Bug#870250: syslinux: duplicate MBR files in Syslinux

[Ian Bruce]

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