Bug#53405: packaging-manual: dpkg 1.6.5 will reorder symlinks for you

[Wichert Akkerman <wichert@cistron.nl>]

Package: packaging-manual
Version: 3.1.1.1
Severity: normal

Currently section 12 (shared libraries) of the packaging manual states:

  [.....] Futhermore, and _this is very important_,
  the library must be placed before the symlink pointing to it in the
  `.deb' file.  This is so that by the time `dpkg' comes to install the
  symlink (overwriting the previous symlink pointing at an older version
  of the library) the new shared library is already in place.  Currently
  the way to ensure the ordering is done properly is to install the
  library in the appropriate `debian/tmp/.../lib' directory before
  creating the symlink, by putting the commands in the `debian/rules' in
  the appropriate order.  Whether this has been done correctly can be
  checked by performing an `ls -f'.

This text is not always correct, since it highly depends on the
behaviour of the filesystem. Some filesystems (such as reisefs) will
reorder the files so it doesn't matter in what order you create them.

To support this Adam Heath wrote a path for dpkg-deb that will make dpkg
itself reorder files when creating a package. That patch will be in dpkg
1.6.5. 

The packaging manual should be updated to reflect this.

Wichert.

-- System Information
Debian Release: potato
Kernel Version: Linux lightning 2.2.14pre11 #1 Tue Dec 7 20:26:22 CET 1999 i586 unknown