After running mmdebstrap, the following files still exist in the chroot:

/var/cache/debconf/config.dat-old
/var/cache/debconf/templates.dat-old
/var/lib/dpkg/diversions-old
/var/lib/dpkg/status-old

I think it would make sense for mmdebstrap's cleanup to remove these
files, to make a smaller chroot.

This would also eliminate some special cases in other parts of
mmdebstrap, which currently need to ignore the contents of these files.

Hi,

Quoting Josh Triplett (2024-09-27 23:04:03)

the reason they are still there is simple: I have no idea why they exist in the
first place. Do dpkg or debconf do anything with the *-old files? Are they
inspected or consumed by any other piece of software? Why do we need them?

Thanks!

cheers, josch

Hi!

For dpkg, these are backup files done any time the main file gets
modified, so that the user could go back in case of a mess up or
similar.

For the bootstrapping case, it makes sense to remove *-old inside
/var/lib/dpkg/.

Thanks,
Guillem