Bug#1084963: systemd: dangling symlink /etc/default/locale

[Luca Boccassi]

Control: tags -1 wontfix
Control: close -1

On Sat, 12 Oct 2024 00:47:15 +0200 Christoph Anton Mitterer
<calestyo at scientia.org> wrote:
> Package: systemd
> Version: 256.7-1
> Severity: minor
> 
> 
> Hey.
> 
> This is probalby not a real problem and if at all rather just a
> cosmetic issue... so I'm totally fine if you just close the bug
> without changing anything, and this is merely a heads up in case
> no one ever noticed it before:
> 
> When e.g. debootstrapping a minimal debian, there will be a
> a dangling symlink /etc/default/locale which points to ../locale.conf
> but that doesn't exist.
> 
> The symlink is created by /u/s/tmpfiles.d/debian.conf ... systemd’s
> postinst would move it (if it was a regular file) to /etc/locale.conf
> but it seems neither (regular file) is created in a minimal
> installation in the first place.
> 
> Not sure who actually creates it, I’d guess the debconf of the
> locales package?
> 
> 
> Cheers,
> Chris.

Yeah that's normal in such cases, the locales package will create the
locale file, but there's no hard dependency to pull that in. The
symlink is for backward compatibility.