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copied!<p>in debian it is <em>forbidden</em> for two packages to install the same file.</p> <p>thus, whenever you try to install a package that contains file "/path/to/foo" and another package is already installed that contains file "/path/to/foo", you get a conflict and thus an error.</p> <p>part of the maintainer's work is to make sure that such things do not happen, </p> <ul> <li><p>either by setting an explicit conflict between the two packages (so you cannot even mark the two packages at the same time for installation) </p></li> <li><p>or by renaming the file in one package (or both) and adjusting the software accordingly</p></li> <li><p>or by preventing one (or both) packages from installing such file (e.g. in the case where the installed file is really not necessary)</p></li> </ul> <p>maintaining debian packages is generally a lot of work.</p> <p>now the tool <code>checkinstall</code> is a "poor man's" package maintainance tool, as it makes it super easy to create packages from "make install". since it is an automation tool, it simply cannot replace the work and sophistication of a maintainer. (else we wouldn't need any debian maintainers any more; just upload the source-packages to some build-server and run "checkinstall" on them)</p> <p>so the reason why you get problems, is because you are installing badly maintained (or rather: automatically created and thus not-at-all maintained) packages. the reason why deleting the offending file doesn't work is because the package management is more than just downloading archives and extracting them. among other things it maintains a list of installed files in a database, and this list indicates that you alredy have <code>/var/backups/infodir.bak</code> installed (regardless whether the file is actually on the harddisk or not)... resulting in the conflict you see.</p> <p>so the solution to your problem is, to invest more time in maintenance.</p> <p>in any case, you should investigate why the two "packages" both require <code>/var/backups/infodir.bak</code> (and whether they require it at all).</p> <p>you can omit certain files from <code>checkinstall</code> via</p> <pre><code> checkinstall --exclude /var/backups/infodir.bak -D make install </code></pre> <p>whether this will break any of your packages, i cannot say.</p>

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