[Pkg-systemd-maintainers] Bug#619244: Bug#619244: /etc/machine-id

[Martin Pitt]

Hello all,

Simon McVittie [2014-02-21 10:05 +0000]:
> I've wondered whether to ask base-files or some similarly core package
> to provide /etc/machine-id so that it exists even on non-systemd systems;
> it would be easy to populate from something like
> "sed s/-// /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid" on Linux, and perhaps
> /dev/[u]random on non-Linux. Do you think that's a good idea?

I don't think it's a bad idea. But are non-systemd systems going to
care about this file at all? I've never quite liked this file as it
isn't really configuration but state; it should be in /var/lib
somewhere IMHO. But aside from that: if we don't get it in base-files,
we could at least do either of:

 * change systemd to read /var/lib/dbus/machine-id if /etc/machine-id
   does not exist (my preferred solution), or

 * change dbus-1 to create a symlink of /var/lib/dbus/machine-id to
   /etc/machine-id, if /etc/machine-id does not already exist.

With upcoming kdbus we might be able to drop dbus-1 in a few releases,
and then need to revisit this.

Thanks,

Martin

-- 
Martin Pitt                        | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com)  | Debian Developer  (www.debian.org)