Hi, how about the following compromise:
Instead of having a md5sums file inside the control.tar.gz the md5sums file is added to the end deb archive as "md5sums". The file would contain a sorted list of all files in data.tar.gz _and_ control.tar.gz (moved into /var/lib/dpkg/info where they end up). (The md5sums file would be generated by dpkg-deb and dh_md5sums would be made a dummy saying its deprecated and removed from all sources over time.) The debsums package (or dpkg directly) adds an option to keep the md5sums file around or not. Which of the 2 should be the default remains to be discussed (if debsums adds it it would be default to on, if you don't want it purge debsums). The md5sum of the md5sums file is added to the changes file (signed by the maintainer) and to the Packages file by dinstall. It will also be signed by debsigs. Can everyone live with that? MfG Goswin