apport package

Altoid · 2025-07-20 20:58:10

Hello:

While looking at the active threads, I came across this post by fsmithred:

fsmithred wrote:

To get a list of config files that have been changed from the default:
debsums -ca

I did not know about that package (thanks fsr!) nor did I have it installed.
Once installed, I ran it and got a good deal of data which I have always wondered about as I also keep an installation log of sorts but, never thorough enough.

The data included quite a bit of references* to a package named apport which I recalled having deleted from every instance found.
* most if not all in localhost/usr/share/apport/package-hooks

I purged it after I looked it up and decided it was not something I wanted running in my system.

https://github.com/canonical/apport wrote:

Apport intercepts Program crashes, collects debugging information about the crash and the operating system environment, and sends it to bug trackers in a standardized form. It also offers the user to report a bug about a package, with again collecting as much information about it as possible.

This was back in 05/2025, so it is still in my timeshift snapshots.

I had intended to ask here but forgot all about it till now.
I had a look today and could not find it in the Devuan repositories.

I did find that it was at one time in the Debian repositories:
https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apport

Could it be that it is a zombie remnant from the original Devuan (jessie or ascii) installation which I dist-upgraded since then?

$ aptitude why apport
i   screen Suggests byobu | screenie | iselect (>= 1.4.0-1)
p   byobu  Suggests apport                                 
$ 
$ aptitude why byobu
i   screen Suggests byobu | screenie | iselect (>= 1.4.0-1)
$ 
$ aptitude why screen
i   screen   Suggests byobu | screenie | iselect (>= 1.4.0-1)
p   screenie Depends  screen                                 
$

I cannot recall having ever installed screen. 8^°
Moot point, purged it.

Q: Why did I have apport in my system if it was no longer* in the Devuan repositories?
* it was accepted in experimental in 09/2014 but finally removed in 03/2019. ie: over 10 years in experimental, never made it to stable after 05/2014.

Me thinks there should be some sort of mechanism (?) to post a notice about things like this when doing a dist-upgrade.

Thanks in advance.
Best,

A.

Edit:
My Devuan Chimaera VM has this without apport being installed:

$ locate apport
/usr/share/apport
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/openssh-client.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/openssh-server.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_grub2.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_sudo.py
$

Same for my (default desktop install) Devuan Daedalus VM:

root@daedalus:~# locate apport
/usr/share/apport
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/openssh-client.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/openssh-server.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_apparmor.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_cups.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_grub2.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_mtdev.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_pulseaudio.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_sudo.py
/usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_synaptic.py
root@daedalus:~#

Can anyone explain to me why this is so?
apport is not in the Debian / Devuan repositories.

.

Last edited by Altoid (2025-07-20 21:15:13)

ralph.ronnquist · 2025-07-20 22:35:19

dpkg -S apport/package-hooks

EDIT: What you're looking at could be classified as a technological remnant from a modular idea that packages would register their own hook for reporting their status into that apport report. I'm not sure why, but earlier this millennium there where ideas floating about cushioning the end-user with "services" so they could go happy without knowing what they were doing. We all know better than that nowadays, don't we?

g4sra · 2025-07-20 22:35:33

I hate it when package devs do this sort of thing...adding stuff in support of some other package not even installed, or in this case, not even available from Debian repositories.

Those apport files come from different packages (e.g. OpenSSH-Client, Grub2) that you have legitimately installed.
A brief look suggests they may have been pushed by Ubuntu which Debian packagers have obviously accepted.

I only ever use one language, yet am forced to accept documents, dictionaries, man pages, etc in every language going.
These could be included for distribution in the package but selectively omitted from installation by a simple option in the package preinst script

Altoid · 2025-07-20 23:09:41

Hello:

dpkg -S apport/package-hooks

$ dpkg -S apport/package-hooks
lxappearance: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_lxappearance.py
pcmanfm: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_pcmanfm.py
yelp: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_yelp.py
libfm-data: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_libfm.py
openssh-client: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/openssh-client.py
connman: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_connman.py
lxterminal: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_lxterminal.py
pcmanfm, lxappearance, libfm-data, sudo, synaptic, simple-scan, openssh-client, libmtdev1:amd64, connman, lxterminal, cups-daemon, yelp, grub-common, libmtp-common, conky-all: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks
conky-all: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/conky.py
grub-common: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_grub2.py
simple-scan: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_simple-scan.py
libmtdev1:amd64: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_mtdev.py
sudo: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_sudo.py
libmtp-common: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_libmtp.py
cups-daemon: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_cups.py
synaptic: /usr/share/apport/package-hooks/source_synaptic.py
$

All python scripts.
Fortunately I managed to weed them all out.
Will do the same on all my Devuan installations.

ralph.ronnquist wrote:

... classified as a technological remnant from a modular idea ...
... cushioning the end-user with "services" so they could go happy without knowing what they were doing.

And here we are, still with all this absolutely unneeded shit in a Linux system.
No wonder every new release brings about more and more (and more) code.
All dirt swept under the rug, festering.

How much more of that is there to be found?

ralph.ronnquist wrote:

We all know better than that nowadays, don't we?

Yes, we is right.
Seems the pronoun does not include most (if not all) Debian devs.
Makes me wonder if they are not some sort of sleeper scripts.

As always, thanks for your input.

Best,

A.

Altoid · 2025-07-20 23:16:28

Hello:

g4sra wrote:

... but selectively omitted from installation by a simple option in the package preinst script.

Yes, of course*.

*Good luck with that ... 8^°

Thanks for your input.

Best,

A.

Altoid · 2025-07-21 13:44:57

Hello:

I found some more info on this apport application:

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2016-9950
https://app.opencve.io/cve/?vendor=apport_project
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tra … -2019-7306

You will notice that Debian refers to all this as a non-issue because apport is not present.
Coming from the creators of systemd, I'll take it with a few grains of salt, low sodium variety.

Paraphrasing the Bard (of Avon, seems there are others):

An apport by any other name would still cause damage

So ...

Just to be on the safe side of whatever may be in there, Devuan users may want to consider purging everything in /usr/share/apport/*
But that's just me and my $0.02.

Best,

A.

greenjeans · 2025-07-21 14:14:55

I only ever use one language, yet am forced to accept documents, dictionaries, man pages, etc in every language going.

Testify my friend! It's one of the main reasons I started making my own iso's 15 years ago. But I must say, some things have gotten better about it, at least with some programs, like Libroffice offering separate translation packages.

Lol, IIRC fsmithred once said something like "nobody savages an iso like greenjeans does" hehehe!

I literally went through everything in polkit-1 and all of the .desktops in applications and removed all that stuff by hand file-by-file.

The officially official Devuan Forum!

#1 2025-07-20 20:58:10

apport package

#2 2025-07-20 22:35:19

Re: apport package

#3 2025-07-20 22:35:33

Re: apport package

#4 2025-07-20 23:09:41

Re: apport package

#5 2025-07-20 23:16:28

Re: apport package

#6 2025-07-21 13:44:57

Re: apport package

#7 2025-07-21 14:14:55

Re: apport package

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