Package: debhelper Version: 13.24.2 Severity: normal Dear Maintainer,
dh_installalternatives refuses to manage links to directories: dh_installalternatives: error: Alternative "<somedir>" for "<somename" in debian/<somename>.alternatives is a directory Policy ยง 6 speaks of "program or file" but that seems to be pragmatic rather than normative. update-alternatives(1) permits the management of directories, as can be seen from the commands below, tested in a container. $ podman run --rm -it approx/debian:unstable root@1c91d6ccc19e:/# mkdir /foo /bar /baz root@1c91d6ccc19e:/# update-alternatives --install /theme mytheme /foo 100 update-alternatives: using /foo to provide /theme (mytheme) in auto mode root@1c91d6ccc19e:/# ls -lr /etc/alternatives/mytheme /theme lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 25 May 19 14:50 /theme -> /etc/alternatives/mytheme lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 May 19 14:50 /etc/alternatives/mytheme -> /foo A use case for this would be for system-wide managing of a theme chosing among multiple themes, possibly installed by different packages. Best, Christian
