Bug#727708: Bits from linux.conf.au

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Bdale Garbee writes ("Bug#727708: Bits from linux.conf.au"):
> That's a great question.  I suspect most of the effort in thinking about
> init system transitions so far has gone in to figuring out how to replace
> sysvinit.  But if we're truly going to support alternatives, ensuring we
> have a robust mechanism for deciding which of several init systems that
> may be simultaneously installed is "active" and will control the next
> boot is clearly a requirement.

Yes.  I don't think this is particularly difficult, if we are
relatively relaxed about our requirements.  (For example, we don't
require that daemon enablement is preserved across such a transition,
and we don't require that daemon management works properly after such
a transition has been initiated but not yet completed by a reboot.)

Or to put it another way: obviously it has to be possible for people
to switch, but I don't think it has to be easy.

Ian.