Bug#437804: libpri1.0: Fails to upgrade (overwrite error) and gratuitous name change?

[Raphael Hertzog]

Package: libpri1.0
Version: 1.4.1-1
Severity: serious
Justification: Policy 7.5

The upgrade breaks with the standard overwrite error:
Unpacking libpri1.0 (from .../libpri1.0_1.4.1-1_i386.deb) ...
dpkg: error processing /var/cache/apt/archives/libpri1.0_1.4.1-1_i386.deb (--unpack):
 trying to overwrite `/usr/lib/libpri.so.1.0', which is also in package libpri1.2
dpkg-deb: subprocess paste killed by signal (Broken pipe)

Reading the changelog one see:
   [ Mark Purcell ]
   * Bump package name to match soname libpri1.0

It seems there are no technical motivations behing the name change. So it
seems a gratuitous name change. Please avoid that. We have many cases
where the package name doesn't match the soname exactly and it's not a big
deal.

At the very least, when you change the package name and when the SONAME
doesn't change (thus the library file has the same name), please make sure
that it correctly Replaces/Conflicts/Provides the previous package (with
version ranges that match reality).

Cheers,

-- System Information:
Debian Release: lenny/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: i386 (i686)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.22-1-686 (SMP w/1 CPU core)
Locale: LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=fr_FR.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash

Versions of packages libpri1.0 depends on:
ii  libc6                         2.6.1-1    GNU C Library: Shared libraries

libpri1.0 recommends no packages.