Re: GR: Selecting the default init system for Debian
Le Sun, Jan 19, 2014 at 01:01:44AM +0100, Guillem Jover a écrit :
>
> I think that forcing a decision through the TC at this time was very
> premature and inappropriate, because I don't think enough effort had
> been made to reach consensus (failing §6.3(6))
Hi Guillem,
I agree that calling the TC was premature.
We have a default init system that has the Essential flag, and it is impossible
to switch to alternatives without going through a very strong warning.
In my understanding, to have GNOME 3.10 in Debian, we need to work around this
difficulty. As a consequence, this would pull systemd on such a large number
of systems, but as long as GNOME needs to explicitely depend on it, it is still
not the default.
I have not read GNOME or systemd packagers asking to the maintainers of
packages containing init scripts to drop support for our current default
system. The Debian way of doing things is that if a systemd service file is
missing, a patch should be sent.
If the TC choses a new default that is not systemd, the situation of GNOME does
not change: it will still need a mechanism to pull systemd and replace the default.
But at the time the TC was called, I was not under the impression that the
GNOME or systemd maintainers have asked for a decision, and I very much agree
with that: first, one has to show in Testing a system where GNOME and systemd
work well.
In that sense, the call to the TC was premature: we should remove obstacles for
change, and only top-down decide when some ways are incompatible in a way that
is affecting a large number of users. If one day it is not possible to have
Desktop manager A and Desktop manager B installed on the same machine, the
solution may be simply to call this "unsupported" unless there is a significant
demand for this feature.
Perhaps the way out is to solve the technical problem regarding the Essential
flag so that it is easier to install systemd, upstart or openrc, and defer a
decision untill the call for change comes from enough maintainers of init
scripts saying that they want to stop supporting it.
Have a nice day,
--
Charles Plessy
Tsurumi, Kanagawa, Japan
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