Bug#765803: Status of prompting / notification on upgrade for init system switch?

[Ian Jackson]

Russ Allbery writes ("Re: Bug#765803: Status of prompting / notification on upgrade for init system switch?"):
> If you're proposing this as a resolution of #765803, that's fine.

I'm not sure I follow.  You think it would be proper for the TC to
pass a resolution along the lines of the one I proposed, but only if
it's a resolution to #765803 rather than one of the other bug
reports ?  That's fine, I don't care precisely what subset of the bugs
we regard it as closing.

> It may be that I just misunderstood the context of your proposal, given
> that, now that I re-read it, it sounds like you were aiming for a
> resolution of #765803 all along.  In which case I'm just confused, and
> what I'm arguing about isn't even what you were intending.  :)

Yes, I was aiming for a resolution of #765803 and #762194 all along.
I have sent my mail to just #765803 because that's where most of the
discussion happened.  Passing a resolution along the lines I proposed
does not directly dispose of #746578, but it would inform our
discussion of that issue.

>  I haven't decided if that's something I'd agree with yet or not.

I think we need to get on with this.  This question was raised in the
context of #746578 in May and #762194 in September.  I don't think the
question is very complicated, even in the absence of Martin Pitt's
email.

So I hereby formally propose the following draft:

 -8<-

 1. In February the TC decided that the default init system for Linux
    in Debian jessie would be systemd.  We have been asked what this
    should mean for systems being upgraded from earlier Debian
    releases:

    Should existing installs be automatically switched to systemd
    (#762194) ?  Should users be prompted (#765803) ?

 2. Normally when Debian changes the default provider of some service,
    this means that new installs get the new provider.  We do not
    transition existing installs to the new provider during upgrades,
    unless the old provider is being removed.

 3. The TC does not feel that our decision should extend to switching
    existing Debian GNU/Linux installations from sysvinit to systemd.
    Nor do we think that those users should be prompted to switch init
    system.

 4. So, if an existing installation has its init system switched, as a
    result of upgrading or of installing packages, that is a bug
    (unless it is not possible to retain the existing init system).

 -8<-

Ian.