RJ writes: reassign 908551 citadel-server 902-4 thanks
> > Versions of packages apt-listchanges suggests: > ii citadel-server [mail-transport-agent] 902-4 > -- Desription of problem: > When performing a apt update today (Monday, September 10, 2018) there > was a news bit about the Apache/2 package that required reading and > confirmation. > Upon confirmation the apt-listchanges script returned to attempt to send > mail to the configured user email (which is just 'root' in this case.) Yes, apt-listchanges tries to execute `/usr/sbin/sendmail -oi -t' command. It skips sending mails if the command does not exist. > IF a system either does not have a mail service installed You have citadel-server installed, that provides mail service, so it's not the case. > or is > impropery configured, apt-listchanges will hang while attempting to send > an email before it allows the update process to continue. IMHO if a mail service is improperly configured than it should fail instead of hanging... Then apt-listchanges would display warning message like this (BTW. I've just temporaily installed the latest version of citadel-server, trying to reproduce the bug, but its sendmail command just fails, not hangs): apt-listchanges: Mail to root: apt-listchanges: changelogs for vox citmail: can't connect: No such file or directory apt-listchanges warning: Cannot send mail to root: Command '['/usr/sbin/sendmail', '-oi', '-t']' returned non-zero exit status 3. Then apt-listchanges would continue. I agree, that apt-listchanges could have set some timeout for the sendmail command, and I can try to add such timeout in next version. > > ** I was able to work around this by editing the apt-listchanges script > file by commenting out the offending Mail section as follows: A simpler solution would be to run `dpkg-reconfigure apt-listchanges' and give an empty list of e-mail addresses in the question related to mail addresses. > As with the other related 'Wishlist' bug reports for apt-listchanges, > there should be additional prompts added to this file to: > > (1) Ask if the user wants to mail a report (default N). This is done during apt-listchanges installation time, providing that your debconf settings allows the question about e-mail address list to appear. > - Also notify > user that the process may hang if no mail subsystem exists (which I > believe is now the case starting with stretch) or is improperly > configured. (Just 'root') I think that the sendmail command should hang when misconfigured or for any other reason - that's why I am reassigning the bug report to citadel-server. (BTW. I am not sure if this is possible in case of citadel-server, but maybe sendmail command was trying to send e-mails via network? How long did you wait before deciding that the command hung?). > > (2) See other 3 reports related to MAIL for additional prompt suggestions. Could you please be more specific? Which other 3 bug reports are related to this one? Regards, robert