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m0ng00se
Asked: 2018-05-26 14:28:15 +0800 CST

dpkg: error: reading package info file /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/status

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I was installing a package from source and checkinstall produced

dpkg:error: reading package info file '/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg/status': Is a directory

The "status" directory was missing i went and made the directory but dont know how to make the info file. I may have some backups but not sure which one to use. From what i've been reading I think dpkg has been corrupted sort of. 

phantom@AsusK53E:~$ tree -d /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg
/usr/local/var/lib/dpkg
├── alternatives
├── info
├── methods
│   ├── disk
│   ├── floppy
│   ├── ftp
│   ├── mnt
│   └── multicd
├── parts
├── status
└── updates

11 directories

Copied the status and availalbe files from /var/lib/dpkg to /usr/local/var/lib/dpkg and the checkinstall completed without error.

software-installation package-management dpkg

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Just creating a directory called status won't get you what you need. /var/lib/dpkg/status is supposed to be a file, not a directory as seen below:

    ll /var/lib/dpkg/status
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3466281 May 26 06:17 /var/lib/dpkg/status

    Provided all you've done wrong is delete the status file and attempt to replace it with a directory you should be able to simply issue the following commands:

    rmdir /var/lib/dpkg/status

    sudo cp /var/lib/dpkg/status-old /var/lib/dpkg/status

    if you've somehow managed to move the entire /var/lib/dpkg branch and graft it to the /usr/local branch you'll need to move it back first.

    the /var/lib/dpkg branch typically looks like this:

    tree -d  /var/lib/dpkg
/var/lib/dpkg
├── alternatives
├── info
├── parts
├── triggers
└── updates

    Source: shamelessly modified from this answer to this question.

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