Fixing dpkg Warning: Files List File for Package ‘x’ Missing

aptdebiandpkg

I get this warning for several packages every time I install any package or perform apt-get upgrade. Not sure what is causing it; it's a fresh Debian install on my OpenVZ server and I haven't changed any dpkg settings.

Here's an example:

root@debian:~# apt-get install cowsay
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Suggested packages:
  filters
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  cowsay
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 21.9 kB of archives.
After this operation, 91.1 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ unstable/main cowsay all 3.03+dfsg1-4 [21.9 kB]
Fetched 21.9 kB in 0s (70.2 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package cowsay.
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libssh2-1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libkrb5-3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libwrap0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libcap2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpam-ck-connector:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libc6:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libtalloc2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libselinux1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libp11-kit0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libavahi-client3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libbz2-1.0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpcre3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libgpm2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libgnutls26:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libavahi-common3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libcroco3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'liblzma5:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpaper1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libsensors4:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libbsd0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libavahi-common-data:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libss2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libblkid1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libslang2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libacl1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libcomerr2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libkrb5support0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'e2fslibs:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'librtmp0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libidn11:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpcap0.8:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libattr1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libdevmapper1.02.1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'odbcinst1debian2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libexpat1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libltdl7:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libkeyutils1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libcups2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libsqlite3-0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libck-connector0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'zlib1g:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libnl1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libfontconfig1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libudev0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libsepol1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libmagic1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libk5crypto3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libunistring0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libgpg-error0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libusb-0.1-4:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpam0g:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libpopt0:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libgssapi-krb5-2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libgeoip1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libcurl3-gnutls:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libtasn1-3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libuuid1:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libgcrypt11:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libgdbm3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libdbus-1-3:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libsysfs2:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
dpkg: warning: files list file for package 'libfreetype6:amd64' missing; assuming package has no files currently installed
(Reading database ... 21908 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking cowsay (from .../cowsay_3.03+dfsg1-4_all.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up cowsay (3.03+dfsg1-4) ...
root@debian:~#

Everything works fine, but these warning messages are pretty annoying. Does anyone know how I can fix this?

ls -la /var/lib/dpkg/info | grep libssh:

-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    327 Sep 21 15:51 libssh2-1.list
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root    359 Aug 15 06:06 libssh2-1.md5sums
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    135 Aug 15 06:06 libssh2-1.postinst
-rwxr-xr-x 1 root root    132 Aug 15 06:06 libssh2-1.postrm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root     20 Aug 15 06:06 libssh2-1.shlibs
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root   4377 Aug 15 06:06 libssh2-1.symbols

Best Answer

He fixed it reinstalling the files that appeared there. So you might want to try something like this:

for package in $(apt-get upgrade 2>&1 |\
                 grep "warning: files list file for package '" |\
                 grep -Po "[^'\n ]+'" | grep -Po "[^']+"); do
    apt-get install --reinstall "$package";
done

Copy-paste friendly in one line:

for package in $(apt-get upgrade 2>&1 | grep "warning: files list file for package '" | grep -Po "[^'\n ]+'" | grep -Po "[^']+"); do apt-get install --reinstall "$package"; done

Be aware, that running this command takes some time, as we cycle through every package.

In some cases apt upgrade doesn't show the errors therefore you can reinstall one package (for example x) which gives the error and execute like this:

for package in $(apt-get install --reinstall x 2>&1 |\
             grep "warning: files list file for package '" |\
             grep -Po "[^'\n ]+'" | grep -Po "[^']+"); do
    apt-get install --reinstall "$package";
done
Related Topic