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You are here: Home / Documentation / Understanding dpkg’s file overwrite error

Understanding dpkg’s file overwrite error

August 1, 2011 by Raphaël Hertzog

This is probably one of the most common errors. You’re very likely to encounter it, in particular if you tend to mix packages from various origins/distributions, or if you’re using unstable. It looks like this:

Unpacking gbonds-data (from .../gbonds-data_2.0.3-2_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/gbonds-data_2.0.3-2_all.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/share/omf/gbonds/gbonds-C.omf', which is also in package gbonds 2.0.2-9
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)

A given file can only be provided by a single package. So if you try to install a package that provides a file that is already part of another installed package, it will fail with a message similar to the above one.

Sometimes this failure will be meaningful because dpkg prevented you to install two unrelated packages that happen to have a real file conflict. In other cases, like in the example above, this failure is just the result of a mistake.

Folder with gears

The version 2.0.3-1 of gbonds split the architecture independent files in a separate package called gbonds-data but the maintainer forgot to add the required control field in gbonds-data (Replaces: gbonds (<< 2.0.3-1)). That field allows dpkg to take over files from the listed packages.

If you want to ignore the file conflict and let dpkg take over the file (even without the Replaces), you can pass the --force-overwrite command-line option.

But you’re not using dpkg directly, you’re probably using an APT frontend (like apt-get or aptitude). Don’t worry, there’s a simple way to define custom dpkg options to use:

# apt-get -o Dpkg::Options::="--force-overwrite" install gbonds-data

The syntax is a bit weird, but the “::” after “Options” is important, it’s the syntax that defines a list item value instead of a single value. And you can effectively pass multiple options to dpkg by putting multiple -o Dpkg::Options::="…".

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Filed Under: Documentation, User Documentation Tagged With: APT, apt-get, conflict, Debian, dpkg, error, file overwrite, Ubuntu

Comments

  1. Faisal ur Rehman says

    August 1, 2011 at 11:20 am

    I am using apt-pinning on squeeze.
    1. Can dpkg help me to find and resolve conflicting and broken libraries and packages?
    2. Does conflicting libraries affect running of application and cause bugs?

  2. Anonymous says

    February 7, 2012 at 12:24 pm

    Also, whenever you encounter a situation like this between two packages which both come from Debian, please file a bug on the newer package for not declaring an appropriate conflict, if such a bug does not already exist.

  3. Anonymous says

    February 7, 2012 at 12:25 pm

    This article seems like one that should have gone to Planet Debian. While most developers and some users of unstable know this information, most users still do not.

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