Release Requirement for Debian GNU/Linux 2.1
Changes to dpkg
Exclude certain directories
This has been proposed by Joey:
Add switches to dpkg via /etc/dpkg.conf so it ignores certain directories. Say on a system were you're short at disk space, put "ignore /usr/man /usr/info /usr/doc" in /etc/dpkg.conf and dpkg won't install files or links into it.
Chris Davis added:
If we intend to support multiple architecture and also /usr/share, we need this so that you don't have to reinstall doc,info and manpages for every architecture, when they are already installed. You install everything for the first architecture, and then just the arch-dependent stuff for the rest.
However, it they must also be ignored on a remove/purge also.