Bug#182747: dpkg: removing a directory which became a symlink

[Marco d'Itri <md@Linux.IT>]

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.10.9
Severity: wishlist

<Md> doogie: do you remember my problem with dpkg killing the news spool?
<doogie> md: vaguely
<Md> doogie: well... the problem was just that /var/spool/news was a symlink to      another directory, so dpkg could removed it
<doogie> md: oh, then admin error
<doogie> md: of course, I don't really see a sane way to work around that.
<Md> doogie: I agree that there is no good fix, but I would not define it 
     "admin error" either
<doogie> md: file a wishlist bug, with these details
<doogie> md: maybe when dpkg gets a file database that contains meta info, 
         something could be done

Explanation: old inn2 package contained directories below
/var/spool/news/. After installing it, /var/spool/news/ was moved and
a symlink was placed there.
Then I installed a new inn2 package, which did not contain
/var/spool/news/. Unexpectedly, the symlink was deleted even if it
pointed to a non-empty directory.