Bug#760601: systemd: dist-upgrade wants to install systemd with no dependencies

[Steve Lane]

Package: systemd
Severity: serious
Justification: 2

Dear Maintainer,

After doing 'atp-get update' and 'sync-available' against:

deb     http://security.debian.org/     stable/updates  main contrib non-free

deb     http://security.debian.org/     testing/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org/     testing/updates main contrib non-free

deb     http://ftp.debian.org/debian/   stable main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/   stable main non-free contrib

deb     http://ftp.debian.org/debian/   testing main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/   testing main non-free contrib

'apt-get upgrade' shows no upgrades:

root> apt-get upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

nor does 'apt-show-versions -u', but 'apt-get dist-upgrade' tries to
install systemd and dependencies:

root> apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  libaudit0 libcryptsetup4 libsystemd-daemon0 libsystemd-id128-0 libsystemd-journal0 libsystemd-login0 systemd
0 upgraded, 7 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/1,715 kB of archives.
After this operation, 4,480 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? n
Abort.

This seems incorrect behavior.

Please note that if I remove:

deb     http://ftp.debian.org/debian/   testing main non-free contrib
deb-src http://ftp.debian.org/debian/   testing main non-free contrib

from the sources list this behavior goes away:

root at lims:/linux/debian/pkglists# apt-get dist-upgrade
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

This machine (and *many* others we have) is Debian Stable (7.6 - see
below), and it seems incorrect to me that a dist-upgrade should be trying
install new packages when there is no apparent dependency for them.
The only packages that seem like they might remotely be causing this
are udev & libudev0, but they are at the current stable versions (and
libudev1 is not installed):

root> apt-show-versions -a udev
udev 175-7.2 install ok installed
udev 175-7.2 stable  ftp.debian.org
udev 208-8   testing ftp.debian.org
udev/stable uptodate 175-7.2

root> apt-show-versions -a libudev0
libudev0 175-7.2 install ok installed
libudev0 175-7.2 stable ftp.debian.org
No testing version
libudev0/stable uptodate 175-7.2

root> apt-show-versions -a libudev1
Not installed
No stable version
libudev1 208-8 testing ftp.debian.org
libudev1 not installed

I am very concerned about this because it seems apparent that
accidentally installing systemd will render my machine(s) unbootable;
see https://bugs.debian.org/757588 (and I have no desire to install or
use systemd regardless).

Thanks/best,

--
Steve Lane
System Administrator, Scientific Computing
Joint BioEnergy Institute
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 7.6
  APT prefers stable
  APT policy: (990, 'stable'), (900, 'testing')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 3.2.0-4-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages systemd depends on:
ii  dpkg                 1.16.15
ii  initscripts          2.88dsf-41+deb7u1
ii  libacl1              2.2.51-8
pn  libaudit0            <none>
ii  libc6                2.13-38+deb7u4
ii  libcap2              1:2.22-1.2
pn  libcryptsetup4       <none>
ii  libdbus-1-3          1.6.8-1+deb7u3
ii  libkmod2             9-3
ii  liblzma5             5.1.1alpha+20120614-2
ii  libpam0g             1.1.3-7.1
ii  libselinux1          2.1.9-5
pn  libsystemd-daemon0   <none>
pn  libsystemd-id128-0   <none>
pn  libsystemd-journal0  <none>
pn  libsystemd-login0    <none>
ii  libudev0             175-7.2
ii  libwrap0             7.6.q-24
ii  udev                 175-7.2
ii  util-linux           2.20.1-5.3

Versions of packages systemd recommends:
pn  libpam-systemd  <none>

Versions of packages systemd suggests:
ii  python        2.7.3-4+deb7u1
pn  python-cairo  <none>
pn  python-dbus   <none>
pn  systemd-gui   <none>