[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#851747: sysvinit-utils: unmaintained package should not be Essential

[Simon McVittie]

Package: sysvinit-utils
Version: 2.88dsf-59.8
X-Debbugs-Cc: init-system-helpers at packages.debian.org, debianutils at packages.debian.org

sysvinit appears to be unmaintained, but it builds an Essential package
(sysvinit-utils) that must be installed on all Debian systems. This
seems like a bad situation.

Contents of sysvinit-utils, ignoring documentation:

/lib/init/init-d-script
/lib/init/vars.sh
/sbin/fstab-decode
/bin/pidof == /sbin/killall5 (same program)

I think each of these interfaces should either:

* be declared non-Essential:
  - mass bug filing for uses without a dependency (unless those uses
    are only when sysvinit-core or initscripts is installed, in which
    case those packages pull in sysvinit-utils anyway)
  - eventually sysvinit-utils loses its Essential flag

* be declared Essential:
  - get moved to an existing Essential package, perhaps debianutils
    (I suspect Debian is effectively the upstream for this particular
    fork of sysvinit anyway) or init-system-helpers

I would personally lean towards non-Essential in all cases, but
pidof in particular seems unfortunately rather popular.