  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/it not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/zh_CN  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/zh_CN not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/fr  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/fr not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/sr  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/sr not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/zh_TW  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/zh_TW not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ru  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ru not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ja  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ja not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/cs  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/cs not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/fi  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/fi not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/el  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/el not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ca  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ca not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ar  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ar not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/sl  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/sl not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/pt  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/pt not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/hu  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/hu not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/es  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/es not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/vi  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/vi not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ko  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ko not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ro  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ro not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/gl  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/gl not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/fa  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/fa not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/da  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/da not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/pl  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/pl not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ia  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ia not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/uk  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/uk not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/sv  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/sv not empty, not removed.
Removing unmodified files from /etc/mailman/ast  done.
Directory /etc/mailman/ast not empty, not removed.
Installing site language en ............................................ done.
Downgrade detected, from version 0x20112f1 to version 0x20110f0
This is probably not safe.
Exiting.
dpkg: error processing package mailman (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Errors were encountered while processing:
 mailman
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

I am running Ubuntu 14.04.3. My question is:

What would cause this?

Update: Per @Ravan's comment below I was able to fix the problem by

cd /var/lib/dpkg/info/
rm mailman*
apt-get clean all
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

Although things are better now, I still don't have an answer to what would have caused this.

would love an explanation as to what went wrong but thanks, that works — Eaten by a Grue, Aug 26 '15 at 02:21
I had the same issue. I have the mailman.postinst file saved if you are still interested. Your solution worked. Thanks for helping out! — jiv-e, Jan 10 '17 at 13:55

score 3 · Answer 1 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:24

After you have deleted all the files in /var/lib/dpkg/info/, it is difficult to say what the problem was.

Therefore, don't delete something, if you need an explanation for your problem. Or read this, before you do something.

The error occurred in file /var/lib/dpkg/info/mailman.postinst, this was the error message for that:

subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1

And this is the problematic code or the place from which one could look for the error.

for lang in ${site_languages}; do
  printf "Installing site language ${lang} " >&2
  mkdir -p ${mm_etc}/${lang}
  for file in $(ls ${mm_dist}/${lang}); do
    printf . >&2
    langfile=${lang}/${file}
    ucf --debconf-ok --three-way ${mm_dist}/${langfile} ${mm_etc}/${langfile} 2>/dev/null
  done
  printf " done.\n" >&2
done

More can not be ascertained, unfortunately.

Error updating mailman

1 Answers1