Hello friends and colleagues,
Debian Policy no longer requires that packages which provide a systemd .service
file also provide an initscript. This permits maintainers who so wish to remove
initscripts from their packages. However, initscripts remain used and useful[1],
and uncoordinated removal can have significant effects on users' systems[2].
With the encouragement of the Technical Committee[3] and despite some
unavoidable deficiencies resulting consequent on keeping initscripts without
their intended package[4], orphan-sysvinit-scripts has collected and maintained
some dropped initscripts. However, the process surrounding this has not been
defined in Policy. Indeed, #975075[5] contains a number of suggestions that have
not yet been followed through.
The most recent proposal[6] for updating the Policy with a requirement to use
tmpfiles.d(5) states
"Init systems other than ``systemd`` should allow providing the same
functionality as appropriate for each system, for example managing the
directories from the init script shipped by the package."
This creates an inconsistency whereby non-systemd inits are required to provide
functionality in their initscript, but that initscript is not required to be
present.
To avoid breakage of existing systems and facilitate ongoing support for
non-systemd inits, I would like to establish a consensus for
- stating that initscripts remain useful.
- requiring a coordinated transition of any initscript a maintainer wishes to
drop to the orphan-sysvinit-scripts package and providing the relevant
copyright information.
Best wishes
Mark