Trying to update libpython3.6-stdlib results in overwrite error

Question

Here are the error logs which I get try to update the dependency. I feel --overwrite flag can do the job with "dpkg" but I am not sure whether to use it or not as I see some cross dependency down there. Thank you so much for your help.

sudo apt-get -f install
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  libpython3.6-stdlib
The following packages will be upgraded:
  libpython3.6-stdlib
1 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
8 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 0 B/1,989 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,393 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n] y
(Reading database ... 225358 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../libpython3.6-stdlib_3.6.5-5~16.04.york1_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking libpython3.6-stdlib:amd64 (3.6.5-5~16.04.york1) over (3.6.5-5~16.04.york0) ...
dpkg: error processing archive /var/cache/apt/archives/libpython3.6-stdlib_3.6.5-5~16.04.york1_amd64.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite '/usr/lib/python3.6/lib2to3/refactor.py', which is also in package python3-lib2to3 3.6.5-3~16.04.york0.2
dpkg-deb: error: subprocess paste was killed by signal (Broken pipe)
Errors were encountered while processing:
 /var/cache/apt/archives/libpython3.6-stdlib_3.6.5-5~16.04.york1_amd64.deb
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

apt-cache policy libpython3.6-stdlib python3-lib2to3
gives this

libpython3.6-stdlib:
  Installed: 3.6.5-5~16.04.york0
  Candidate: 3.6.5-5~16.04.york1
  Version table:
     3.6.5-5~16.04.york1 500
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/jonathonf/python-3.6/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
 *** 3.6.5-5~16.04.york0 100
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
python3-lib2to3:
  Installed: 3.6.5-3~16.04.york0.2
  Candidate: 3.6.5-3~16.04.york0.2
  Version table:
 *** 3.6.5-3~16.04.york0.2 500
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/jonathonf/python-3.6/ubuntu xenial/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/jonathonf/python-3.6/ubuntu xenial/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

`

Answer 1

Try this command:

sudo dpkg --install --force all /var/cache/apt/archives/libpython3.6-stdlib_3.6.5-5~16.04.york1_amd64.deb

It solved same issue (hope without any broken)

Answer 2

Looks like this issue except with a different package: python3-lib2to3 instead of scala. Try purging the problem package with

sudo dpkg -P python3-lib2to3

I had this same problem with python3-tk and that fixed it for me.

Answer 3

In my case I downloaded

sudo apt-get download python3.6=3.6.5-3 python3.6-minimal=3.6.5-3 libpython3.6-stdlib=3.6.5-3 libpython3.6-minimal=3.6.5-3

And then

sudo dpkg -i --force-downgrade \*3.6.5\*

And Done! I got it back!

This post was the first one that worked for me after updating to Mint 19.