Index: dpkg-1.19.0.5/utils/update-alternatives.c =================================================================== --- dpkg-1.19.0.5.orig/utils/update-alternatives.c +++ dpkg-1.19.0.5/utils/update-alternatives.c @@ -1796,7 +1796,10 @@ alternative_prepare_install(struct alter /* Drop unused slave. */ fn = xasprintf("%s/%s", altdir, sl->name); if (alternative_path_can_remove(sl->link)) - alternative_add_commit_op(a, OPCODE_RM, sl->link, NULL); + if (strcmp(sl->link, a->master_link)) + alternative_add_commit_op(a, OPCODE_RM, sl->link, NULL); + else + warning("not removing %s, now master", a->master_link); else warning(_("not removing %s since it's not a symlink"), sl->link);