Bug#1069182: initscripts: udev initscript SHOULD NOT clear the udev database at startup

[Mark Hindley]

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Alex,

Many thanks for this and your detailed analysis.

On Wed, Apr 17, 2024 at 05:25:08PM +0500, Alex Volkov wrote:
> Now, /etc/init.d/udev for some reason does this in its start clause:
> 
> ===
>    135      # clean up parts of the database created by the initramfs udev
>    136      udevadm info --cleanup-db
> ===

 [...] 

> Note that systemd-based systems are not affected, as they seemingly don't 
> relate to the initrd scripts for starting udev.

I suspect the original reason for this will be hard to track down. Git blaming
d/udev.init from systemd 254.1-3 shows those lines as being merged in 2013 from
udev 175-7[1].

> If there is a valid reason for cleaning the database, the issue needs to be
> researched further, of course.

Quite.

Dear systemd maintainers,

Do you have any insight into why clearing the initramfs udev db might have been
or might still be required? Or any unanticipated effects of not doing so?

Thanks

Mark

[1]  https://salsa.debian.org/systemd-team/systemd/-/commit/b56f8637a1e03ac6a45af7820287159df9b506b9