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

[Michael Biebl]

Am 29.05.2017 um 08:37 schrieb Martin Pitt:
> Hello Maximilian,
> 
> Maximilian Stein [2017-05-28 22:12 +0200]:
>> I tried it again and apparently, /etc/mtab was actually created by FAI,
>> not by debootstrap, sorry for the confusion. But maybe it would be an
>> idea to create it by debootstrap to avoid its creation on the first boot?

I think if you use debian-installer to install the system, it will also
create /etc/mtab (as an absolute symlink to /proc/mounts). The
debian.conf tmpfiles config will "correct" that on first boot to make it
a relative symlink.

> Please let's not. /etc/mtab is a thing of the past, and nothing should use it
> any more. util-linux had been the primary reason for still having it in jessie,
> but in testing util-linux, systemd, udisks, etc. completely ignore that file
> (aside from the backwards compat jobs to create it if not present).
> 
> After wheezy's release I would rather drop the /etc/mtab creation bit from
> systemd, and FAI should do the same.
> 

I guess you mean stretch, but yeah, we had this fixup rule for two
release cycles (via debian-fixup.service in jessie and via the tmpfiles
snippet in stretch). Maybe it's time to drop that in buster.
Should we get d-i (and FAI) updated to drop the creation of /etc/mtab as
well then?


-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

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