[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#645540: "Essential" package conflict between sysvinit and systemd-sysv

[Roger Leigh]

On Mon, Feb 06, 2012 at 06:40:55PM +0100, Michael Biebl wrote:
> Instead of trying to make system(-sysv) Essential, I'm wondering if we
> can't just drop the Essential flag from sysvinit.
> 
> At least the special semantic property of an Essential package - being
> usable directly after unpack - is not relevant for sysvinit afaics.
> 
> Being priority: required will also make sure it is installed by default.
> 
> Another essential package, like base-files, could depend on sysvinit |
> init and systemd-sysv (or upstart for that matter) could add a Provides:
> init as soon as we see fit.
> 
> This way we would ensure that we always have a working /sbin/init which
> basically is what the kernel or the initramfs expects.

This sounds useful and, if done properly, shouldn't cause any
breakage.  I'm not sure that base-files is necessarily the
best package to add the dependency to--it has no deps.  Possibly
creating an Essential "base-init" package which contains the
dependencies would be better.  It could be separate or just
added to sysvinit as a new package.

This would also permit us to provide a dummy init package for
e.g. chroot environments, potentially.


Regards,
Roger

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