Bug#1085224: dpkg: Please clarify Conffiles list output from dpkg --status

On 2024-10-19 11:02:56 +0200, Nis Martensen wrote:
> `dpkg --status procps` on current sid now includes this line:
>  /etc/sysctl.conf 72b7c827a9636cda7b3b371091ff2dce remove-on-upgrade
> 
> After running `apt install --reinstall procps` the corresponding line in
> the `dpkg --status procps` output looks like this:
>  /etc/sysctl.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade
> 
> Does it mean the conffile will always be listed in the output as long as
> it is listed in DEBIAN/conffiles, even if the «remove-on-upgrade» flag
> has been present across several package upgrades? Or does the line only
> not get dropped here because what I did was a reinstall and not an upgrade?

This line is also present after an upgrade:

qaa:~> dpkg -s procps
Package: procps
Status: install ok installed
Priority: important
Section: admin
Installed-Size: 2395
Maintainer: Craig Small <[email protected]>
Architecture: amd64
Multi-Arch: foreign
Version: 2:4.0.4-8
[...]
Conffiles:
 /etc/sysctl.conf newconffile remove-on-upgrade
 /etc/init.d/procps f9903aa0d9f2f10714269befb4cdba8f
 /etc/sysctl.d/README.sysctl 93eda3f215e9d29316f5597cb4551082
[...]

IMHO, this is a bug, whether the package has been reinstalled or
upgraded. There is no point to output such a line for a conffile
that definitively no longer exists. About this issue:

  https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1085130