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This article mainly introduces "how to solve the" Unable to parse package file "error in Ubuntu. In the daily operation, I believe that many people have doubts about how to solve the" Unable to parse package file "error in Ubuntu. The editor has consulted all kinds of materials and sorted out simple and easy-to-use operation methods. I hope it will be helpful for everyone to answer the doubt of" how to solve the Unable to parse package file "error in Ubuntu! Next, please follow the editor to study!

In the past, I have discussed a lot of Ubuntu update errors. If you update Ubuntu using the command line, you may encounter some "errors".

Some of these "errors" are basically built-in features that prevent unnecessary changes to the system. I won't go into those details in this tutorial.

In this article, I will show you how to resolve the following errors that you may encounter when updating your system or installing new software:

Reading package lists... Error!E: Unable to parse package file / var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_bionic_InReleaseE: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

You may encounter a similar error in Debian:

E: Unable to parse package file / var/lib/apt/extended_states (1)

There is no need to panic even if you encounter The package cache file is corrupted. It's really easy to "fix".

Handling "Unable to parse package file" errors in Ubuntu and Debian-based Linux distributions

Here's what you need to do. Carefully check the name and path of the Ubuntu error file.

Reading package lists... Error!E: Unable to parse package file / var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_bionic_InReleaseE: The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

For example, the above error is reporting a / var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_bionic_InRelease file error.

This reminds you that this file is incorrect. Now, all you need to do is delete the file and regenerate the cache.

Sudo rm

So here I can use the following command: sudo rm / var/lib/apt/lists/archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_bionic_InRelease, and then use the sudo apt update command to rebuild the cache.

Step-by-step guidance for beginners

If you are familiar with the Linux command, you probably know how to delete files using absolute paths. For novice users, let me guide you to safely delete files.

First of all, you should enter the file directory:

Cd / var/lib/apt/lists/

Now delete the unresolvable files:

Sudo rm archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_bionic_InRelease

Now, if you run the update again, the apt cache will be regenerated.

Are there many files in sudo apt update that cannot be parsed?

If you have one or two files that cannot be parsed when you update the system, it's not a problem. However, if the system mistakenly reports ten or twenty such files, it would be too tiring to delete them one by one.

In this case, you can delete the entire cache by doing the following, and then generate it again:

Sudo rm-r / var/lib/apt/lists/*sudo apt update explains why this can solve the problem.

/ var/lib/apt is the storage directory for files and data related to the apt package manager. / var/lib/apt/lists is the directory used to hold the resource information for each package specified in the system source.list.

To put it simply, / var/lib/apt/lists saves the package information cache. When you want to install or update the program, the system will check the information in the package in this directory. If the details of the package are found, it enters the remote repository and actually downloads the program or its updates.

When you run sudo apt update, it builds the cache. This is why running an update creates a new cache even if everything in the / var/lib/apt/lists directory is deleted.

This is how to deal with the problem that the file cannot be parsed. Your system reports that a software package or repository information is corrupted in some way (download failure or manual change of sources.list). Deleting the file (or all files) and rebuilding the cache solves this problem.

At this point, the study of "how to solve Unable to parse package file errors in Ubuntu" is over. I hope to be able to solve your doubts. The collocation of theory and practice can better help you learn, go and try it! If you want to continue to learn more related knowledge, please continue to follow the website, the editor will continue to work hard to bring you more practical articles!

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