1 files changed, 10 insertions, 7 deletions

diff --git a/lib/common-functions b/lib/common-functions
index 77f2417..d8da4a7 100755
--- a/lib/common-functions
+++ b/lib/common-functions
@@ -112,11 +112,12 @@ ls_master_mirror() {
 
 }
 
-# remove_old_package_versions $binary_package_in_repository_id_1 $binary_package_in_repository_id_2 ...
+# remove_old_package_versions
 
-# removes all older versions of the given packages from all repositories
-# less[1] stable than the current repository, as well as any different
-# version of the same package from equally[2] stable repositories
+# removes all older versions of the packages given at stdin (by bpir.id)
+# from all repositories less[1] stable than the current repository, as
+# well as any different version of the same package from equally[2]
+# stable repositories
 
 # 1] determined by `repository_stability_relations`
 # 2] identical `repositories`.`stability`
@@ -127,7 +128,7 @@ remove_old_package_versions() {
     tmp_dir=$(mktemp -d 'tmp.common-functions.remove_old_package_versions.XXXXXXXXXX' --tmpdir)
     trap 'rm -rf --one-file-system "${tmp_dir}"' EXIT
 
-    for bpir_id in "$@"; do
+    while read -r bpir_id; do
 
       # shellcheck disable=SC2016
       {
@@ -195,8 +196,10 @@ remove_old_package_versions() {
     done
 
     for file in 'repo-removes' 'sftp-remove' 'db-removes'; do
-      sort -u "${tmp_dir}/${file}" | \
-        sponge "${tmp_dir}/${file}"
+      if [ -s "${tmp_dir}/${file}" ]; then
+        sort -u "${tmp_dir}/${file}" | \
+          sponge "${tmp_dir}/${file}"
+      fi
     done
 
     # repo-remove packages