Bug#756023: init: Move "Essential: yes" from init to init-system-helpers

[Felipe Sateler]

On 5 May 2016 at 10:05, Ansgar Burchardt <ansgar at debian.org> wrote:
> Control: retitle -1 init: Move "Essential: yes" from init to init-system-helpers
> Control: tag -1 - patch
> Control: forcemerge -1 823501
>
> I would like "init" to be optional in Debian 9 for chroot environments
> and some uses of containers.  A first step seems to be making "init" no
> longer essential; it would nice nice if the priority could later be
> downgraded as well (to "important") so that a minimal debootstrap will
> not install it.
>
> As maintainer scripts call `invoke-rc.d` and `update-rc.d`
> unconditionally, the package providing these scripts should be made
> essential (i.e. add "Essential: yes" to init-system-helpers).

Just thinking out loud, but maybe it would be reasonable to provide
dummy implementations for container/chroot uses. If the real
implementation lives in the Essential: yes package, that makes it more
difficult to swap them.

Of course, that indirection package need not be init.

>
> So, suggestion to proceed:
>
>  - Now:
>    + "init" package: Remove "Essential: yes"
>    + "init-system-helpers" package: Add "Essential: yes"
>  - Later:
>    + "init": Change priority from "required" to "important".

Later, as in post-stretch?


> Do we miss anything to start with moving the "Essential" field?  I think
> /bin/pidof was mentioned which is provided by sysvinit-utils; however
> sysvinit-utils will continue to stay quasi-essential as util-linux has
>   Depends: sysvinit-utils (>= 2.88dsf-59.1~)
> and util-linux is an essential package.

The util-linux maintainer is very much trying to get rid of that
dependency (I can't find an online reference, but discussed on IRC),
and it is not done only because apt currently does not deal
particularly well with versioned Breaks "loops" involving essential
packages.

-- 

Saludos,
Felipe Sateler