Re: Removing sysV init files

[Russ Allbery <rra@debian.org>]

Alec Leamas <leamas.alec@gmail.com> writes:

> In the process of a complicated update, there is a question about how to
> handle the systemV init scripts when doing the systemd transition.

> The package (lirc) has upstream systemd scripts which of course are
> packaged. The existing Debian version has sysV scripts. However, these
> are quite a pain to maintain.

> Given all this: would it be OK to drop the sysV files in a stretch
> update?

It sounds like the primary concern you have around keeping the files is
keeping them up-to-date.  If you don't have the resources to do that (or
prefer to spend them on other parts of the package), let me suggest a
third option: ship the sysvinit scripts as-is in the package, and solicit
help from users of the package to update them.  You could put a large
comment at the top of the script plus a notice in changelog saying that
you're happy to keep including the sysvinit scripts, but don't use or test
them yourself, so are entirely reliant on other people submitting fixes.
You can then continue to make any obvious fixes (if the path to some
executable changes, etc.), but if no one steps forward, the more subtle
things are likely to degrade.

We had some really extended discussions about exactly this problem prior
to the init system discussion before the jessie release, and the above
approach seemed to have the most consensus.

I think this is also consistent with the TC decision (#746715):

    The issue of init system support recently came to the Technical
    Committee's attention again.[1]

    For the record, the TC expects maintainers to continue to support
    the multiple available init systems in Debian.  That includes
    merging reasonable contributions, and not reverting existing
    support without a compelling reason.

I feel like removing the sysvinit scripts entirely would be "reverting
existing support without a compelling reason."  But I also think that
people who want to use sysvinit (or upstart, or any other init system)
will have to contribute some support there in the form of bug reports and
patches, just as with any other non-default configuration in Debian.  Your
obligation as maintainer is to "merge reasonable contributions" as
mentioned above.

-- 
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>