[Pkg-shadow-devel] Bug#1004710: passwd: 4.11.1 breaks mmdebstrap testsuite by empty directories in /var/mail and /var/spool/mail

[Johannes Schauer Marin Rodrigues]

Package: passwd
Version: 1:4.11.1+dfsg1-1
Severity: normal
X-Debbugs-Cc: josch at debian.org
Control: affects -1 mmdebstrap

Hi,

steps to reproduce:

$ sudo debootstrap unstable debian-unstable-good https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20220131T090427Z/
$ sudo debootstrap unstable debian-unstable-bad https://snapshot.debian.org/archive/debian/20220131T160201Z/

when diffing both directories one sees:

Only in debian-unstable-bad/var/mail: _apt
Only in debian-unstable-bad/var/mail: systemd-network
Only in debian-unstable-bad/var/mail: systemd-resolve
Only in debian-unstable-bad/var/spool/mail: _apt
Only in debian-unstable-bad/var/spool/mail: systemd-network
Only in debian-unstable-bad/var/spool/mail: systemd-resolve

The only packages that differ between both chroots are the versions of
login and passwd, hence I'm filing this bug here.

The problem is, that this breaks the testsuite and autopkgtest of
mmdebstrap. Notably, a chroot created with mmdebstrap does not include
these directories.

Is this change indeed related to passwd?

Is the creation of these empty directories intended?

Do you have an explanation why they are only created with debootstrap?

Thanks!

cheers, josch