Public bug reported: Corrupt one of your /var/lib/dpkg/info/*.list files (or wait long enough for one to be corrupted for you). You will be prevented from installing or removing anything until you get it straightened out, but you won't be told anything about how to do so. I have seen on the internet suggestions to simply delete the offending file (!).
This is a wishlist usability bug. I think it would be cool if dpkg had a way to recreate that file from the .deb the package came from, if it exists. What the Fink project suggested (http://fink.sourceforge.net/faq/usage-fink.php) was " dpkg -c full-path-to-debfile | awk '{if ($6 == "./"){ print "/."; } \ else if (substr($6, length($6), 1) == "/")\ {print substr($6, 2, length($6) - 2); } \ else { print substr($6, 2, length($6) - 1);}}'\ > /sw/var/lib/dpkg/info/packagename.list " Which worked, but I didn't like that solution very much because it required copying and pasting a complicated shell script. dpkg could do a better, safer job of managing these things. But when a user has a choice between executing potentially dangerous shell scripts from the Internet and not installing or removing packages, I don't think very many users will see that as a choice. ** Affects: dpkg (Ubuntu) Importance: Undecided Status: Unconfirmed -- files list file for package 'language-pack-en-base' contains empty filename https://launchpad.net/bugs/68986 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
