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

[Bdale Garbee]

Ian Jackson <ijackson at chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes:

>  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.

That's not strictly true.  Packages may not be removed, but the default
for various applications can and certainly does change on upgrades.  I'm
thinking of things like which gcc version is the default on a system.

>  3. The TC did not intend 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.

I agree that we did not intend there to be some spontaneous move to
transition all existing sysvinit users to systemd.

>  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).

> The caveat in (4) avoids prejudging the results of the coupling
> question which is the subject of the GR process at the moment.

I don't think it does so sufficiently to allow me to be in favor of this
resolution.

If we admit to the possibility that there might be a package with a
legitimate hard dependency on a specific init system other than the one
currently installed, a user who willingly chooses that package would be
within their rights to consider it a bug if their init system were *not*
changed.

So, to me, this all boils down to whether we think such a dependency
should be allowed to exist in the archive.  Given the apparent
inevitability of a GR, I'd rather we just wait and see how it turns out. 

Bdale
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