package manpages-dev 3.24-1ubuntu1 failed to install/upgrade: trying to overwrite '/usr/share/man/man3/pthread_sigmask.3.gz', which is also in package glibc-doc 2.12.1-0ubuntu8

Actually an eglibc bug; newer manpages was merged, but this required a corresponding eglibc packaging update to update Conflicts/Replaces.

why is this an error in eglibc?

Because we first need to stop shipping the files in glibc-doc.

I have a package ready

Then we can update the Replaces in manpages-dev

please don't upload. the question is not yet answered. why is the manpage preferred in manpages?

I don't have a strong preference between the version in glibc and the version in manpages; here's what I can think of:
+ glibc-doc only ships the pthread manpages while manpages-dev ships all system programming manpages
+ Debian did this change
- some pthread man pages will still be shipped in glibc-doc since manpages only added a couple
= pthread implementation is actually in glibc, so the man pages should be more up-to-date, however manpages also cover e.g. linux syscalls which are not shipped by linux

glibc-doc conflicts with manpages-dev for some weeks now, so I think we should just proceed to merge the Debian change, which is what I've prepared for upload

bug #673073 is currently holding this upload (breaks eglibc's build)

It's been more than a month that this bug persists, and the last message on bug #673073 has also been more than a month, stating "fix committed".

Hm?

eglibc is still pending an upload with the fix in natty, albeit the bug preventing its build is now fixed.

This bug was fixed in the package eglibc - 2.12.1-0ubuntu11

---------------
eglibc (2.12.1-0ubuntu11) natty; urgency=low

  * Update to the eglibc 2.12 branch (r12365).
    - Fix alignment of AVX safe area on x86_64, issue #12113. LP: #662511.
    - Fix issue #12159, x86-64 strchr propagation of search byte into all bytes
      of SSE register. (LP: #615953)
    - any/cvs-audit-suid.diff, any/cvs-getlogin_r-error-handling-1.patch,
      any/cvs-getlogin_r-error-handling-2.patch, any/cvs-issue12092.diff,
      any/cvs-getlogin_r-error-handling-3.patch, any/cvs-issue12113.diff,
      any/cvs-issue11968.diff: Remove, merged upstream.
    - any/cvs-dst-expansion-fix.diff, any/submitted-etc-resolv.conf.diff,
      locale/locale-print-LANGUAGE.diff: Updated.

  * Sort changelog entries with bzr-builddeb's merge_changelog to help merging
    with Debian; update Debian changelog entries to their latest version, and
    drop Debian changelog entries which aren't in the unstable changelog; this
    keeps the diff between Debian unstable's changelog and Ubuntu's changelog
    minimal (only Ubuntu entries) and makes it easier to review new Debian
    changes.
  * Copy binutils [mips mipsel] build-dep to minimize delta with Debian's
    build-deps.
  * Drop Vcs-Bzr; this package is now maintained in lp:ubuntu/eglibc.
  * Drop version in texinfo build-dep; this is satisfied even in dapper.
  * Move belocs-locales-bin conflicts around to lower the diff with Debian's
    control.
  * Copy Debian's libc6-dev-i386 Conflicts with libc6-i386 (<= 2.9-18) for
    some older upgrades; this seems to apply to Ubuntu as well, and reduces
    the delta with Debian just a bit. libc6-dev-i386 is not a commonly
    installed package, and this is satisfied in lucid and later anyway, so it
    shouldn't make upgrades harder, except if people use backports.
  * Drop debian/control.in/libc0.1, libc0.3, libc6, and libc6.1 (these are
    automatically generated) after confirming that generating them results in
    the same data.
  * Drop debian/debhelper.in/glibc-doc.docs; ChangeLog* is already listed in
    debian/debhelper.in/glibc-doc.install.
  * Drop debian/debhelper.in/libc-alt-dev.postinst as it only helps powerpc
    upgrades from dapper versions which aren't supported on powerpc anymore.
  * debian/debhelper.in/libc.postinst: drop inconsistent quotes around 2.12.
  * debian/local/manpages/gencat.1, iconvconfig.8, mtrace.1: revert differing
    RCS timestamps.
  * debian/patches/series: drop reference to changelog version with respect to
    local-ipv6-lookup.diff as the reference is bogus.
  * Drop debian/patches/alpha/submitted-getsysstats.diff,
    submitted-includes.diff, submitted-lowlevellock.diff,
    submitted-procfs_h.diff; these should have been dropped in earlier merges
    as they are not applied anymore and were dropped from Debian.
  * Drop commented-out hppa/* lines from patches/series to be consistent with
    how other arches were handled.
  * debian/sysdeps/amd64.mk: symlink ld-linux with the same rune as Debian.
  * Drop changes to debian/sysdeps/hurd.mk; Ubuntu doesn't build for Hurd.
  * Remove debian/wrapper/objcopy; was dropped in Debian already...

This bug was fixed in the package manpages - 3.27-1ubuntu2

---------------
manpages (3.27-1ubuntu2) natty; urgency=low

  * Bump manpages-dev's Replaces on glibc-doc to << 2.12.1-0ubuntu11 as this
    is when the pthread manpages were removed; LP: #669361.
 -- Loic Minier <email address hidden> Tue, 21 Dec 2010 23:02:12 +0100