On Mon, 2023-05-08 at 08:48:49 -0700, Russ Allbery wrote: > […] I suspect Policy should say something stronger and more general, > namely that no package in Debian should divert a file from another package > unless this is arranged cooperatively between the packages to solve some > specific (unusual) problem.
,--- §3.9 --- You should not use "dpkg-divert" on a file belonging to another package without consulting the maintainer of that package first. When adding or removing diversions, package maintainer scripts must provide the "--package" flag to "dpkg-divert" and must not use "--local". `--- > To me, this feels similar to the case of one > package modifying the configuration files of another package, where we > explicitly prohibit one package modifying the configuration of another > package except through an interface provided by the package whose > configuration is being modified. ,--- §10.7.4 --- If the configuration file cannot be shared as described above, the packages must be marked as conflicting with each other. Two packages that specify the same file as a "conffile" must conflict. This is an instance of the general rule about not sharing files. Neither alternatives nor diversions are likely to be appropriate in this case; in particular, "dpkg" does not handle diverted "conffile"s well. `--- Regards, Guillem
