Debian Bug report logs - #886389
dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

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Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>

To: Debian Bug Tracking System <submit@bugs.debian.org>

Subject: dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2018 10:44:20 +0100

Package: dpkg
Version: 1.19.0.4
Severity: normal

After switching from rxvt-unicode-256color to rxvt-unicode (see
#848284), dpkg-query reports a conffile as obsolete:

,----
| $ dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep obsolete$
|  [...]
|  /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 7b221a2da49507e31f42e702791b085b obsolete
| $ dpkg -S /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 
|  rxvt-unicode: /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt
`----

This is bogus since the file is shipped in the package, otherwise it
would belong to rxvt-unicode-256color which was its previous owner.

Here is the relevant excerpt from the dpkg log:

,----
| $ grep rxvt-unicode /var/log/dpkg.log
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 upgrade rxvt-unicode-256color:i386 9.22-1+b3 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status half-configured rxvt-unicode-256color:i386 9.22-1+b3
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status unpacked rxvt-unicode-256color:i386 9.22-1+b3
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status half-installed rxvt-unicode-256color:i386 9.22-1+b3
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status half-installed rxvt-unicode-256color:i386 9.22-1+b3
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status unpacked rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status unpacked rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 install rxvt-unicode:i386 <keine> 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status half-installed rxvt-unicode:i386 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status unpacked rxvt-unicode:i386 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:30 status unpacked rxvt-unicode:i386 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:31 configure rxvt-unicode:i386 9.22-2 <keine>
| 2018-01-05 08:38:31 status unpacked rxvt-unicode:i386 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:31 status unpacked rxvt-unicode:i386 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:31 status half-configured rxvt-unicode:i386 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:31 status installed rxvt-unicode:i386 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:34 configure rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2 <keine>
| 2018-01-05 08:38:34 status unpacked rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:34 status half-configured rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:38:34 status installed rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:43:03 status installed rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:43:03 remove rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2 <keine>
| 2018-01-05 08:43:03 status half-configured rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:43:03 status half-installed rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:43:03 status config-files rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
| 2018-01-05 08:43:03 status config-files rxvt-unicode-256color:all 9.22-2
`----


-- System Information:
Debian Release: buster/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (101, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: amd64

Kernel: Linux 4.14.11-nouveau (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages dpkg depends on:
ii  libbz2-1.0   1.0.6-8.1
ii  libc6        2.26-1
ii  liblzma5     5.2.2-1.3
ii  libselinux1  2.7-2
ii  tar          1.29b-2
ii  zlib1g       1:1.2.8.dfsg-5

dpkg recommends no packages.

Versions of packages dpkg suggests:
ii  apt            1.6~alpha6
pn  debsig-verify  <none>

-- no debconf information

Message #10 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>

To: 886389@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#886389: dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2018 10:55:50 +0100

On 2018-01-05 10:44 +0100, Sven Joachim wrote:

> Package: dpkg
> Version: 1.19.0.4
> Severity: normal
>
> After switching from rxvt-unicode-256color to rxvt-unicode (see
> #848284), dpkg-query reports a conffile as obsolete:
>
> ,----
> | $ dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep obsolete$
> |  [...]
> |  /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 7b221a2da49507e31f42e702791b085b obsolete
> | $ dpkg -S /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 
> |  rxvt-unicode: /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt
> `----
>
> This is bogus since the file is shipped in the package, otherwise it
> would belong to rxvt-unicode-256color which was its previous owner.

Purging the rxvt-unicode-256color package helped, although that package
did not contain any files according to "dpkg -L" (I had already removed
but not purged it).  Now the conffile is no longer reported as obsolete.

Cheers,
       Sven

Message #15 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>

To: Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>, 886389@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#886389: dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

Date: Fri, 5 Jan 2018 14:04:33 +0100

Hi!

