Re: Bug#727708: init system discussion status

[Josh Triplett <josh@joshtriplett.org>]

Clint Adams wrote:
>On Fri, Jan 03, 2014 at 10:02:01AM -0800, Nikolaus Rath wrote:
>> As said elsewhere, I think there should be a paragraph about packages
>> that depend on a specific init system for reasons other than service
>> startup, e.g.
>> 
>> 4. The above criterium also extends to dependencies that are not related
>>    to service startup. In jessie, no package may depend on a single
>>    initsystem other than sysvinit. After jessie, no package may depend
>>    on a single init system other than the default init.
>> 
>> or alternatively   
>> 
>> 4. Packages may, however, depend on a specific init system (which may
>>    not be the default init) for features that are not related to daemon
>>    startup. Such packages will only be installable on systems running a
>>    non-default init, but are permitted in the archive.
>
> As loath as I am to participate in this discussion, I have to ask
> if your intent is to suddenly outlaw all the packages which depend
> on runit.

I think it'd be appropriate to allow dependencies on runit (or another
package that contains an implementation of /sbin/init), as long as
either the depending package doesn't depend on having /sbin/init be that
init (which holds true for runit), *or* if an alternative package exists
to integrate with the default init system.  For instance, git-daemon-run
versus git-daemon-sysvinit versus a hypothetical git-daemon-systemd, or
a future gnome-session-systemd or gnome-session-upstart package (for
whichever init system isn't the default).  (Note that the latter would
work better if upstart stopped conflicting with sysvinit, similar to how
systemd can be installed without being init.)

- Josh Triplett