debsums reports several changelogs as changed

[Roger Binns]

debsums reports about 30 files as changed on my system after a fresh install. I tried reinstalling the packages with the command line as given in the debsums man page and it made no difference. See reports from a different user at http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1859706 (ie it isn't just me).

Here are what it reports for me. Something doesn't add up. When I view the various changelog files via less (transparently decompressed) they all look fine.

debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/consolekit/changelog.Debian.gz (from consolekit package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/gir1.2-launchpad-integration-3.0/changelog.gz (from gir1.2-launchpad-integration-3.0 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/gnome/help/gnome-sound-recorder/uk/figures/grecord_window.png (from gnome-media package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/gnome/help/gnome-system-monitor/eu/figures/addColumn.png (from gnome-system-monitor package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libgtk-vnc-2.0-0/changelog.Debian.gz (from libgtk-vnc-2.0-0 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libice-dev/changelog.Debian.gz (from libice-dev package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/liblaunchpad-integration1.0-cil/changelog.gz (from liblaunchpad-integration1.0-cil package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libmagickcore3-extra/changelog.Debian.gz (from libmagickcore3-extra package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libmagickwand3/changelog.Debian.gz (from libmagickwand3 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libpam-ck-connector/changelog.Debian.gz (from libpam-ck-connector package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libpaper-utils/changelog.gz (from libpaper-utils package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libsm-dev/changelog.Debian.gz (from libsm-dev package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxau-dev/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxau-dev package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxcb-dri2-0/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxcb-dri2-0 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxcb-randr0/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxcb-randr0 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxcb-render0/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxcb-render0 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxcb-shape0/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxcb-shape0 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxcb-shm0/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxcb-shm0 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxcb-xv0/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxcb-xv0 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxcb1-dev/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxcb1-dev package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxdmcp-dev/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxdmcp-dev package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/libxt-dev/changelog.Debian.gz (from libxt-dev package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/perl/changelog.Debian.gz (from perl-base package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/python-farsight/changelog.Debian.gz (from python-farsight package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/python-gnome2/changelog.Debian.gz (from python-gnome2 package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/gschemas.compiled (from shotwell package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/speech-dispatcher/changelog.Debian.gz (from speech-dispatcher package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/gnome/help/totem/pl/figures/totem_volume_maximum_button.png (from totem-common package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/gnome/help/totem/pl/figures/totem_volume_mute_button.png (from totem-common package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/twolame/changelog.Debian.gz (from twolame package)
debsums: changed file /usr/share/doc/wireless-tools/changelog.Debian.gz (from wireless-tools package)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: debsums 2.0.49
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-14.23-generic 3.0.9
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-14-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Dec 16 13:38:35 2011
PackageArchitecture: all
SourcePackage: debsums
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

This is not a debsums bug since the packages already include the wrong md5sums before debsums examines them. I think this is a pkgbinarymangler bug. In particular, it looks like when pkgbinarymangler truncates a changelog.Debian.gz, it modifies the md5sums of the package containing that changelog.Debian.gz, but not the md5sums of packages containing _symlinks_ to that changelog.Debian.gz.

[Anders Kaseorg (andersk)]

This might have been fixed already in pkgbinarymangler; the newest affected package on my precise system is libxi-dev 2:1.4.3-3ubuntu1 from 2011-06-14. If so, we just need to rebuild the affected packages.