Bug#756023: init: Please drop Essential:yes from init metapackage

[Michael Biebl]

severity 756023 wishlist
thanks

Hi,

Am 25.07.2014 16:19, schrieb Dimitri John Ledkov:
> Package: init
> Version: 1.20
> Severity: serious
> Tags: patch
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> "init" metapackage is marked essential, even though none of the inits
> are currently essential. There are environments in which no init is
> needed, e.g. chroots and minimal/exec-only containers (like
> docker). Also one shouldn't be making 3 inits transitively essential,
> when they currently are not.

Well, see the transition plan as outlined and discussed on debian-devel
[1]. The new "init" metapackage takes over the role of the sysvinit
package, which (currently) is Essential: yes and Priority: required.
The point here is to ensure that an init system is installed at all
times. Dropping the Essential flag would counter that.

The question if "init" needs to be Essential came up as well.
The current sysvinit package in wheezy is Essential so packages do rely
on tools like /sbin/runlevel to be existing and working. Dropping the
Essential flag would break that assumption and as Tollef said would
require an archive wide cleanup before we could drop this flag.

I'm marking this as a whishlist bug as I see no justitification for it
being serious.

Regards,
Michael


[1] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2014/07/msg00611.html
[2] https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2014/07/msg00631.html
-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

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