Bug#255969: coreutils: critial files in /bin deleted during dist-upgrade from stable to testing

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Brian Frank wrote:

> -When running dist-upgrade from stable to testing, many of the important
> files in /bin disappeared. I found that they were provided by the
> "fileutils" package in stable, but by the "coreutils" package in testing.  
> Without some of these files (mv, ln, mkdir, etc), the dist-upgrade came to
> a screeching halt.

Eugene V. Lyubimkin wrote:

> forcemerge 261411 282278 255969

To be clear: is the problem that while fileutils in stable is essential,
fileutils in testing is not, and APT was using the "essential" flag from
the latest version for some reason?

Puzzled,
Jonathan