tzdata: turn /etc/timezone into a symlink

[Martin Pitt]

Package: tzdata
Version: 2015g-1
Severity: wishlist

Hello,

Michael Biebl and I just discussed about /etc/timezone, as we carry a
patch for that in systemd [1]. For a long time, tzdata (and
systemd-timedated) copied /usr/share/zoneinfo/... to /etc/timezone
because we needed to account for having a separate /usr. However,
since initramfs-tools 0.117 (in Jessie) /usr always gets mounted in
the initramfs, so during system boot we can rely on it.

Hence the original reason for not using a symlink is moot now. Would
you consider turning it into a symlink now? We'd gladly follow along
in systemd and drop that patch.

With a symlink there's less conffile jitter on timezone updates, less
chance of it becoming inconsistent with newer tzdata updates, fewer
things to be put into your /etc/ git backup; and I don't believe that
/etc/timezone is really meant to be changed by admins -- i. e. it's
not meant to be a conffile, it just was there because in earlier
Debian releases a symlink was unreliable during early boot.

Thanks for considering!

Martin

[1] http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/pkg-systemd/systemd.git/tree/debian/patches/timedated-don-t-rely-on-usr-being-mounted-in-the-ini.patch
-- 
Martin Pitt                        | http://www.piware.de
Ubuntu Developer (www.ubuntu.com)  | Debian Developer  (www.debian.org)
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