Bug#462456: lintian: Please consider testing if files in -dbg packages retain Dynamic Section entries

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

Neil Williams <codehelp@debian.org> writes:

> Package: lintian
> Version: 1.23.42
> Severity: wishlist
>
> See #462007 - I have come across a non-obvious problem in the use of
> -dbg packages using dh_strip where, if a .install file exists for the
> -dbg package, dh_install copies the unstripped object into the -dbg
> build directory. When dh_strip --dbg-package=libfoo-dbg is then called,
> it silently omits the file from the call to objcopy --only-keep-debug
> (to prevent an objcopy error), resulting in an unstripped object file
> being retained in the -dbg package that has a complete (and fully
> functional) copy of the library embedded inside - as shown by the
> presence of a full Dynamic Section under objdump -p. Without the
> .install file, dh_strip takes care of copying the debug symbols into
> place directly - no .install command is actually needed.

Some people intentionally put debugging builds of their libraries into the
-dbg package instead of detached debugging symbols.  I think this test
might give false positives for that case.  (Or are such library builds not
seupposed to go into /usr/lib/debug?)

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>