dpkg-dev: bad absolute symlinks with dpkg-buildpackage

[Benoît Rouits]

Package: dpkg-dev
Version: 1.13.10ubuntu4
Severity: normal

This is NOT REALLY a bug, it is easy to workaround,
but i think dpkg-buildpackage should WARN:
Using absolute symlinks during installation yields 
to a corrupted debian package, but the inner scripts of
dpkg-buildpackage don't detect the corruption. 
I think it should detect it and blame the packager.
The following trivial example shows the procedure
to get such a corrupted debian package

$ editor Makefile
[...]
install:
	install foo $DESTDIR/$(PREFIX)/bin
	ln -s $DESTDIR/$(PREFIX)/bin/foo $DESTDIR/$(PREFIX)/bin/bar
#		^^^^^ this cause the corruption
#<EOF>

$ dh_make -s --copyright gpl
[...]
$ editor debian/control
[...]
$ editor debian/copyright
[...]
$ dpkg-buildpackage
[...]
dpkg-deb : building package « foo » in « ../foo_0.2-1_i386.deb ».
 signfile foo_0.2-1.dsc
[...]
$ dpkg -i ../foo_0.2-1.i386.deb
Selecting previously deselected package foo.
(Reading database ... 159413 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking foo (from ../foo_0.2-1_i386.deb) ...
Setting up foo (0.2-1) ...
$ ls -l /usr/bin/bar
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root 73 2005-12-13 17:37 /usr/bin/bar -> 
/home/ben/src/foo-0.2/debian/foo/usr/bin/foo

# bad symlink ! funny ?

WORKAROUND:
$editor Makefile
[...]
install:
        install foo $DESTDIR/$(PREFIX)/bin
        cd $DESTDIR/$(PREFIX)/bin/ && ln -s foo bar
#<EOF>


-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
  APT prefers breezy-updates
  APT policy: (500, 'breezy-updates'), (500, 'breezy-security'), (500, 'breezy')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Shell:  /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.12-10-k7
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)

Versions of packages dpkg-dev depends on:
ii  binutils                2.16.1-2ubuntu6  The GNU assembler, linker and bina
ii  cpio                    2.5-1.2ubuntu1   GNU cpio -- a program to manage ar
ii  dpkg                    1.13.10ubuntu4   Package maintenance system for Deb
ii  make                    3.80-9           The GNU version of the "make" util
ii  patch                   2.5.9-2          Apply a diff file to an original
ii  perl [perl5]            5.8.7-5ubuntu1.2 Larry Wall's Practical Extraction 
ii  perl-modules            5.8.7-5ubuntu1.2 Core Perl modules

Versions of packages dpkg-dev recommends:
ii  bzip2                   1.0.2-7ubuntu2   high-quality block-sorting file co
ii  gcc [c-compiler]        4:4.0.1-3        The GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-3.3 [c-compiler]    1:3.3.6-8ubuntu1 The GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-3.4 [c-compiler]    3.4.4-6ubuntu8   The GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-4.0 [c-compiler]    4.0.1-4ubuntu9   The GNU C compiler

-- no debconf information