dpkg bug?

[Timothy Bedding <tim@bedding0.demon.co.uk>]

I think I have hit a bug in dpkg. I try to install an older
version of xlib6g but I get a failure because xlib6g depends
on libxaw6. However, I think only the new version of xlib6g (4.0.2)
depends on libxaw6. The old version (3.3.6 from potato) does
not depend on libxaw6. (Please can someone with potato verify
this.)

So, this makes me think that there is a bug because dpkg
should realise that the destination version of xlib6g has
no requirement and thus should not fail.

Below is the output from dpkg just in case I have misread it.

I assume I can force the downgrade to succeed with the appropriate
force flags but I do not like this solution.
I have dpkg version 1.6.15 installed.

Any suggestions anyone? Should I contact the maintainer for
dpkg to ask for a fixed version?

Script started on Tue Mar 13 23:39:05 2001
spacetime:/home/tim# shutdown -h nowdpkg -i xlib6g_3.3.6-11potato15.deb 
dpkg - warning: downgrading xlib6g from 4.0.2-7 to 3.3.6-11potato15.
dpkg: considering removing libxaw6 in favour of xlib6g ...
dpkg: no, cannot remove libxaw6 (--auto-deconfigure will help):
 xlib6g depends on libxaw6
  libxaw6 is to be removed.
dpkg: regarding xlib6g_3.3.6-11potato15.deb containing xlib6g:
 libxaw6 conflicts with xlib6g (<< 4.0)
  xlib6g (version 3.3.6-11potato15) is to be installed.
dpkg: error processing xlib6g_3.3.6-11potato15.deb (--install):
 conflicting packages - not installing xlib6g
Errors were encountered while processing:
 xlib6g_3.3.6-11potato15.deb
spacetime:/home/tim# exit

Script done on Tue Mar 13 23:39:22 2001