rmdir /var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles which is created by apt >= 1.6 but unknown to older apt inside the chroot

mmdebstrap

@@ -973,6 +973,9 @@ sub setup {
     # clean up temporary configuration file
     unlink "$options->{root}/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00mmdebstrap" or die "failed to unlink /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/00mmdebstrap: $!";
 
+    # apt since 1.6 creates the auxfiles directory. If apt inside the chroot
+    # is older than that, then it will not know how to clean it.
+    rmdir "$options->{root}/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles" or die "cannot rmdir /var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles: $!";
     # if there is no apt inside the chroot, clean it from the outside
     if ($options->{variant} eq 'essential') {
 	$ENV{"APT_CONFIG"} = "$tmpfile";

test.sh

@@ -108,7 +108,10 @@ for dist in stable testing unstable; do
 		diff -u status1 status2
 		rm status1 status2
 		sudo rm debian-$dist-debootstrap/var/lib/dpkg/status debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/dpkg/status
-		sudo rmdir debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles
+		# this file is only created by apt 1.6 or newer
+		if [ "$dist" != "stable" ]; then
+			sudo rmdir debian-$dist-mm/var/lib/apt/lists/auxfiles
+		fi
 		# debootstrap exposes the hosts's kernel version
 		sudo rm debian-$dist-debootstrap/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove-kernels \
 			debian-$dist-mm/etc/apt/apt.conf.d/01autoremove-kernels