Bruce Perens writes ("Bug#4195: dpkg-source and new tar package don't mix"): > Package: dpkg > Version: 1.3.5 > > The latest iteration of the tar package unfortunately is not able to > understand the "--" flag. I suggest you not use that flag in dpkg-source > for now.
Thanks for pointing out what was wrong. I have worked around this in 1.3.6 by removing the `--' argument. However, this will cause dpkg-source to break if the next argument ever starts with a `-' so I do not propose to leave this workaround in permanently. I shall leave this bug report open against dpkg so that I do not forget to change it. Ian.