Corrupted lintian installation using Debian images

Description

On CI jobs using the Debian base image, lintian is reported to be installed, but it's not: example.

Actual behavior

Lintian is reported to be installed, but the installation in fact is incomplete, missing all files under /usr/share/lintian.

Expected behavior

It was expected that the Debian base image would produce a functional lintian installation.

Causes

The problem is caused by this line in the image build process.

It adds /usr/share/lintian/* into dpkg's list of excluded paths somewhere at /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/.

Workaround

A workaround is straightforward, consisting in passing -o Dpkg::Options::="--path-include=/usr/share/lintian/*" to apt-get when installing lintian.

But this is sub-optimal, as users must be aware of the issue and manually implement the workaround.

Suggested fix

While it makes sense to exclude /usr/share/lintian/* during the image build process, this path could be removed from /etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/.

Minimum Reproducible Example

A minimalistic example is available in the lintianer repository, specifically in a pipeline with two jobs:

1. The lintian job, with uses the Debian base image and tries to install lintian the usual way, which fails.
2. The lintian-path-include job, which uses the Debian base image, but applies the workaround mentioned above, which succeeds.

Downstream bug

This problem was originally reported at tpo/onion-services/onionprobe#105 (closed).

mentioned in issue tpo/onion-services/onionprobe#105 (closed)

yeah, that's not right. i think the problem might actually be with:

      --setup-hook='cp minimize-config/dpkg.cfg.d/* "$1/etc/dpkg/dpkg.cfg.d/"' \
      --setup-hook='cp minimize-config/apt.conf.d/* "$1/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/"' \

where we copy the minimization stuff inside the image, which makes that stuff persist. those were added in d6d22c1f, by @micah, he might have a better idea of why those are here.

it's unclear to me, also, why we mess with lintian in the first place. it seems i introduced that in 39093600, i bet i cargo-culted this from the official images: for a minimal image it makes sense as you keep packages from shipping their own lintian checks, but i don't think it makes sense to keep removing this from further builds.

mentioned in commit anarcat/base-images@c5f04b53

mentioned in merge request !39 (merged)

mentioned in commit rhatto/lintianer@b35862eb

mentioned in commit anarcat/base-images@094f1e96

mentioned in commit anarcat/base-images@6f067c23

mentioned in issue #22

mentioned in commit 5eee8522

closed with commit 6f067c23

mentioned in commit rhatto/onionprobe@289e0a25

mentioned in merge request tpo/onion-services/onionprobe!104 (merged)

mentioned in commit tpo/onion-services/onionprobe@8bdcaed9