On Fri, 2018-01-05 at 10:55:50 +0100, Sven Joachim wrote:
> On 2018-01-05 10:44 +0100, Sven Joachim wrote:
> 
> > Package: dpkg
> > Version: 1.19.0.4
> > Severity: normal
> >
> > After switching from rxvt-unicode-256color to rxvt-unicode (see
> > #848284), dpkg-query reports a conffile as obsolete:
> >
> > ,----
> > | $ dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep obsolete$
> > |  [...]
> > |  /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 7b221a2da49507e31f42e702791b085b obsolete
> > | $ dpkg -S /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 
> > |  rxvt-unicode: /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt
> > `----
> >
> > This is bogus since the file is shipped in the package, otherwise it
> > would belong to rxvt-unicode-256color which was its previous owner.

This does not show what package owned that obsolete entry, though. But
in principle that should have been rxvt-unicode-256color. Both packages
will have such conffiles listed in their Conffiles fields, but the old
one might have an obsolete entry, which will be ignored by dpkg for
most operations.

> Purging the rxvt-unicode-256color package helped, although that package
> did not contain any files according to "dpkg -L" (I had already removed
> but not purged it).  Now the conffile is no longer reported as obsolete.

Was going to ask for the -s output for both packages, but it's too
late now. :) Well, barring reinstalling the older package.

Thanks,
Guillem

Message #20 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>

To: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>

Cc: 886389@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#886389: dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

Date: Fri, 05 Jan 2018 17:41:46 +0100

On 2018-01-05 14:04 +0100, Guillem Jover wrote:

> On Fri, 2018-01-05 at 10:55:50 +0100, Sven Joachim wrote:
>> On 2018-01-05 10:44 +0100, Sven Joachim wrote:
>> 
>> > Package: dpkg
>> > Version: 1.19.0.4
>> > Severity: normal
>> >
>> > After switching from rxvt-unicode-256color to rxvt-unicode (see
>> > #848284), dpkg-query reports a conffile as obsolete:
>> >
>> > ,----
>> > | $ dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep obsolete$
>> > |  [...]
>> > |  /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 7b221a2da49507e31f42e702791b085b obsolete
>> > | $ dpkg -S /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 
>> > |  rxvt-unicode: /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt
>> > `----
>> >
>> > This is bogus since the file is shipped in the package, otherwise it
>> > would belong to rxvt-unicode-256color which was its previous owner.
>
> This does not show what package owned that obsolete entry, though. But
> in principle that should have been rxvt-unicode-256color. Both packages
> will have such conffiles listed in their Conffiles fields, but the old
> one might have an obsolete entry, which will be ignored by dpkg for
> most operations.

That seems to be correct.  What I find confusing is that neither
"dpkg -S /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt" nor
"dpkg -L rxvt-unicode-256color" give any hint about this.  What is the
point of leaving the obsolete conffile in the dpkg database then?

>> Purging the rxvt-unicode-256color package helped, although that package
>> did not contain any files according to "dpkg -L" (I had already removed
>> but not purged it).  Now the conffile is no longer reported as obsolete.
>
> Was going to ask for the -s output for both packages, but it's too
> late now. :) Well, barring reinstalling the older package.

It was easy to replicate the upgrade, so here is the output which I
think matches your expectations:

