Bug#668400: /usr/bin/apt-get: Apt-get purge/remove delete file behind symlink

[Guillem Jover]

On Wed, 2012-04-11 at 17:47:15 +0200, Rafal Kaminski wrote:
> Package: apt
> Version: 0.8.15.10
> Severity: normal
> File: /usr/bin/apt-get

> I found some bug or feature apt-get. I've installed tomcat7 and in folder /etc/tomcat7 I put symlink to diff. folder - like to /data/file1.
> Then in /etc/tomcat7 I had symlink file1.
> 
> When I made "apt-get remove tomcat7" or "apt-get remove --purge tomcat7" -> apt-get didn't remove symlink from /etc/tomcat7, BUT
> REMOVE file from /data.
> 
> After apt-get remove I hadn't file1 in /data/file1.

Given the directory removals in tomcat7's postrm script I'm inclined
to think this is tomcat7 (and tomcat6) fault, but it would be helpful
to know what exactly did you symlink, was it the /etc/tomcat7 directory
itself, one of the conffiles inside? Something else?

regards,
guillem