On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 04:27:13AM -0500, Thomas Dickey wrote: > On Wed, Feb 04, 2026 at 07:44:07PM -0500, Thomas Dickey wrote: > > On Wed, Feb 04, 2026 at 10:53:32AM +0100, Chris Hofstaedtler wrote: > > > On Wed, Feb 04, 2026 at 04:43:25AM +0100, Vincent Lefevre wrote: > > > > On 2026-02-03 20:32:56 -0500, Thomas Dickey wrote: > > > > > On Fri, Jan 16, 2026 at 12:19:04AM +0100, Vincent Lefevre wrote: > > > > > > Package: xterm > > > > > > Version: 406-1 > > > > > > Severity: normal > > > > > > > > > > perhaps wishlist. > > > > > > > > No, as since the removal of utmp, this is now a required feature, as > > > > said by Chris Hofstaedtler. > > > > > > I object to this statement. I filed bugs in the past so each piece > > > of software can evaluate if it needs/wants changes. If a change is > > > wanted/warranted/useful at all is in the hands of the software > > > authors. > > > > Which bug report did you file against xterm, proposing to remove utmp? > > silence tells me that there was none. > > > I see a bug for wtmp (which Sven responded to, pointing out that xterm > > uses libutempter), but don't see any followup to ensure that libutempter > > was updated and made to work with systemd. > > > > https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?archive=both;dist=unstable;ordering=normal;repeatmerged=0;src=libutempter > > ...looking further, I see that this is not really a bug in xterm, but a > defective development process at work. > > For xterm: > utmp is wanted to provide a way to display short-term connections. > > wtmp isn't used in the configuration that's built with libutempter, > and since it's unlikely that Debian would package a configuration > of xterm allowing it to do this, the issue of loginctl is moot. > (If you have found a way to do this, you should cite systemd's > documentation to prove that it will work). > > Now... xterm's used libutempter since January 2000. If the package > for libutempter0 is updated to ensure that /run/utmp exists, the > "who" program can report the information that libutempter would write > to it: > > who /run/utmp > > apt-cache says there are a few other programs using libutempter: > > libutempter0 > Reverse Depends: > libutempter-dev > xwrited > xterm > xfce4-terminal > mosh > guake > > screen apparently does not, but since its upstream terminfo file is long > out of date, I see that is due to neglect rather than deliberate design. > > Other programs would benefit (comparing results from "who", it appears > that those include urxvt). > > So... the way forward here is to reassign this to an appropriate package, > restoring /run/utmp > > I have a fork/NMU proposed for this fix, which I'll tidy up this evening.
I reassigned this to libutempter0, and started by a merge request in case the most recent developer would prefer that route: https://salsa.debian.org/cgzones/libutempter/-/merge_requests/2 If there's no response in a reasonable amount of time, I'll try an NMU. https://mentors.debian.net/package/libutempter/ -- Thomas E. Dickey <[email protected]> https://invisible-island.net
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