,----
| $ dpkg -s rxvt-unicode rxvt-unicode-256color
| Package: rxvt-unicode
| Status: install ok installed
| Priority: optional
| Section: x11
| Installed-Size: 3312
| Maintainer: Ryan Kavanagh <rak@debian.org>
| Architecture: i386
| Version: 9.22-2
| Replaces: aterm (<< 1.0.1dummy), aterm-ml (<< 1.0.1dummy), rxvt (<< 1:2.7.10-7.1~), rxvt-ml (<< 1:2.7.10-7.1~), rxvt-unicode-256color (<< 9.22-2), rxvt-unicode-lite (<< 9.22-2)
| Provides: aterm, rxvt, x-terminal-emulator
| Depends: libc6 (>= 2.17), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.12), libfreetype6 (>= 2.2.1), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.2), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.12.0), libperl5.26 (>= 5.26.0~rc1), libstartup-notification0 (>= 0.2), libx11-6, libxft2 (>> 2.1.1), libxrender1, base-passwd (>= 2.0.3.4), ncurses-term (>= 5.8-1)
| Recommends: fonts-dejavu, fonts-vlgothic | fonts-japanese-gothic
| Breaks: aterm (<< 1.0.1dummy), aterm-ml (<< 1.0.1dummy), rxvt (<< 1:2.7.10-7.1~), rxvt-ml (<< 1:2.7.10-7.1~)
| Conflicts: rxvt-unicode-256color (<< 9.22-2), rxvt-unicode-lite (<< 9.22-2)
| Conffiles:
|  /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 7b221a2da49507e31f42e702791b085b
| Description: RXVT-like terminal emulator with Unicode and 256-color support
|  rxvt-unicode is a modern, Unicode-aware color xterm replacement that uses
|  significantly less memory than a conventional xterm and many other Unicode
|  supporting terminal emulators.
|  .
|  It supports using multiple fonts at the same time, including Xft fonts, and
|  client-server technology to reduce memory consumption when using multiple
|  windows.
|  .
|  This package is configured with 256-color support, and TERM set to
|  "rxvt-unicode-256color". Any other systems you log into must have this
|  terminfo entry installed!
| Homepage: http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/rxvt-unicode.html
| 
| Package: rxvt-unicode-256color
| Status: deinstall ok config-files
| Priority: optional
| Section: x11
| Installed-Size: 62
| Maintainer: Ryan Kavanagh <rak@debian.org>
| Architecture: all
| Source: rxvt-unicode
| Version: 9.22-2
| Config-Version: 9.22-2
| Depends: rxvt-unicode (>= 9.22-2)
| Conflicts: rxvt-unicode (<< 9.22-2)
| Conffiles:
|  /etc/X11/app-defaults/URxvt 7b221a2da49507e31f42e702791b085b obsolete
| Description: dummy transitional package for rxvt-unicode
|  This is a dummy transitional package transitioning rxvt-unicode-256color to
|  rxvt-unicode. It can safely be removed.
| Homepage: http://software.schmorp.de/pkg/rxvt-unicode.html
`----

Cheers,
       Sven

Message #25 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: TS <debts@xk2c.de>

To: Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>, 912144@bugs.debian.org, debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org, 886389@bugs.debian.org, packages@release.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#912144: grub2-common: marks kernel update scripts falsely as obsolete conffiles

Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2018 12:05:04 +0100

Hello,

>>> since fix for #910959 grub2-common marks kernel update scripts falsely as
>>> obsolete conffiles.
>>>
>>> % dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep 'grub.*obsolete$'
>>>  /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 536d9d45e3e547638db3c5d58a925b6c obsolete
>>>  /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 536d9d45e3e547638db3c5d58a925b6c obsolete
>>>
>>> I tend to rm obsolete conffiles as per definition, which seem to break things here.
>>
>> Hi debian-dpkg,
>>
>> I just used Breaks/Replaces here:
>>
>>   https://salsa.debian.org/grub-team/grub/commit/014ba384bb8ac9869f2ccd2692f8ae05641d5bec
>>
>> Did I do something wrong, or is this a dpkg bug?
> 
> The latter I think, namely https://bugs.debian.org/886389.

since update of today also keyring files are marked as obsolete conffile:

% dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep -E '(grub|archive).*obsolete$'
 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-wheezy-stable.gpg
64d549adf06d734bb947d742898d9a19 obsolete
 /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-wheezy-automatic.gpg
a81b62d3b02f6e9781e6639bf6fc050b obsolete
 /etc/kernel/postrm.d/zz-update-grub 536d9d45e3e547638db3c5d58a925b6c obsolete
 /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 536d9d45e3e547638db3c5d58a925b6c obsolete

https://bugs.debian.org/912144
https://bugs.debian.org/886389


kind regards,

     Thilo

Message #30 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: TS <debts@xk2c.de>

To: Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>, 912144@bugs.debian.org, debian-dpkg@lists.debian.org, 886389@bugs.debian.org, packages@release.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#912144: grub2-common: marks kernel update scripts falsely as obsolete conffiles

Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2018 12:09:23 +0100

TS schrieb/wrote:
> Hello,

> % dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep -E '(grub|archive).*obsolete$'
>  /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-wheezy-stable.gpg
> 64d549adf06d734bb947d742898d9a19 obsolete
>  /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/debian-archive-wheezy-automatic.gpg
> a81b62d3b02f6e9781e6639bf6fc050b obsolete

sorry for that my fault. Wheezy keys have been removed.
https://bugs.debian.org/901320


kind regards,

     Thilo

Message #35 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Charles Plessy <plessy@debian.org>

To: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>, 886389@bugs.debian.org

Cc: Sven Joachim <svenjoac@gmx.de>

Subject: Re: Bug#886389: dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

Date: Mon, 4 Jan 2021 03:25:22 +0900

Hello Guillem,

I think that I have hit the same bug when splitting the `mime-support`
package into `media-types` and `mailcap`:

mime-support had the conffiles `/etc/mime.types` and
`/etc/mailcap.order` until version 3.64.  Version 3.65 is a transitional
package containing only a changelog and a copyright file, and depends on
media-types and mailcap.  And these two packages declare a Breaks and
Replaces relationship against mime-support << 3.65.

As a result of the upgrade, the conffiles are now owned by the new
packages.  But dpkg still keeps a record that the mime-support has
the "obsolete" version of them:

# dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' media-types
 /etc/mime.types 43fa90aa9a5e009997f451be169ac530

# md5sum /etc/mime.types
43fa90aa9a5e009997f451be169ac530  /etc/mime.types

# dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n'  mailcap
 /etc/mailcap.order ba07e08a7fe3741d0b8339127963190e

# dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n'  mime-support
 /etc/mime.types 0d516753aee0a2c670c79667aad0c836 obsolete
 /etc/mailcap.order ba07e08a7fe3741d0b8339127963190e obsolete

Is there something we can do about that ?

Have a nice day,

Charles

-- 
Charles Plessy                         Nagahama, Yomitan, Okinawa, Japan
Tooting from work,           https://mastodon.technology/@charles_plessy
Tooting from home,                 https://framapiaf.org/@charles_plessy

Message #40 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Fabio Fantoni <fantonifabio@tiscali.it>

To: 886389@bugs.debian.org

Subject: re: dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2021 11:53:06 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Hi, I had the same issue when moving conffiles from one xapp package to 
another (of the same source), I did a test also with rm_conffile but on 
first upgrade remove the conffile of the new package remaining without 
the file (very bad thing) so I keep it marked as obsolete (which is less 
worse).

Some days ago I had to do another conffile move in xapp (package split 
to solve a policy issue) e one also in freeipmi, I searched and asked on 
irc for a solution to avoid the "obsolete conffile issue" but not found 
for now :(

can someone tell me if there is a way to workaround this on packaging 
waiting for a definitive solution please?

thanks for any reply and sorry for my bad english

[OpenPGP_signature (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Message #45 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>

To: fantonifabio@tiscali.it, 886389@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#886389: dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2021 03:49:11 +0100

Hi!

On Thu, 2021-12-16 at 11:53:06 +0100, Fabio Fantoni wrote:
> Hi, I had the same issue when moving conffiles from one xapp package to
> another (of the same source), I did a test also with rm_conffile but on
> first upgrade remove the conffile of the new package remaining without the
> file (very bad thing) so I keep it marked as obsolete (which is less worse).

If you use rm_conffile then the conffile will be removed, which is
definitely not what you'd want when taking over ownership from another
package.

Having the conffile marked as obsolete in the database should at most
be untidy cruft, perhaps confusing to users, but the tools should all
handle that fine (otherwise they are buggy and should be fixed).

> Some days ago I had to do another conffile move in xapp (package split to
> solve a policy issue) e one also in freeipmi, I searched and asked on irc
> for a solution to avoid the "obsolete conffile issue" but not found for now
> :(

Or is there any other issue with these conffiles being marked as
obsolete that has not been reported?

