Bug#727708: init system coupling etc.

[Colin Watson <cjwatson@debian.org>]

On Thu, Feb 13, 2014 at 06:51:13PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> In the spirit of my response to Noah Meyerhans:
> 
>     In general, software may not require a specific init system to be
>     pid 1.  The exceptions to this are as follows:
>       * alternative init system implementations
>       * special-use packages such as managers for init systems
>       * cooperating groups of packages intended for use with specific init
> 	systems
>    provided that these are not themselves required by other software
>    whose main purpose is not the operation of a specific init system.
> 
>    Degraded operation with some init systems is tolerable, so long as
>    the degradation is no worse than a tolerable bug.  So the lack of
>    a particular init system does not excuse a bug nor reduce its
>    severity; but conversely, nor is a bug more serious simply because
>    it is an incompatibility of some software with some init
>    system(s).
> 
> Is this a clearer line to draw ?

This is largely clearer, thank you, but I find myself tripping over the
repetition of "tolerable" - it looks tautologous to me until about the
third reading - and the start of the second sentence is hard for me to
understand.  How about this amendment?

diff --git a/727708_initsystem/coupling-iwj-col-iwj.txt b/727708_initsystem/coupling-iwj-col-iwj.txt
index fc229ea..f14359c 100644
--- a/727708_initsystem/coupling-iwj-col-iwj.txt
+++ b/727708_initsystem/coupling-iwj-col-iwj.txt
@@ -24,11 +24,12 @@
    whose main purpose is not the operation of a specific init system.
 
    Degraded operation with some init systems is tolerable, so long as
-   the degradation is no worse than a tolerable bug.  So the lack of
-   a particular init system does not excuse a bug nor reduce its
-   severity; but conversely, nor is a bug more serious simply because
-   it is an incompatibility of some software with some init
-   system(s).
+   the degradation is no worse than what the Debian project would
+   consider a tolerable (non-RC) bug even if it were affecting all
+   users.  So the lack of support for a particular init system does not
+   excuse a bug nor reduce its severity; but conversely, nor is a bug
+   more serious simply because it is an incompatibility of some software
+   with some init system(s).
 
    Maintainers are encouraged to accept technically sound patches
    to enable improved interoperation with various init systems.

I don't want to get into overspecifying what's tolerable and what's not,
but this seems like a useful clarification and hopefully common ground.

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson@debian.org]