Bug#992624: systemd: logind.conf.d

[Josh Triplett]

On Sun, Aug 22, 2021 at 03:33:23PM +0000, Clint Adams wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 22, 2021 at 10:56:34AM +0200, Michael Biebl wrote:
> > Hm, I'm a bit torn on this. If we go this route, then in order to be
> > consistent, we'd have to create a whole bunch of such directories, basically
> > for all those files:
> 
> I understand the desire to be consistent, and I don't want to argue
> for or against it, so I'll just talk about my experience.
> 
> On laptops I override HandleLidSwitchExternalPower (and sometimes
> HandleLidSwitch).  Historically this has meant dealing with the
> conffile handling question on every single update.  Seeing this
> time that there is now a drop-in directory available means the
> possibility that I can just put a file in there and never have
> to answer that question again.
> 
> The lack of the directory makes me question whether I have the
> path correct or if logind will actually look there.  I have gone
> ahead and made the directory myself though, and placed a
> lidswitch.conf therein, but if the directory had been there already
> I would have just blindly assumed that it would work (probably even
> if I had failed to name it with a ".conf" suffix).
> 
> So, is it worth it?  I don't know either.

I added the support for some of these .d directories upstream, and I had
these exact kinds of drop-ins in mind. I have a configuration .deb that
I install on various systems for this exact bit of configuration:

~$ dpkg -L josh-config-logind
/.
/etc
/etc/systemd
/etc/systemd/logind.conf.d
/etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/josh-config-logind.conf
/usr
/usr/share
/usr/share/doc
/usr/share/doc/josh-config-logind
/usr/share/doc/josh-config-logind/changelog.gz
/usr/share/doc/josh-config-logind/copyright
~$ cat /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/josh-config-logind.conf
[Login]
HandleLidSwitch=lock

(I should actually update those configuration packages to install their
configuration in /usr rather than /etc.)

I would very much prefer that we *not* add a bunch of empty directories
in /etc, or for that matter in /usr. The manpages specifically list the
paths for this, and those paths do work. And those directories will
naturally come into existence when a package installs a file into them,
and disappear when nothing installs files into them.

I personally find it *much* easier to get a handle on a system's
configuration in /etc when I can see at a glance what configuration
directories actually contain configuration files, without having a pile
of empty directories or empty configuration files.

I'd like to request that, now that the release has happened, we change
systemd's install-sysconfdir option to "false".

- Josh Triplett