Thanks,
Guillem

Message #50 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Fabio Fantoni <fantonifabio@tiscali.it>

To: Guillem Jover <guillem@debian.org>, 886389@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#886389: dpkg: conffile marked as obsolete after being taken over by different package

Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2021 10:27:34 +0100

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Il 17/12/2021 03:49, Guillem Jover ha scritto:
> Hi!
>
> On Thu, 2021-12-16 at 11:53:06 +0100, Fabio Fantoni wrote:
>> Hi, I had the same issue when moving conffiles from one xapp package to
>> another (of the same source), I did a test also with rm_conffile but on
>> first upgrade remove the conffile of the new package remaining without the
>> file (very bad thing) so I keep it marked as obsolete (which is less worse).
> If you use rm_conffile then the conffile will be removed, which is
> definitely not what you'd want when taking over ownership from another
> package.
Thanks for reply, rm_conffile was only a test I did trying to 
solve/workaround this "obsolete issue"
>
> Having the conffile marked as obsolete in the database should at most
> be untidy cruft, perhaps confusing to users, but the tools should all
> handle that fine (otherwise they are buggy and should be fixed).
>
>> Some days ago I had to do another conffile move in xapp (package split to
>> solve a policy issue) e one also in freeipmi, I searched and asked on irc
>> for a solution to avoid the "obsolete conffile issue" but not found for now
>> :(
> Or is there any other issue with these conffiles being marked as
> obsolete that has not been reported?
For now I saw only "marked as obsolete" and not other issue, but if 
users want clean "obsolete" conffiles manually I suppose it become 
problematic (I don't know if there is also tools that do it 
"automatically").
>
> Thanks,
> Guillem

[OpenPGP_signature (application/pgp-signature, attachment)]

Message #59 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Alban Browaeys <alban.browaeys@gmail.com>

To: 1053306@bugs.debian.org

Cc: 886389@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#1053306: libxapp1: xapp-sn-watcher.desktop file should be in the xapp-sn-watcher debian package

Date: Tue, 03 Oct 2023 21:21:33 +0200

On Sun, 1 Oct 2023 13:49:56 +0200 Fabio Fantoni
<fantonifabio@tiscali.it> wrote:
> Il 01/10/2023 12:33, Alban Browaeys ha scritto:
> > Package: libxapp1
> > Version: 2.6.1-1
> > Severity: normal
> >
> > Dear Maintainer,
> > I get this error in my logs:
> > oct. 01 12:19:15 hermes systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[501717]:
Exec binary '/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/xapps/sn-watcher/xapp-sn-
watcher' does not exist: No such file or directory
> > oct. 01 12:19:15 hermes systemd-xdg-autostart-generator[501717]:
/etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop: not generating unit, error
parsing Exec= line: No such file or directory
> >
> > it turns out I have libxapp1:amd64 2.6.1-1 installed but not xapp-
sn-watcher.
> >
> > I believe the xapp-sn-watcher.desktop shipped by libxapp1 should be
shipped by
> > the xapp-sn-watcher package.
> 
> Hi, from the version you are reporting xapp-sn-watcher.desktop is 
> already in xapp-sn-watcher package: 
> https://packages.debian.org/sid/amd64/xapp-sn-watcher/filelist
> 
> file was moved latest time in 2.4.2-1 (from xapp package) and first
time 
> in 2.2.6-1 (from libxapp1)
> 
> I suppose the issue you spotted is related to old conffile moved (in 
> case your system was upgraded and was installed intially with version
< 
> 2.2.6-1, where there was the first move from libxapp1), relating to
it 
> there is https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=983441 but
is 
> blocked by another bug in dpkg (that I'm unable to fix it) and as
wrote 
> in https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=886389 is 
> impossible use rm_conffile in case of move from one binary package to
> another of the same source or the file of the new package will be 
> removed broking it
> 
> since the unexpected case you spotted is more that simply "mark as 
> obsolete" I think is good to reply on bug #886389 that now seems 
> considered minor and without progress
> 

I reported to both bug reports because there is something specific to
my issue.

