Bug#862992: systemd: avoid attempt to re-create /etc/mtab by systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service

[Maximilian Stein]

Package: systemd
Version: 232-23
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,

After having upgraded to Stretch, I noticed that
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service attempts to create /etc/mtab as
configured in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/debian.conf. Unfortunately, this
does not work on some of my machines where / is mounted read-only and
consequently, systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service fails.

Moreover, this step does not seem to be necessary, as /etc/mtab is
symlinked to /proc/mounts after a fresh debootstrap. /proc/mounts in
turn symlinks to /proc/self/mounts, the same file as configured in
/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/debian.conf.

What exactly are the reasons for re-creating /etc/mtab on every boot? Is
this step really necessary?

For now, I just use Jessie's version of /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/debian.conf.

Best,
Maximilian Stein

-- Package-specific info:

-- System Information:
Debian Release: 9.0
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (900, 'testing'), (800, 'stable')
Architecture: amd64
 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386, armhf

Kernel: Linux 4.9.0-2-amd64 (SMP w/8 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages systemd depends on:
ii  adduser         3.115
ii  libacl1         2.2.52-3+b1
ii  libapparmor1    2.11.0-3
ii  libaudit1       1:2.6.7-2
ii  libblkid1       2.29.2-1
ii  libc6           2.24-10
ii  libcap2         1:2.25-1
ii  libcryptsetup4  2:1.7.3-4
ii  libgcrypt20     1.7.6-1
ii  libgpg-error0   1.26-2
ii  libidn11        1.33-1
ii  libip4tc0       1.6.0+snapshot20161117-6
ii  libkmod2        23-2
ii  liblz4-1        0.0~r131-2+b1
ii  liblzma5        5.2.2-1.2+b1
ii  libmount1       2.29.2-1
ii  libpam0g        1.1.8-3.5
ii  libseccomp2     2.3.1-2.1
ii  libselinux1     2.6-3+b1
ii  libsystemd0     232-23
ii  mount           2.29.2-1
ii  util-linux      2.29.2-1

Versions of packages systemd recommends:
ii  dbus            1.10.18-1
ii  libpam-systemd  232-23

Versions of packages systemd suggests:
ii  policykit-1        0.105-17
ii  systemd-container  232-23
pn  systemd-ui         <none>

Versions of packages systemd is related to:
pn  dracut           <none>
ii  initramfs-tools  0.130
ii  udev             232-23

-- no debconf information


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