Bug#296896: dpkg-statoverride doesn't work

[Steve Bremer <steveb@nebcoinc.com>]

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.10.26
Severity: important

When I try to apply custom permission settings using dpkg-statoverride in 
Sarge or SID (version 1.10.27), the settings aren't honored.  It works fine 
in Debian Woody ( version 1.9.21).

Steps to reproduce problem:

1.  dpkg-statoverride --add root root 0755 /usr/bin/sudo
2.  apt-get install sudo
3.  "ls -l /usr/bin/sudo" returns:

-rwsr-xr-x  2 root root 97528 Dec  5 01:31 /usr/bin/sudo

I would expect to see that the setuid bit is not set like this:

-rwxr-xr-x  2 root root 97528 Dec  5 01:31 /usr/bin/sudo

I realize this example would render sudo useless, but it is just used to 
illustrate the problem.  Following these exact same steps in Woody will 
create the desired results.

I also verified that the entry was being added to /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride.

"grep sudo /var/lib/dpkg/statoverride" returns:

root root 0755 /usr/bin/sudo

-- System Information
Debian Release: testing/unstable
Architecture: i386
Kernel: Linux 2.4.29

Versions of packages the dpkg depends on:

ii  dselect  1.10.26  a user tool to manage Debian packages
ii  libc6  2.3.2.ds1-20 GNU C Library: Shared libraries and Timezone data


Please let me know if I can provide any further details to help resolve this 
issue.

Thanks,
Steve Bremer
NEBCO, Inc.