Re: Suspicious file changes in -dbg between old and new packages

[Ansgar Burchardt <ansgar@debian.org>]

"Thomas Schmitt" <scdbackup@gmx.net> writes:
> as mentioned in my other thread of today, my lib*-dbg*.deb
> packages do not contain the same files as their 2 year old
> predecessors.
>
> apt-file list from old libburn-dbg (1.3.2-1.1):
>
>   libburn-dbg: /usr/lib/debug/usr/bin/cdrskin
>   libburn-dbg: /usr/lib/debug/usr/lib/libburn.so.4.85.0
[...]
> New libburn-dbg (1.4.0-2):
>
>   libburn-dbg: /usr/lib/debug/.build-id/25/3fbbcf11829f90ddc91f8cf5194ac5278f804a.debug
>   libburn-dbg: /usr/lib/debug/.build-id/8b/12591e70f8814691eb7ae38612fe396d63fd67.debug
[...]
> The new ones get installed in /usr/lib/debug/.build-id/.
>
> Is the new package content wrong ?
> If so, how to fix it ?

This is fine. debhelper installs detached debug symbols in a different
location since compat level 9. From man:debhelper(7):

| v9  This is the recommended mode of operation.
| Changes from v8 are:
| [...]
| dh_strip puts separated debug symbols in a location based on their build-id.

As far as I remember this was done to handle multi-arch better (to avoid
having -dbg packages for different architectures install files to the
same location so that they can be co-installed).

> Where to learn more about -dbg packages and their production
> process ?

dh_strip handles most of it, but there are plans for larger changes in
the future. Namely, building -dbg packages automatically. There should
be a recent thread on -devel@ from this or last month; I think the
subject mentioned "automated debug packages".

Ansgar