[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#509449: initscripts Conflicts/Replaces old sysvinit

[Ian Jackson]

Package: initscripts
Version: 2.86.ds1-38

The control file here says:
  Replaces: ... sysvinit (<< 2.85-12) ...
  Conflicts: ... sysvinit (<< 2.86.ds1-12) ...

The effect of this is that when you say
  dpkg -i initscripts.deb
on a system with older sysvinit, dpkg will deinstall sysvinit in
favour of initscripts.  This is the effect of the Conflicts/Replaces
combination (and is documented in the policy manual).

If the administrator does not notice this obviously renders the system
unbootable !

Perhaps what was meant was:
 * This package replaces some files from old sysvinit
and
 * This package must not be installed at the same time as old
   sysvinit
But of course this is not a sensible combination.  If the package must
not be installed at the same time, then there is no need to worry
about file conflicts.

Since the Conflicts covers all of the version range that the Replaces
does, it suffices to remove the Replaces entry.

If this affected upgrades from sarge I would have set the severity to
`grave' for obvious reasons.  However it only causes problems for
upgrades from woody (and earlier).  People are still doing that, but I
understand that this isn't a well-supported operation.

Nevertheless I think that this very small fix should be considered for
a stable point release in etch.  It is easy to see that the change is
safe because it only affects systems with sysvinit versions older than
oldstable.

Ian.