[Spacewalk-list] Debian: Package renaming

[Steve Meier]

Dear all,

I am still experimenting with Spacewalk's Debian support and noticed something odd.
Unlike RPMs, DEB packages seem to be renamed when uploaded. While this would
not be a problem as long as it is done consistently here is a case that really gave me
a headache:

from /var/satellite/redhat/1/
/7eb/virtualbox-ose/3.2.10-dfsg/i386-deb/7eb11c526d19cdc4d257263fd8224bd2/virtualbox-ose-3.2.10-dfsg.i386-deb.deb
/29c/virtualbox-ose/3.2.10-dfsg/i386-deb/29ca96c399da08aeacbf2bb1994260d5/virtualbox-ose-3.2.10-dfsg.i386-deb.deb
/c72/virtualbox-ose/3.2.10-dfsg/amd64-deb/c72e88da1b2ce0c9a61cb14fec890d32/virtualbox-ose-3.2.10-dfsg.amd64-deb.deb
/242/virtualbox-ose/3.2.10-dfsg/amd64-deb/242e9f87138c684ab790fe97eac6744b/virtualbox-ose-3.2.10-dfsg.amd64-deb.deb

These four files are from Debian 6 (squeeze). Here are there original file names as
found on the Debian mirrors:

virtualbox-ose_3.2.10-dfsg-1_amd64.deb
virtualbox-ose_3.2.10-dfsg-1_i386.deb
virtualbox-ose_3.2.10-dfsg-1+squeeze1_amd64.deb
virtualbox-ose_3.2.10-dfsg-1+squeeze1_i386.deb

The first two are the initial release, the later two are part of a security announcement.

Due to this renaming I can no longer tell them apart through the GUI or API.
If I want to apply an errata, I don't know which one is the right package. Very inconvenient.

Is there any special reason why Debian packages get renamed at all?
If so, what are the rules/regex for renaming?

Thank you!

Kind regards,
  Steve