Do not attempt to divert a file which is vitally important for the system’s operation - when using dpkg-divert there is a time, after it has been diverted but before dpkg has installed the new version, when the file does not exist.
I doubt that diversions are safe for coreutils. Now personally I'd like to know if that could be fixed instead of making a new tool, but /shrug
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The alternatives system requires both packages to participate. In this case, a better alternative would be the diversions.
Unfortunately,
https://www.debian.org/doc/debian-policy/ap-pkg-diversions.h...
I doubt that diversions are safe for coreutils. Now personally I'd like to know if that could be fixed instead of making a new tool, but /shrug