Hi Andrew, Thanks for your nice bugreport + patch. In runit's chpst(8) I read:
If chpst is called as envdir, envuidgid, pgrphack, setlock, setuidgid, or softlimit, it emulates the functionality of these programs from the daemontools package respectively. Doesn't this mean that daemons which ship daemontools-style run scripts work out of the box under runit? Or am I missing something here? Bye, Joost On Sat, Feb 21, 2026 at 05:56:57PM +0000, Andrew Bower wrote: > Source: daemontools > Version: 1:0.76-15 > Severity: wishlist > Tags: patch > X-Debbugs-Cc: [email protected] > > Dear Maintainer, > > The daemontools-inspired family of supervision suites typically share the > ability to emulate some subset of the daemontools tools with compatible > behaviour. > > For example, chpst from runit can emulate envdir, envuidgid, pgrphack, > setlock, > setuidgid and softlimit. > > Similarly, run scripts for daemons using these suites, if they don't take > advantage of features unique to those suites, may be compatible between them. > > In practice, that compatibility is limited because of features included in > distributions, such as runit service directories in Debian typically using > /usr/lib/runit/invoke-run to perform some standard actions. However, third > party-provided service directories especially may well stick to the basics. > The > debian package 'publicfile' is compatible with daemontools and runit > supervision. > > Ideally someone writing a run script that only needed the behaviour of > 'setlock' would simply call 'setlock', for example. However, that would > mean unnecessarily depending on the daemontools package when your > service might be running with runit that already has 'chpst' installed, > and so will be written to use 'chpst -l' instead. > > We can fix this by installing all the common tools using the Debian > 'alternatives' mechanism. This is very lightweight - symlink traversal is > extremely cheap in Linux. > > I attach a patch for daemontools that does this. For simplicitly it groups > together all the tools that 'chpst' can emulate (headlined by the 'envdir' > tool), but theses could be split into a different alternative for each tool if > one wanted that granularity. An additional group just contains 'fghack', which > my 'xchpst' tool can also emulate. > > I also attach example patches for the 'runit' and 'xchpst' packages to show > how > this could work. > > Here is some example output: > > # sudo update-alternatives --config daemontools > There are 3 choices for the alternative daemontools (providing > /usr/bin/envdir). > > Selection Path Priority Status > ------------------------------------------------------------ > 0 /usr/bin/envdir.djb 50 auto mode > 1 /usr/bin/chpst 30 manual mode > 2 /usr/bin/envdir.djb 50 manual mode > * 3 /usr/bin/xchpst 40 manual mode > > Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 1 > update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/chpst to provide /usr/bin/envdir > (daemontools) in manual mode > > The presence of alternatives will also help developers trying to compare > behaviours across different toolsets. > > What do you think about this idea? > > Andrew > > -- System Information: > Debian Release: forky/sid > APT prefers unstable > APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental') > Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) > Foreign Architectures: i386 > > Kernel: Linux 6.18.9+deb14-amd64 (SMP w/24 CPU threads; PREEMPT) > Locale: LANG=en_GB.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_GB.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), > LANGUAGE=en_GB:en > Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash > Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init) > LSM: AppArmor: enabled > diff --git a/debian/daemontools-man/envdir.8 > b/debian/daemontools-man/envdir.djb.8 > similarity index 100% > rename from debian/daemontools-man/envdir.8 > rename to debian/daemontools-man/envdir.djb.8 > diff --git a/debian/daemontools-man/envuidgid.8 > b/debian/daemontools-man/envuidgid.djb.8 > similarity index 100% > rename from debian/daemontools-man/envuidgid.8 > rename to debian/daemontools-man/envuidgid.djb.8 > diff --git a/debian/daemontools-man/fghack.8 > b/debian/daemontools-man/fghack.djb.8 > similarity index 100% > rename from debian/daemontools-man/fghack.8 > rename to debian/daemontools-man/fghack.djb.8 > diff --git a/debian/daemontools-man/pgrphack.8 > b/debian/daemontools-man/pgrphack.djb.8 > similarity index 100% > rename from debian/daemontools-man/pgrphack.8 > rename to debian/daemontools-man/pgrphack.djb.8 > diff --git a/debian/daemontools-man/setlock.8 > b/debian/daemontools-man/setlock.djb.8 > similarity index 100% > rename from debian/daemontools-man/setlock.8 > rename to debian/daemontools-man/setlock.djb.8 > diff --git a/debian/daemontools-man/setuidgid.8 > b/debian/daemontools-man/setuidgid.djb.8 > similarity index 100% > rename from debian/daemontools-man/setuidgid.8 > rename to debian/daemontools-man/setuidgid.djb.8 > diff --git a/debian/daemontools-man/softlimit.8 > b/debian/daemontools-man/softlimit.djb.8 > similarity index 100% > rename from debian/daemontools-man/softlimit.8 > rename to debian/daemontools-man/softlimit.djb.8 > diff --git a/debian/daemontools.alternatives b/debian/daemontools.alternatives > new file mode 100644 > index 0000000..9ea64ae > --- /dev/null > +++ b/debian/daemontools.alternatives > @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ > +Name: daemontools > +Link: /usr/bin/envdir > +Alternative: /usr/bin/envdir.djb > +Dependents: > + /usr/bin/envuidgid envuidgid /usr/bin/envuidgid.djb > + /usr/bin/pgrphack pgrphack /usr/bin/pgrphack.djb > + /usr/bin/setlock setlock /usr/bin/setlock.djb > + /usr/bin/setuidgid setuidgid /usr/bin/setuidgid.djb > + /usr/bin/softlimit softlimit /usr/bin/softlimit.djb > + /usr/share/man/man8/envdir.8.gz envdir.