what can one do if the power shuts down during apt install?

[MagicPoulp]

If I install a large package and in the middle the electrial power shuts down.

Is it possible after rebooting to cleanup?

This is just a theoretical question.

[sgosnell]

After rebooting run

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sudo apt -f install

You can also just reinstall the package. It depends on how far into the installation apt got before losing power. It should be safe to do a reinstall in any case.

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sudo apt install --reinstall packagename

but if the installation was nearly finished, you may get an error and need to do the first listed. I would suggest using both in the order listed.

[CwF]

I once had an SSD go read-only during an update, similar. The system partially crashed and could not do a controlled shutdown, and came back up to a prompt only. I imaged the disk and did the recovery in a vm. It turned out to be fixable live, but the image gives infinite attempts. Aptitude on the command line fixed it up. That was 3 years ago maybe, the system is still running today as buster.

[Head_on_a_Stick]

Is it possible after rebooting to cleanup?

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# dpkg --configure -a

[MagicPoulp]

And if it is not bootable, one can change the grub starting step with this:
init=/bin/sh (sh = dash)