During a call to 'apt autoremove' dropping a package no longer needed, I
got the following error from how-can-i-help:

Removing iio-sensor-proxy (3.7-3) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.16.2-2) ...
/usr/bin/how-can-i-help:244:in `&': no implicit conversion of nil into Array (TypeError)

    if packages & hi['packages'] != []
                  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
        from /usr/bin/how-can-i-help:244:in `block in <main>'
        from /usr/bin/how-can-i-help:215:in `each'
        from /usr/bin/how-can-i-help:215:in `<main>'

No idea what trigger it, but thought it best to share with you.

I've also just got this error after a simple upgrade. The
how-can-i-help package and its dependencies have not changed, though.
So I suspect that something new on the server triggered this error.

I am also seeing this in Ubuntu (devel) with the same version of
how-can-i-help.

This is the json snippet which is triggering the bug.

   {
     "type": "rfs",
     "hash": "9a38ab53b0edc8a10b5f16e6543b0741",
     "source": "snuffleupagus",
     "packages": null,
     "version": "0.13.0-1",
     "title": "RFS: snuffleupagus/0.13.0-1 [RC] -- Security module for php7 and php8",
     "id": 1126807
   }

Maybe changing those lines from

if packages & hi['packages'] != []

to

if packages & (hi['packages'] ? hi['packages'] : []) != []

Would be a workaround, but I have not knowledge on what generates the
report being fetched and if that null value there should be valid or if
should actually be an empty array.

As per the reported json file snippet above, the bogus entry comes from
https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/snuffleupagus

This was a recent uploaded package with a single version in unstable
which FTBFS (i.e., did not generate any binary packages).

https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1126792

I got this recently, except the message was:

'true' rather than 'nil'.

But on subsequent runs it printed 'nil' like in the bug report (some
system state had changed).  Athos Ribeiro's proposed patch fixes the
'nil' case; I don't think it would fix the 'true' case.

FYI:

Same as https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1126953

It was fixed in the repository.

https://salsa.debian.org/debian/how-can-i-help/-/commit/bc82447e045af66c97640ea956bb83e7f05b68ac

Regards,

Hello maintainers,
when you upload the fix, please remember stable users as well. The
package as is no longer works on stable as well.

Greetings

            Helge

I got the exact same error today on my system

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
how-can-i-help, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1126835@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Tomasz Nitecki <tnnn@tnnn.pl> (supplier of updated how-can-i-help package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Wed, 04 Mar 2026 02:47:35 +0100
Source: how-can-i-help
Architecture: source
Version: 21
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Tomasz Nitecki <tnnn@tnnn.pl>
Changed-By: Tomasz Nitecki <tnnn@tnnn.pl>
Closes: 1126835 1126953
Changes:
 how-can-i-help (21) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Cédric Boutillier ]
   * Skip rfs type if no binary package available (Closes: #1126835, #1126953)
     + Thanks to Cédric for the fix!
   * Remove X?-Ruby-Versions fields from d/control
 .
   [ Tomasz Nitecki ]
   * debian/control: Bump Standards-Version to 4.7.3; no changes needed.
Checksums-Sha1:
 4ffd9fd6cfcfb4fed0b1853682aa1759f90147a9 1706 how-can-i-help_21.dsc
 cd5d37fb9a8d64a8fdaaa78c1253504a3f2b1302 10184 how-can-i-help_21.tar.xz
 66b443a47ef6ac8786da6a574f6817e102f32123 6847 how-can-i-help_21_amd64.buildinfo
Checksums-Sha256:
 d4bb58c33cb0e03159d58ea9796054fb823c76d999f234593d4c1e41d2e05416 1706 how-can-i-help_21.dsc
 502f75af6467cc8a0cfc6fd9889458161a9b98dcc886c07b2469f8c32cdafd03 10184 how-can-i-help_21.tar.xz
 f073581bae5a7879ffdeef89f2d3278a3895aa7eacc0ebd6113aae1f0d947aaf 6847 how-can-i-help_21_amd64.buildinfo
Files:
 50181fc08605e54f449943d549d38c05 1706 devel optional how-can-i-help_21.dsc
 62bdf7a488cacd77131d3fd52b169790 10184 devel optional how-can-i-help_21.tar.xz
 91181e9107b02a052394013fc39f1007 6847 devel optional how-can-i-help_21_amd64.buildinfo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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=SzM2
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

Hey,

I have uploaded fixed version to unstable, if no problems with this
version are reported, I'll also push the fix to the stable.


Regards and thanks for the report,
T. Nitecki

Hello Tomasz,
Am Wed, Mar 04, 2026 at 03:37:48AM +0100 schrieb Tomasz Nitecki:

Thanks a lot!

Greetings

           Helge