[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#781766: sysvinit should depend on initscripts for a functional /lib/sysvinit/init

[Josh Triplett]

On Tue, May 05, 2015 at 06:07:56PM +0200, Michael Biebl wrote:
> Am 05.05.2015 um 17:57 schrieb Josh Triplett:
> > On Tue, May 05, 2015 at 02:08:56PM +0200, Michael Biebl wrote:
> >> Hi,
> >>
> >> On Thu, 02 Apr 2015 11:24:53 -0700 Josh Triplett <josh at joshtriplett.org>
> >> wrote:
> >>> sysvinit-core depends on initscripts, but sysvinit does not.  However,
> >>> sysvinit ships /lib/sysvinit/init, and it should be possible to use
> >>> sysvinit by booting with init=/lib/sysvinit/init without having
> >>> sysvinit-core installed.  Thus, sysvinit needs to have dependencies on
> >>> any packages needed for a functional sysvinit init system, including
> >>> initscripts (and potentially other dependencies of sysvinit-core).
> >>
> >> The sysvinit package (as shipped in jessie) was mostly intended as a
> >> transitional measure when upgrading from wheezy to jessie.
> >> I tried to make that clear also in the package description.
> > 
> > I had assumed that the sysvinit package would stick around as long as
> > sysvinit does.  What is your plan post-jessie?
> 
> Drop it, most likely. It has done it's purpose to provide a smooth
> upgrade path from wheezy to jessie.

And drop the mechanism that allows booting sysvinit while keeping
systemd as /sbin/init?

> >> Keep in mind, that when installing jessie from scratch, there will be no
> >> /etc/inittab. This means, installing the sysvinit package (in parallel
> >> to systemd-sysv) will not result in a bootable system via
> >> init=/lib/sysvinit/init.
> >>
> >> Now, if there is desire to make the sysvinit package useful beyond the
> >> wheezy -> jessie upgrade, someone would have to deal with this inittab
> >> problem first, I think.
> > 
> > That's a good point.  I would have assumed that one of the sysvinit
> > packages would create /etc/inittab on installation.  I suspect that some
> > people installing jessie from scratch will find it rather surprising
> > when they're unable to switch to sysvinit simply by installing the
> > appropriate package.
> 
> You can switch to sysvinit-the-init-system by installing sysvinit-core.
> This will setup a generic /etc/inittab.

Ah.  I'd have guessed that that logic would live in sysvinit, not
sysvinit-core.

> sysvinit-the-package wasn't really designed to be installed on a
> pristine jessie system. It was meant to facilitate a smooth upgrade
> path. As said, I tried to make that clear in the package description.
> 
> Now, if someone want's to keep sysvinit-the-package for stretch, I don't
> have a strong feeling about it, but this would need coordination with
> the sysvinit-core package regarding the /etc/inittab handling.
> It's not something I plan to work on myself.

I don't particularly care myself, and if you're dropping the package
then obviously this dependency bug doesn't apply.  But if keeping it,
then yeah, it would need to create inittab the same way sysvinit-core
does, as well as adding the dependency mentioned in this bug.

Personally, in the stretch timeframe, I plan to work on making it
possible to remove the initscripts and sysv-rc packages from a systemd
system.

- Josh Triplett