Bug#887343: systemd-timesyncd does not start with DynamicUser=yes

[Martin Pitt]

Guido Günther [2018-01-15 12:14 +0100]:
> > > This seems to be caused by the fact that libnss-systemd is not a hard
> > > dependency of systemd. I'm not sure what the best solution is? Having a
> > > service that is enabled by fails to start looks weird though. Maybe
> > > providing a static user isn't that bad?
> > > 
> > 
> > It requires libnss-systemd, yes. Do you not have it installed?
> > It's a recommends, so should be installed by default
> 
> See above: "without installing recommends". My whole point is that the
> systemd package installs a service that won't even start without the
> recommends which looks somewhat wrong to me.

Note that *in general*, DynamicUser=yes does not *require* libnss-systemd.
Services start without it, the only effect is that showing the process with
tools like "ps" will not be able to resolve a dynamic user ID to a name - it
will just be shown as an ID. This might be a bit confusing, but acceptable for
some environments, hence I just made it a Recommends:, not a Depends:.

If timesyncd in particular somehow wants to resolve the systemd-timesyncd
system user in its own code, then that either should be fixed, or systemd needs
to raise libnss-systemd to a Depends: for that particular bug/reason.

Martin