On Sun, May 13, 2007 at 12:54:13AM +0200, Francesco Poli <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> was heard to say: > Hence I would say this file is not installed by any package. > I guess it's created by the first run of aptitude, right?
Yes, it is. =============== src/generic/aptcache.cc, line 551 ================= newstate.Open(statefile+".new", FileFd::WriteEmpty); =================================================================== That's using the apt file-handling code: =================== apt-pkg/contrib/fileutl.h ===================== bool Open(string FileName,OpenMode Mode,unsigned long Perms = 0666); =================================================================== which eventually calls open(2) ================== apt-pkg/contrib/fileutl.cc ===================== iFd = open(FileName.c_str(),O_RDWR | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC,Perms); =================================================================== i.e., aptitude does everything it can to make that file world-readable short of chmod'ing it. Is root's umask set to something like 0077 on your machine? (run "umask" as root to find out) Even if it isn't now, I bet it was when you ran aptitude the first time. An easy fix would be to chmod the file when I create it; there isn't any security-sensitive stuff in it, and as you found out, the effects of a non-readable pkgstates file can be surprising. Daniel -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]