Comment 33 for bug 1769657

An strace shows:

$ sudo strace -o /tmp/dpkg.log -f dpkg -i /var/cache/apt/archives/libc6-dev-armhf-cross_2.27-3ubuntu1cross1.1_all.deb

$ grep -E '(Mcrt1|error processing)' /tmp/strace-dpkg.log

22528 lstat("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o", 0x7ffef13bf320) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 rename("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-tmp", "/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o") = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 rmdir("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new") = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 rmdir("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-tmp") = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new", O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_EXCL, 000) = 11
22528 utimes("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new", [{tv_sec=1538707686, tv_usec=0} /* 2018-10-05T03:48:06+0100 */, {tv_sec=1537191595, tv_usec=0} /* 2018-09-17T14:39:55+0100 */]) = 0
22528 lstat("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o", 0x7ffef13bf320) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 rename("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-tmp", "/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o") = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 rmdir("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new") = -1 ENOTDIR (Not a directory)
22528 lstat("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new", {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=448, ...}) = 0
22528 unlink("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new") = 0
22528 rmdir("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-tmp") = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 symlink("../../arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o", "/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new") = 0
22528 lchown("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new", 0, 0) = 0
22528 utimensat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new", [{tv_sec=1538707686, tv_nsec=0} /* 2018-10-05T03:48:06+0100 */, {tv_sec=1537191595, tv_nsec=0} /* 2018-09-17T14:39:55+0100 */], AT_SYMLINK_NOFOLLOW) = 0
22528 openat(AT_FDCWD, "/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new", O_WRONLY) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 write(2, "\33[1mdpkg:\33[0m error processing a"..., 219) = 219
22528 lstat("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-tmp", 0x7ffef13bff30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 rmdir("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new") = -1 ENOTDIR (Not a directory)
22528 lstat("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new", {st_mode=S_IFLNK|0777, st_size=37, ...}) = 0
22528 unlink("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabi/libhf/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new") = 0
22528 lstat("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-tmp", 0x7ffef13bff30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
22528 rmdir("/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new") = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

At the same time an inotifywait shows:

$ grep Mcrt1 /tmp/inotifywait.log

/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ CREATE Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ OPEN Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ MODIFY Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ ATTRIB Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ CLOSE_WRITE,CLOSE Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ ATTRIB Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ DELETE Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ CREATE Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ ATTRIB Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ ATTRIB Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new
/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf/lib/ DELETE Mcrt1.o.dpkg-new