Hi, On Wed, 2023-04-26 at 16:25 +0200, Marc Haber wrote: > On Mon, 24 Apr 2023 15:48:02 +0100, Matthew Vernon > <matt...@debian.org> wrote: > > One thing I'd say is: please keep the init script in your package, > > so that people using inits other than systemd can continue to use > > it. > > I am not sure whether it is doing non-systemd users a favor to keep a > probably outdated, bitrotting and untested init script in the > canonical place.
OTOH it is an un-favor to move or remove it, no matter if it is half- working or completely non-working. For a less experienced user it will be easier to fix a half-/non-working script in place than to look for it in obscure places, copy it from another distro or get it from a magic 'curl http... | sh' link. > My gut feeling is that it might be better to ship the old init script > in /usr/share/doc/package/examples unless the package maintainer is > reasonably sure that the init script will actually work. It is better to keep the init script in place. That will not affect systemd users in any way, besides <1k in disk space (same as with /usr/share/doc/package/examples). Also in case the maintainer is not interested in the init script, then the task for keeping the init script in good order should be left to those interested on a best effort basis. Who cares if a package ships a 100% bit-rotten init script? Only the people who use that un-popular init system. Then let them fix it. On the maintainer side - how much does it hurt to occasionally accept a patch for a small file? It would have been much easier if dpkg did allow to declare in package B that package A depends on B and in case A is removed then B should also go (to name it precisely, the relation is supplement)... Unlike sysvinit upstart is obsolete and removing upstart configuration is a good thing. But that is not the case with sysvinit. Removing the init scripts really hurts a group of people. Compared to Debian's user base that group is very very small. But tell me how small is a good number to be 'safely' ignored/neglected? 100, 1000 or 10000? With best regards, b.
