Bug#1114610: post-installation script failed due to incorrect processing of /etc/environment

Hi Daniel,

We also implemented the proposed change in Ubuntu Resolute, but according
to an Ubuntu user[0], this breaks comment parsing in /etc/environment.

I know you mentioned that "/etc/environment does not contain any form of
quoting
or escaping, nor can it contain comments" earlier in this thread. However,
is there a source for this? I was trying to find a clear answer on the
format specification, and all I can find is this freedesktop spec[1], which
seems to suggest the opposite:

> Empty lines and lines beginning with the comment character "#" are
ignored.

Is there some conflicting specification that states that we shouldn't
ignore lines beginning with "#"?

[0]
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/texinfo/+bug/2125808/comments/8
[1]
https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/latest/environment.d.html#Configuration%20Format

Thanks,
Mitchell Augustin

On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 3:43 PM Mitchell Augustin <
[email protected]> wrote:

> I submitted an MR to
> https://salsa.debian.org/tex-team/texinfo/-/merge_requests/13 with the
> solution proposed in this thread.
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 9:07 AM Mitchell Augustin
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> >
> > > could you provide your /etc/environments file?
> >
> > I'm not Daniel, but if you just need a reproducer for the issue with
> > sourcing, a minimal repro is to add an unquoted variable with
> > semicolons in your /etc/environments, such as this:
> > root@envtest:~# cat /etc/environment
> >
> PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin"
> > MY_LIST=1;2;3;4;5
> >
> > and then attempt to `apt install` any program. You should then see:
> > dpkg: error processing package install-info (--configure):
> >  installed install-info package post-installation script subprocess
> > returned error exit status 127
> >
> >
> > Please let me know if there is any additional context I can provide
> > here to further assist you in deciding how to address this bug.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Mitchell Augustin
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Dec 10, 2025 at 5:13 PM Mitchell Augustin
> > <[email protected]> wrote:
> > >
> > > Hi all,
> > >
> > > This still seems to be an issue for some applications. Have there been
> > > any discussions on the Debian side about adjusting the handling of
> > > /etc/environment here?
> > >
> > > --
> > > Mitchell Augustin
> > > Software Engineer - Ubuntu Partner Engineering
> > > Email:[email protected]
> > > Location:United States of America (Central Time)
> > >
> > >
> > > canonical.com
> > > ubuntu.com
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Mitchell Augustin
> > Software Engineer - Ubuntu Partner Engineering
> > Email:[email protected]
> > Location:United States of America (Central Time)
> >
> >
> > canonical.com
> > ubuntu.com
>
>
>
> --
> Mitchell Augustin
> Software Engineer - Ubuntu Partner Engineering
> Email:[email protected]
> [email protected]
> Location:United States of America (Central Time)
>
>
> canonical.com
> ubuntu.com
>


-- 
[image: Canonical-20th-anniversary]

Mitchell Augustin

Software Engineer - Ubuntu Partner Engineering

Email:

[email protected]
[email protected]

Location:

United States of America (Central Time)


canonical.com

ubuntu.com