Bug#1139562: apt: Fails to determine required space

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Subject: Re: Bug#1139562: apt: Fails to determine required space
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Am Tue, Jun 09, 2026 at 06:46:13PM +0000, schrieb Helge Kreutzmann:
>   Space needed: 8196 kB / 580 MB available
[=E2=80=A6]
> Unpacking texlive-fonts-extra (2026.20260527-1) over (2026.20260328-5) ...
> dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-fonts-extr=
a_2026.20260527-1_all.deb (--unpack):
>  cannot copy extracted data for './usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex=
/newtx/newtx.sty' to '/usr/share/texlive/texmf-dist/tex/latex/newtx/newtx.s=
ty.dpkg-new': failed to write (No space left on device)
> Errors were encountered while processing:
>  /var/cache/apt/archives/texlive-fonts-extra_2026.20260527-1_all.deb
[=E2=80=A6]
> As you can see, apt claims, that 8196 kB is needed, however, the package =
seems to need much more: (No space left on device)
>=20
> So somehow the calcuation done by apt is broken.

The calculation apt does is based on the Installed-Size comparing
what the old versions used vs. what the new versions use. The size
increase after the installation is complete might be (at least) 8 MB
in this case.

This does not include auto-generated files, those downloaded while
configuring (non-free packages), =E2=80=A6 as those files are not included
in the package and are hence not part of the value of Installed-Size
(that is generated by dpkg at package build time).


The problem here is, I think, something else through:
texlive-fonts-extra has an Installed-Size of 1.892 MB.
If dpkg installs the upgrade by placing the .dpkg-new files
alongside the old files before replacing them all the installation
process might need 2 GB of free space temporarily which you don't have.
(I don't know the inner workings of dpkg enough to know how it behaves,
 but I suspect it does so for handling reverts/aborts)


Maybe we can look for the biggest (upgraded) deb to install and
warn if the system hasn't enough free space to unpack it entirely.
This would be off in edge cases of multi-partitioned systems, but
those folks have problems with the 'Space needed' info anyhow as
we don't know where the data will end up (/boot, /usr, /opt, =E2=80=A6).

While at it, we might want to check that the upgrades fit before
any reductions apply (be it upgrades or removals) as we don't really
know in which order they will apply (well, we kinda do, but that might
be overkill to calculate). Especially the removals are done last, which
if we take texlive-fonts-extra as an example makes a big difference on
this example system.


Best regards

David Kalnischkies

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