Bug#1125017: init-system-helpers: "dpkg --purge tracker-extract" removes a symlink from package localsearch

[Michael Biebl]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2026 13:56:44 +0100 Vincent Lefevre <vincent at vinc17.net> 
wrote:
> Package: init-system-helpers
> Version: 1.69
> Severity: grave
> Justification: causes non-serious data loss
> 
> Package tracker-extract has been renamed to localsearch.
> So when upgrading, localsearch is installed and tracker-extract
> removed. But when I do "dpkg --purge tracker-extract" to completely
> get rid of tracker-extract, this removes the
> 
>   /etc/systemd/user/gnome-session.target.wants/localsearch-3.service
> 


 From what I understand, the problem is this:
The tracker-extract package originally shipped a file
/usr/lib/systemd/user/tracker-extract-3.service
which was then renamed to
/usr/lib/systemd/user/localsearch.service when upstream renamed the 
project.

Later, the tracker-extract binary package was renamed to localsearch and 
during the upgrade the tracker-extract package was removed (but not 
purged), i.e. the maintainer scripts of tracker-extract remained 
installed and they contained code to remove
/etc/systemd/user/gnome-session.target.wants/localsearch-3.service

More specifically tracker-extract.postrm contains
deb-systemd-helper --user purge 'localsearch-3.service'
which is triggered on "purge"


The problem is, that both the tracker-extract and localsearch package 
reference the same service file.

To avoid that situation, the tracker-extract package should have been 
renamed at the same time the service file was renamed. So I'd argue this 
is a bug in the tracker-extract/localsearch package in how they handled 
the transition.
But I guess it's too late for that now.


I see two possible solutions:

a/ we introduce some kind of refcounting/package ownership in 
dh_installsystemduser/init-system-helpers for packages which install the 
same service file. And only if the refcount drops to zero the symlink is 
removed (only a rough idea, would need some further thought)

Sounds non-trivial to me and more importantly, we can't retroactively 
fix tracker-search/localsearch


b/ the localsearch package neuters the tracker-extract postrm maintainer 
scripts

A small variation of b/: The localsearch package explicitly purges the 
tracker-search state before installing its own symlinks.




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