New comment by heliocat on void-packages repository https://github.com/void-linux/void-packages/pull/15836#issuecomment-802616576 Comment: OK, I found two problems with the test and one with my own testing methodology. The two test problems are: it shouldn't call readlink -f (noted above), and the casing on pkg-b-file is inconsistent My own testing (the one that successfully upgraded busybox and iproute2 to alternatives-providing versions) was flawed because I did iproute2 in the transaction first which replaced the owned file before installing a new alternative provider. Had I let ordered things alphabetically (or let xbps-install do it automatically) I would have seen the bug.