debian-main
debian-main
[A swarm of insects cover Cueball and his computer. They are leaning back on their chair, flailing to get away.] Cueball: AAAAAAAA
Caption below comic: My package made it into debian-main because it looked innocuous enough; no one noticed "locusts" in the dependency list.
Debian is a Linux distribution most notable for introducing APT (Advanced Packaging Tool). APT is a tool that functions as an automated general software installer for Linux systems; all one has to do is tell it what software package they would like to install, and the program will automatically fetch the software and all of its dependencies (other packages that a program relies on, such as a library for processing ZIP archives) from a central repository . It will also automatically handle upgrades by automatically checking if the repository version of a package is higher than the currently installed version, and it can even handle the use of multiple repositories and linking between them; for example, if a piece of software is deemed worthy of inclusion in Debian's main repository, but as a stable release, the software developers can provide their own repository to provide a more experimental version for users who want it, and once that repository is added to APT's source list, APT will automatically realize that it should use the experimental version, since it has a higher version than that of the main repository. Although this wasn't the first package management system for easy Linux installation (that honor goes to RPM ), it is the first one that seamlessly integrated online installation and upgrades into the mix.
Debian's main repository, debian-main, is included by default in all Debian installations. It's what you might call the "canon" of Debian, containing only those packages that have been approved by official Debian developers. Thus, getting a package on debian-main means that it, theoretically, conforms to a standard of quality.
In this case, however, the Debian developers seem to have not noticed that one of the dependencies for the package is "locusts." Locusts are real insects, the migratory forms of several grasshopper species, that are best known for breeding extremely quickly, swarming, and devouring all green plant matter they come across, resulting in crop devastation (some consider this a plague). In some parts of the world they are also considered a delicacy. Cueball probably does not appreciate this as they crawl over his body searching for food, apparently spontaneously generated by APT as it saw that it needed "locusts" to install the package.
The title text is an error line from dpkg , the program used to install/remove APT packages. Every package contains several scripts (although some of them may be empty) that are run on various events related to that package; these are used to perform any setup/cleanup tasks the package needs. This line is an error line indicating that one of those scripts has failed. The relevant portions are:
[A swarm of insects cover Cueball and his computer. They are leaning back on their chair, flailing to get away.] Cueball: AAAAAAAA
Caption below comic: My package made it into debian-main because it looked innocuous enough; no one noticed "locusts" in the dependency list.