Package: dpkg Version: 1.19.2 Severity: wishlist Hi,
lintian recently tagged mmdebstrap with uses-dpkg-database-directly because mmdebstrap contains the string "/var/lib/dpkg" in several places. Instead of overwriting the lintian tag in mmdebstrap, dpkg could also gain an interface which avoids mmdebstrap having to do anything with /var/lib/dpkg inside the chroot. Specifically, what mmdebstrap does is the following: - create /var/lib/dpkg, /var/lib/dpkg/triggers, /var/lib/dpkg/info, /var/lib/dpkg/alternatives and /var/lib/dpkg/updates because dpkg throws an error if these directories are not present - an empty /var/lib/dpkg/status because dpkg refuses to work without the file being present - adds architectures to /var/lib/dpkg/arch because $(dpkg --add-architecture) doesn't work without any packages inside the chroot - cleans up leftover /var/lib/dpkg/lock-frontend and /var/lib/dpkg/lock This could be avoided if: - dpkg would not complain anymore about non-existing directories but instead create them if they don't exist yet - dpkg would not complain about a non-existing status file but create an empty one if it doesn't exist yet - allow $(dpkg --add-architecture) to work in places other than / - add an interface to clean up /var/lib/dpkg Thanks! cheers, josch
