Fix "subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status ..." when installing/removing/updating a package with apt

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If you get an error like:

subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 78

when installing/removing/updating a package with apt you should check the postinst, postrm, prerm, ... script in /var/lib/dpkg/info/.

For example in my case I had a problem when removing varnish:

Removing varnish (4.0.3-2~trusty) ...
dpkg: error processing package varnish (--remove):
 subprocess installed post-removal script returned error exit status 78
Errors were encountered while processing:
 varnish

So I checked the /var/lib/dpkg/info/varnish.postrm for exit 78 and found the following:

[...]
        if test -e /var/lib/varnish; then

                rm -r /var/lib/varnish > /dev/null 2>&1 || exit 78
        fi
[...]

This directory couldn't get removed because there was a mount to /var/lib/varnish/. After I've unmounted it, it could get successfully removed.

Last edit
Kim Klotz
License
Source code in this card is licensed under the MIT License.
Posted by Kim Klotz to makandra dev (2015-10-13 21:21)