Bug#222701: apt-utils: apt-extracttemplates fails to parse debs created/modified by ar

[Matt Zimmerman <mdz@debian.org>]

reassign 161593 apt-utils
merge 161593 222701
thanks

On Tue, Dec 02, 2003 at 12:28:00PM +0100, Goswin Brederlow wrote:
> Package: apt-utils
> Version: 0.5.14.1
> Severity: normal
> Tags: patch
> 
> The specification for the deb format ("man deb" is the best I could
> find) say "The file is an ar archive with a magic number of !<arch>".
> 
> dpkg-deb uses "filename    " as the filename string in the deb while
> ar will use "filename/   ". While dpkg happily accepts both formats
> apt-extracttemplates fails to strip the trailing '/' from the
> filename. Since dpkg is the authorative implementation
> apt-extracttemplates should follow its lead and also support both.
> 
> As a sidenote, the reason why this is important is that debsigs
> modifies deb archives through ar and ar will add the trailing '/' to
> all filenames. The same problem arises when deb files are build
> manually with ar.
> 
> Attached is a one line patch to support trailing '/'. Please add this
> as soon as possible. Until then signed debs and pre-configuring
> packages with debconf will conflict.

See #161593 for an earlier discussion.  Unfortunately the consensus on this
issue is not clear, and the '/' is not the only difference to consider.

-- 
 - mdz