In my case the desktop file is not only marked as obsolete in the
database. It is also still marked as owned by the old package libxapp1
... weird:

$ dpkg -L libxapp1                                                                                                                                                   
/.                                                                                             
/usr                                                                                           
/usr/lib                                                                                                                                                                                      
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu                                                                      
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxapp.so.2.6.1                                                                                                                                                    
/usr/share                                                                                     
/usr/share/doc                                                                                 
/usr/share/doc/libxapp1                                                                        
/usr/share/doc/libxapp1/changelog.Debian.gz                                                    
/usr/share/doc/libxapp1/changelog.gz                                                           
/usr/share/doc/libxapp1/copyright                                                              
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libxapp.so.1                                                         
/etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop         


$ apt policy libxapp1                                                                                                                                                
libxapp1:                                                                                      
  Installé : 2.6.1-1                                                                                                                                                                          
  Candidat : 2.6.1-1                                                                                                                                                                          
 Table de version :                                                                            
 *** 2.6.1-1 500                                                                               
         90 http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid/main amd64 Packages                               
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie/main amd64 Packages                            
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status                                                               
     2.4.2-3 500
        500 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
     1.2.2-1 500
        500 http://httpredir.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages

ls /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop
/etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop

dpkg -S  /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop                  
libxapp1:amd64: /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop

dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep obsolete$ |grep xapp-sn
 /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop a9fa3be7aaf46761adcdb856c63c125f obsolete


It could still be
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=886389
still all the report I found in it, tell the files are owned by the new
package but still marked as obsolete.

Here, the file is still owned by the old package. I do not even have
the new package xapp-sn-watcher installed.

So maybe it is the same bug but without installing the new package the
ownership is also not removed from the old package.
This might help define the origin of this bug.

Cheers,
Alban

Message #64 received at 886389@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Fabio Fantoni <fantonifabio@tiscali.it>

To: Alban Browaeys <alban.browaeys@gmail.com>, 1053306@bugs.debian.org

Cc: 886389@bugs.debian.org

Subject: Re: Bug#1053306: libxapp1: xapp-sn-watcher.desktop file should be in the xapp-sn-watcher debian package

Date: Tue, 3 Oct 2023 21:48:24 +0200

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Il 03/10/2023 21:21, Alban Browaeys ha scritto:
> $ apt policy libxapp1
> libxapp1:
>    Installé : 2.6.1-1
>    Candidat : 2.6.1-1
>   Table de version :
>   *** 2.6.1-1 500
>           90 http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid/main amd64 Packages
>          500 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie/main amd64 Packages
>          100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
>       2.4.2-3 500
>          500 http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm/main amd64 Packages
>       1.2.2-1 500
>          500 http://httpredir.debian.org/debian buster/main amd64 Packages
>
> ls /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop
> /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop
>
> dpkg -S  /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop
> libxapp1:amd64: /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop
>
> dpkg-query -W -f='${Conffiles}\n' | grep obsolete$ |grep xapp-sn
>   /etc/xdg/autostart/xapp-sn-watcher.desktop a9fa3be7aaf46761adcdb856c63c125f obsolete
>
>
> It could still be
> https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=886389
> still all the report I found in it, tell the files are owned by the new
> package but still marked as obsolete.
>
> Here, the file is still owned by the old package. I do not even have
> the new package xapp-sn-watcher installed.
>
> So maybe it is the same bug but without installing the new package the
> ownership is also not removed from the old package.
> This might help define the origin of this bug.
>
> Cheers,
> Alban
>
this is for xapp-sn-watcher not installed in this case rm_conffile will 
works correctly but installing also xapp-sn-watcher will remove 
xapp-sn-watcher.desktop broking it after the upgrade so I couldn't do it 
as I wrote, I did some tests looking for a workaround but unfortunately 
I didn't find any and the "best" solution was to not to use rm_conffile.

after this new issue (with people that don't install recommends) I 
thinked about increase to depends but I think is a problem have circular 
depends (xapp-sn-watcher depends on libxapp1)

so I suppose that the best thing it would fix that old bug in dpkg, but 
I don't know how

or someone have another idea? any advice is welcome

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