Bug#198220: dpkg: Should dpkg -S follow symlinks?

[Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>]

On Fri, Jun 20, 2003 at 07:43:41PM +0300, Petri Koistinen wrote:

> $ dpkg -S /usr/bin/java
> dpkg: /usr/bin/java not found.
> $ ls -l /usr/bin/java
> lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           22 Jun  4 20:12 /usr/bin/java -> /etc/alternatives/java
> $ ls -l /etc/alternatives/java
> lrwxrwxrwx    1 root     root           26 Jun  8 02:11 /etc/alternatives/java -> /usr/lib/j2se/1.4/bin/java
> $ ls -l /usr/lib/j2se/1.4/bin/java
> -rwxr-xr-x    2 root     root        20820 Nov  1  2002 /usr/lib/j2se/1.4/bin/java
> $ dpkg -S /usr/lib/j2se/1.4/bin/java
> j2re1.4: /usr/lib/j2se/1.4/bin/java
> 
> Should dpkg follow symbolic links if match is not found?

I would say no, though it could be convenient to have the option to do so
when it is explicitly requested.

-- 
 - mdz