Bug#1014431: popularity-contest: automatically create hostid if not specified in popularity-contest.conf

[Bill Allombert <ballombe@debian.org>]

On Sat, Jul 16, 2022 at 10:18:11AM +0200, Ansgar wrote:
> On Thu, 2022-07-14 at 19:59 +0200, Bill Allombert wrote:
> > On Thu, Jul 14, 2022 at 06:29:55PM +0200, Ansgar wrote:
> > > > From man:machine-id(5):
> > > 
> > > +---
> > > > The machine ID is usually generated from a random source during
> > > > system installation or first boot and stays constant for all
> > > > subsequent boots. Optionally, for stateless systems, it is generated
> > > > during runtime during early boot if necessary.
> > > +---
> > > 
> > > That looks like it fulfills what I guess popcon needs.
> > 
> > Almost. Is it possible to detect stateless system so that they do not report to popcon?
> 
> Does popcon detect such systems currently?  I don't think anything
> changes for such systems with the proposed change?
> 
> I'm not sure how one would reliably detect such systems; after all
> depending on ones definition any VM in a cloud may be such a system
> (depending on how it is used).

The paragraph you quote says 'optionally', so maybe it is possible to
know whether this option is in effect ?

Cheers,
-- 
Bill. <ballombe@debian.org>

Imagine a large red swirl here.