Hi, I am the current src:util-linux maintainer and have become aware of this bug by pure coincidence.
* Christoph Berg <m...@debian.org> [220121 16:28]: > > A user requested in Debian bug report #926637 > > (https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=926637) to include > > rename.ul in Debian's alternatives system. The package maintainer replied: > > > > "The util-linux rename command does not implement the same (command line) > > interface as the alternative(s) does, so it is not policy compliant to > > add it as an alternative." > > > > As a result, the maintainer completely removed rename.ul from the package > > util-linux without providing any further reference to this Debian policy. > > That's a pretty surprising resolution of a bug asking to be able to > use "rename" more easily. I have now asked about the history of rename, and was pointed to #735134, which moved rename from src:perl to a new source package and out of build-essential. You can find the history in there, and by people that know more about the different rename implementations, the claim that the implementations are incompatible (or at least, not compatible). I see absolutely zero point in shipping a program under a non-default name in an essential package, which apparently only very few users ever knew about. If the util-linux rename should be made easier to use, then it should become the one and only provider of /usr/bin/rename, and it should not be in an essential package. Generally speaking, the essential packages built by util-linux install lots of things they should not. My longer term plan is to reduce that, but as you can guess, this will take time. I guess it would be possible for one of the non-essential src:util-linux binary packages to take over /usr/bin/rename in a coordinated way from src:rename, but I do not know how attached people are to the existing /usr/bin/rename. Side note: src:rename installs /usr/bin/rename using update-alternatives, but no other package participates in this alternative. I guess this is a transition leftover. Chris