Bug#1005282: systemd: Documentation needed for initramfs copies of *.link files

[Michael Biebl]

Am 10.02.22 um 13:48 schrieb Kevin P. Fleming:
> Package: systemd
> Version: 247.3-6
> Severity: normal
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> Recently I renamed some *.link files on a headless server (changing the names
> inside the files to match), but after rebooting the server I was unable to
> access it. After much head-scratching I realized that the previous *.link files
> had been copied into the initramfs during a kernel package installation some
> time in the past, and the new files conflicted with the old ones, so systemd-
> networkd could not bring up the network interfaces.
> 
> After searching the bug tracker I see that a number of people have been caught
> in this 'trap', and the advice given has been to run update-initramfs after
> making changes (or adding) *.link files. While that certainly does cure the
> problem, I can't find any documentation in the installed system which would
> have lead me to know that I needed to do that.
> 
> Have I overlooked documentation of this behavior? It doesn't appear in
> systemd.link(5), and it doesn't appear in the 'networkd' section of
> README.Debian.gz for the systemd package. I can't be certain that this is
> Debian-specific behavior (an inquiry about that on the systemd-devel list
> hasn't elicited any responses), but it's definitely not 'upstream' behavior.
> 
> Please consider documenting this in at least those two places in a very obvious
> way. I wish there was a more direct way to notify users that an initramfs
> update will be required, but short of having a daemon watch
> /etc/systemd/network for changes I can't think of any way to do that.
> 
> I'd be happy to provide a patch to add this documentation to those two files if
> that would be welcome. Thanks for your time and consideration.
> 
> 

A patch (or merge request) for README.Debian would be much appreciated.

I don't think we should start patching the upstream documentation, as 
this will be a maintenance burden.

Since the renaming is actually done by udev, the documentation should 
probably go in udev.README.Debian.

It already has some existing notes in that regard which could be 
extended/amended.

You could cross-reference the udev.README.Debian from 
systemd.README.Debian to avoid unnecessary duplication.


If you want to learn more about how the actual pieces fit together, see
$ dpkg -L udev | grep initramfs-tools

specifically /usr/share/initramfs-tools/hooks/udev

https://salsa.debian.org/systemd-team/systemd/-/blame/debian/master/debian/extra/initramfs-tools/hooks/udev
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: OpenPGP_signature
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 840 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <http://alioth-lists.debian.net/pipermail/pkg-systemd-maintainers/attachments/20220210/5c6081b6/attachment.sig>