[Bug 1477125] [NEW] Enhanced handling of directories on package removing

[Sworddragon]

Public bug reported:

I'm using Ubuntu 15.10 dev with dpkg 1.17.25ubuntu1 and if I'm removing
a package I'm noticing that dpkg does remove empty directories even if
they weren't created by the related package. Here is an example:

Test-package creation: mkdir -p test/DEBIAN; mkdir -p test/tmp/test;
touch test/tmp/test/test.txt; chmod 0755 test/DEBIAN; echo Architecture:
"$(dpkg --print-architecture)"$'\n'Description: 0$'\n'Maintainer:
0$'\n'Package: test$'\n'Version: 0 > test/DEBIAN/control; dpkg-deb -b
test test.deb

If the installation directory gets created before installing and then
removing the package it gets deleted too for example with this command:
mkdir /tmp/test; dpkg -i test.deb; dpkg -r test


Maybe dpkg can be enhanced to avoid  this situation. Also if a directory would contain "garbage" files before removing the related package dpkg will print a warning that the directory can't be removed but this information isn't logged. Maybe both situations could be solved with a simple database that keeps track of these states.

** Affects: dpkg (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1477125

Title:
  Enhanced handling of directories on package removing

Status in dpkg package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  I'm using Ubuntu 15.10 dev with dpkg 1.17.25ubuntu1 and if I'm
  removing a package I'm noticing that dpkg does remove empty
  directories even if they weren't created by the related package. Here
  is an example:

  Test-package creation: mkdir -p test/DEBIAN; mkdir -p test/tmp/test;
  touch test/tmp/test/test.txt; chmod 0755 test/DEBIAN; echo
  Architecture: "$(dpkg --print-architecture)"$'\n'Description:
  0$'\n'Maintainer: 0$'\n'Package: test$'\n'Version: 0 >
  test/DEBIAN/control; dpkg-deb -b test test.deb

  If the installation directory gets created before installing and then
  removing the package it gets deleted too for example with this
  command: mkdir /tmp/test; dpkg -i test.deb; dpkg -r test

  
  Maybe dpkg can be enhanced to avoid  this situation. Also if a directory would contain "garbage" files before removing the related package dpkg will print a warning that the directory can't be removed but this information isn't logged. Maybe both situations could be solved with a simple database that keeps track of these states.

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