Opening a cdbs task and assigning to pitti as discussed on irc.

The problem here is that the following script which is run by cdbs is causing a conflict with the pkgstriptranslations script:

# symlink identical Gnome help files within packages
if [ -z "$CDBS_NO_GNOME_HELP_SYMLINKING" ] && [ -d debian/ubuntu-docs/usr/share/gnome/help ]; then \
            cd debian/ubuntu-docs && LC_ALL=C fdupes -r1nq usr/share/gnome/help | while read s; do \
                set -- $(echo $s | tr ' ' '\n' | sort); \
                f=$1; shift; \
                for d; do \
                    echo "symlinking duplicate Gnome help file $d to $f"; \
                    rm $d; ln -s /$f $d; \
                done; \
            done; \
	fi

The conflict is because that script symlinks various identical xml files to one base xml file, like this:

symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/be/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/bn/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/ceb/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/da/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/en_AU/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/en_CA/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/eo/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/et/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/fa/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/he/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/hr/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/id/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/jv/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/ka/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/kk/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/kn/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/ku/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/lo/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/lv/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/mk/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/ml/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/ms/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/sl/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/sq/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/sr/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/ta/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/th/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/tl/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/tr/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/uk/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml
symlinking duplicate Gnome help file usr/share/gnome/help/windows/ur/migratingdata.xml to usr/share/gnome/help/windows/am/migratingdata.xml

Then pkgstriptranslations moves the symlink target into a separate package, which is not installed for every user.

I will work around this in ubuntu-docs and gnome-user-docs by setting CDBS_NO_GNOME_HELP_SYMLINKING=1 but this seems likely to affect all Gnome packages which ship documentation in /usr/share/gnome/help and which use cdbs. Probably the number of files affected in those packages is small, I don't know.