Bug#496700: xkb-data vs. xkb-data-legacy, overwrite conflict
Package: xkb-data, xkb-data-legacy
Version: 1.3-2, 1.0.1-4
-root@anarres:~> dpkg -i /export/mirror/debian-ftp/pool/main/x/xkeyboard-config/xkb-data_1.3-2_all.deb
dpkg: considering removing xkb-data-legacy in favour of xkb-data ...
dpkg: yes, will remove xkb-data-legacy in favour of xkb-data.
(Reading database ... 226123 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking xkb-data (from .../xkb-data_1.3-2_all.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /export/mirror/debian-ftp/pool/main/x/xkeyboard-config/xkb-data_1.3-2_all.deb (--install):
cannot remove file `/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/vn': Not a directory
Errors were encountered while processing:
/export/mirror/debian-ftp/pool/main/x/xkeyboard-config/xkb-data_1.3-2_all.deb
-root@anarres:~> dpkg -S /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/vn
xkb-data-legacy: /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/vn
-root@anarres:~> ll /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/vn
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1390 Apr 18 2006 /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/vn
-root@anarres:~>
This is because xkb-data-legacy contains files with names like this
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc/vn
whereas xkb-data contains a file
/usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/pc
When dpkg is replacing one package with another in a single movement
(which can happen with Conflicts), it breaks when you try to replace a
directory with a nondirectory. This should perhaps be fixed but this
is a rare case which is usually a bug. In any case since this is an
upgrade problem, it isn't really sensible to try to fix it by changing
dpkg or xkb-data-legacy even if we regard them as buggy.
If this is a bug in xkb-data then I think the solution is to fix the
layout in that package but some testing should be done to make sure
the upgrade works. (Please contact me if it seems not to!)
If xkb-data is correct then I think it might be possible to work
around the situation by providing a differently-named directory in
xkb-data, and using the maintainer scripts to provide continuity.
If you would like to go down this route let me know and I'll write the
maint scripts for you etc. and supply a patch. (And probably file a
suitable bug against dpkg too.)
Ian.
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