Bug#1095108: systemd: make systemd the authoritative source of machine-id

[Luca Boccassi]

Control: tags -1 wontfix
Control: close -1

On Mon, 03 Feb 2025 18:21:14 +0000 cacin at allfreemail.net wrote:
> Package: systemd
> Version: 257.2-3
> Severity: normal
> 
> Dear Maintainer,
> 
> there are currently two different files that provide a machine-id
> 
> /etc/machine-id
> /var/lib/dbus/machine-id
> 
> /etc/machine-id is owned by systemd, and is considered a more
universal
> source of this information.
> 
> /var/lib/dbus/machine-id is owned by dbus.
> 
> Unfortunately, it has happened before that these two files get out of
> sync and contain different information:
> 
> https://bugs.debian.org/783716
> https://bugs.debian.org/994096#10
> https://bugs.debian.org/1040790
> 
> Even today, on a fresh debian 12 system (and in trixie too), the two
> files have different file modes, /etc/machine-id is 0444 and
> /var/lib/dbus/machine-id is 0644
> 
> The right solution to this problem is to make /var/lib/dbus/machine-
id a
> symlink to /etc/machine-id
> 
> This is already behavior that is defined in
> /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/dbus.conf but it is not enforced.
> 
> Please try to get debian to agree on a single authoritative source of
> machine-id, in a single file with a well-known location.

Sorry but this is not something that can be done downstream and in the
systemd package, as /var/lib/dbus/machine-id is owned by upstream dbus,
so please raise the issue there if you want to see it changed.
If upstream dbus decides to do something about this, then it can be
revisited.