Package: syslinux Version: 3:6.03+dfsg-14.1 Severity: normal Syslinux Master Boot Record files have been duplicated across three packages:
$ dpkg -L syslinux-common | grep mbr /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/altmbr.bin /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/gptmbr.bin /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/mbr.bin $ dpkg -L syslinux | grep mbr /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/altmbr.bin /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/gptmbr.bin /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/mbr.bin $ dpkg -L extlinux | grep mbr /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/altmbr.bin /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/gptmbr.bin /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/mbr.bin $ ls -l /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/* /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/* /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/* -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 439 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/altmbr.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 440 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/gptmbr.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 440 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/mbr.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 439 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/altmbr.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 440 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/gptmbr.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 439 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/altmbr.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 440 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/mbr.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 440 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/gptmbr.bin -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 440 Jan 28 2017 /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/mbr.bin $ md5sum /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/* /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/* /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/* | sort 0897ba470594ea2ea0c3dbbe4afcfbf3 /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/gptmbr.bin 0897ba470594ea2ea0c3dbbe4afcfbf3 /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/gptmbr.bin 0897ba470594ea2ea0c3dbbe4afcfbf3 /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/gptmbr.bin 114a332543d206a1884a7da2dedebb02 /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/altmbr.bin 114a332543d206a1884a7da2dedebb02 /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/altmbr.bin 114a332543d206a1884a7da2dedebb02 /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/altmbr.bin 8cb37afc263a219ebb7586f9c495114e /usr/lib/EXTLINUX/mbr.bin 8cb37afc263a219ebb7586f9c495114e /usr/lib/SYSLINUX/mbr.bin 8cb37afc263a219ebb7586f9c495114e /usr/lib/syslinux/mbr/mbr.bin Obviously, the amount of storage wasted by this duplication is trivial, but to have three files with the same name, in different packages, is quite confusing, until one realizes that they are duplicates. Presumably, Debian has a policy against duplicating files, for this exact reason. A better solution would be for the syslinux and extlinux packages to "Depend" on syslinux-common, rather than just "Recommend"ing it, and to split out the documentation into a new syslinux-doc package, and the EFI32 and EFI64 files into the existing syslinux-efi package. Note that bug #819973 is related to this report. -- System Information: Debian Release: buster/sid APT prefers testing APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 4.11.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=en_CA.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_CA.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE=en_CA:en (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) Versions of packages syslinux depends on: ii libc6 2.24-12 ii mtools 4.0.18-2+b1 Versions of packages syslinux recommends: ii syslinux-common 3:6.03+dfsg-14.1 Versions of packages syslinux suggests: ii dosfstools 4.1-1 -- no debconf information