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/envdir.djb.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/envuidgid.8.gz envuidgid.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/envuidgid.djb.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/pgrphack.8.gz pgrphack.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/pgrphack.djb.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/setlock.8.gz setlock.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/setlock.djb.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/setuidgid.8.gz setuidgid.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/setuidgid.djb.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/softlimit.8.gz softlimit.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/softlimit.djb.8.gz > +Priority: 50 > + > +Name: fghack > +Link: /usr/bin/fghack > +Alternative: /usr/bin/fghack.djb > +Dependents: > + /usr/share/man/man8/fghack.8.gz fghack.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/fghack.djb.8.gz > +Priority: 50 > diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules > index 25ced00..4c4cdd5 100755 > --- a/debian/rules > +++ b/debian/rules > @@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ export DEB_CFLAGS_MAINT_APPEND = -std=gnu11 > -Wno-incompatible-pointer-types -Wno > > DIR=daemontools-0.76 > > +COMMON_SUPERVISION_TOOLS=envdir envuidgid fghack pgrphack setlock setuidgid > softlimit > + > override_dh_auto_build: > # create compile directory > mkdir -p '$(DIR)/compile/debian' > @@ -23,6 +25,9 @@ override_dh_auto_build: > cd '$(DIR)' && package/compile > # print sysdeps > cat $(DIR)/compile/sysdeps > + # rename commands shared by other supervision suites that will be > + # registered as 'alternatives' > + cd $(DIR)/command && for f in $(COMMON_SUPERVISION_TOOLS); do mv $$f > $$f.djb; done > > override_dh_auto_clean: > dh_auto_clean > commit 7fe44ff5be728e8f2a023ca9a1bc750bcd1a58ff > Author: Andrew Bower <[email protected]> > Date: Sat Feb 21 17:22:43 2026 +0000 > > add daemontools alternatives > > diff --git a/debian/runit.alternatives b/debian/runit.alternatives > new file mode 100644 > index 0000000..3af3508 > --- /dev/null > +++ b/debian/runit.alternatives > @@ -0,0 +1,16 @@ > +Name: daemontools > +Link: /usr/bin/envdir > +Alternative: /usr/bin/chpst > +Dependents: > + /usr/bin/envuidgid envuidgid /usr/bin/chpst > + /usr/bin/pgrphack pgrphack /usr/bin/chpst > + /usr/bin/setlock setlock /usr/bin/chpst > + /usr/bin/setuidgid setuidgid /usr/bin/chpst > + /usr/bin/softlimit softlimit /usr/bin/chpst > + /usr/share/man/man8/envdir.8.gz envdir.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/chpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/envuidgid.8.gz envuidgid.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/chpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/pgrphack.8.gz pgrphack.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/chpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/setlock.8.gz setlock.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/chpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/setuidgid.8.gz setuidgid.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/chpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/softlimit.8.gz softlimit.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/chpst.8.gz > +Priority: 30 > diff --git a/debian/xchpst.alternatives b/debian/xchpst.alternatives > new file mode 100644 > index 0000000..a721629 > --- /dev/null > +++ b/debian/xchpst.alternatives > @@ -0,0 +1,23 @@ > +Name: daemontools > +Link: /usr/bin/envdir > +Alternative: /usr/bin/xchpst > +Dependents: > + /usr/bin/envuidgid envuidgid /usr/bin/xchpst > + /usr/bin/pgrphack pgrphack /usr/bin/xchpst > + /usr/bin/setlock setlock /usr/bin/xchpst > + /usr/bin/setuidgid setuidgid /usr/bin/xchpst > + /usr/bin/softlimit softlimit /usr/bin/xchpst > + /usr/share/man/man8/envdir.8.gz envdir.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/xchpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/envuidgid.8.gz envuidgid.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/xchpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/pgrphack.8.gz pgrphack.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/xchpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/setlock.8.gz setlock.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/xchpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/setuidgid.8.gz setuidgid.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/xchpst.8.gz > + /usr/share/man/man8/softlimit.8.gz softlimit.8.gz > /usr/share/man/man8/xchpst.8.gz > +Priority: 40 > + > +Name: fghack > +Link: /usr/bin/fghack > +Alternative: /usr/bin/xchpst > +Dependents: > + /usr/share/man/man8/fghack.8.gz fghack.8.gz /usr/share/man/man8/xchpst.8.gz > +Priority: 40
