Bug#468130: python-gobject-dbg: There is no convenient way to *use* the debugging pygobject library

[Nathaniel Smith]

Package: python-gobject-dbg
Version: 2.14.1-1
Severity: grave
Justification: renders package unusable

Most -dbg packages are set up so that when running under gdb, the
debugging libraries are automatically used.  Not so for pygobject.
After flailing around for a while, the *only* way I could come up
with to cause the debugging-enabled .so to be loaded was by going
in and renaming
  /var/lib/python-support/python2.4/gtk-2.0/gobject/_gobject_d.so
to
  /var/lib/python-support/python2.4/gtk-2.0/gobject/_gobject.so
(overwriting the existing _gobject.so symlink that dpkg and friends
generated for the python-gobject package).

Requiring users to rearrange files installed by dpkg is just
awful.  Failing to document how to do so makes it even worse.
(Of course, perhaps there is some other way to magically get
at the debug version of the library.  If so, maybe it could be
more prominently documented?)

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-3-686 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash