Your message dated Sat, 19 Sep 2026 15:34:13 +0000
with message-id <[email protected]>
and subject line Bug#1146795: fixed in init-system-helpers 1.69+nmu2
has caused the Debian Bug report #1146795,
regarding init-system-helpers: fails to upgrade systemd on Debian CI: Can't
exec "kill": No such file or directory
to be marked as done.
This means that you claim that the problem has been dealt with.
If this is not the case it is now your responsibility to reopen the
Bug report if necessary, and/or fix the problem forthwith.
(NB: If you are a system administrator and have no idea what this
message is talking about, this may indicate a serious mail system
misconfiguration somewhere. Please contact [email protected]
immediately.)
--
1146795: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1146795
Debian Bug Tracking System
Contact [email protected] with problems
--- Begin Message ---
Package: init-system-helpers
Version: 1.69+nmu1
Severity: serious
Justification: non-declared dependency; fails on systemd upgrades if procps is
missing
Dear Maintainer,
I have been see has been causing this issue all over jobs on Debian
CI: when upgrading from testing, it causes the apt upgrade to fail like
this:
----------------8<----------------8<----------------8<-----------------
Setting up systemd (262~rc1-2) ...
Can't exec "kill": No such file or directory at /usr/bin/deb-systemd-invoke
line 179.
Job for systemd-journald.service failed because the control process exited with
error code.
See "systemctl status systemd-journald.service" and "journalctl -xeu
systemd-journald.service" for details.
Job for systemd-networkd.service failed because the control process exited with
error code.
See "systemctl status systemd-networkd.service" and "journalctl -xeu
systemd-networkd.service" for details.
Setting up systemd-resolved (262~rc1-2) ...
Could not execute systemctl: at /usr/bin/deb-systemd-invoke line 148.
----------------8<----------------8<----------------8<-----------------
I can reproduce this locally with autopkgtest, like this:
autopkgtest --no-built-binaries --apt-upgrade --add-apt-release=unstable
--pin-packages=unstable=src:systemd debian-security-support -- incus
autopkgtest/debian/testing/arm64
This is caused by an implicit dependeny on procps (for /usr/bin/kill).
The code around deb-systemd-invoke line 179 is:
178 if ($is_system) {
179 system('kill', '-s', $signal, '1');
180 } else {
181 system('systemctl', '--quiet', 'kill', '--kill-whom=main',
'--signal', $signal, 'user@*.servic e');
182 }
The attached patch (against git master) fixes the issue, i.e. if I have
the package with this patch installed, then upgrading systemd works.
From 9ef0e143ee5a68620f2bb98e68e6c3ee037620b3 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Antonio Terceiro <[email protected]>
Date: Sat, 5 Sep 2026 13:46:50 -0300
Subject: [PATCH] deb-systemd-invoke: don't assume `kill` is available
/usr/bin/kill is provided by procps, which is not a dependency, and
might not be installed. For example, recent Debian CI containers do not
include `procps`, and this revealed an implicit dependency in procps by
init-system-helpers.
Given Perl has a kill() function, we can just use that instead of
shelling out to /usr/bin/kill.
---
script/deb-systemd-invoke | 2 +-
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/script/deb-systemd-invoke b/script/deb-systemd-invoke
index c94d47a..adfac93 100755
--- a/script/deb-systemd-invoke
+++ b/script/deb-systemd-invoke
@@ -371,7 +371,7 @@ sub reload_reexec_signal {
}
if ($is_system) {
- system('kill', '-s', $signal, '1');
+ kill($signal, 1);
} else {
system('systemctl', '--quiet', 'kill', '--kill-whom=main', '--signal', $signal, 'user@*.service');
}
--
2.53.0
signature.asc
Description: PGP signature
--- End Message ---
--- Begin Message ---
Source: init-system-helpers
Source-Version: 1.69+nmu2
Done: Antonio Terceiro <[email protected]>
We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
init-system-helpers, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.
A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.
Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed. If you
have further comments please address them to [email protected],
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.
Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Antonio Terceiro <[email protected]> (supplier of updated init-system-helpers
package)
(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing [email protected])
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA512
Format: 1.8
Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2026 11:59:48 -0300
Source: init-system-helpers
Architecture: source
Version: 1.69+nmu2
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian systemd Maintainers
<[email protected]>
Changed-By: Antonio Terceiro <[email protected]>
Closes: 1146795
Changes:
init-system-helpers (1.69+nmu2) unstable; urgency=medium
.
* deb-systemd-invoke: don't assume `kill` is available
(Closes: #1146795)
Checksums-Sha1:
6ef36ce3f5550933dfe98855569dfdd3a1cba245 2384 init-system-helpers_1.69+nmu2.dsc
5affbc36fd06c334f335df091b918707b9296b2d 45712
init-system-helpers_1.69+nmu2.tar.xz
Checksums-Sha256:
b9492e7a92bdae43acc3f9238fae3ad494cd771e1cc817873103f6df7c3baca8 2384
init-system-helpers_1.69+nmu2.dsc
22cce2f4f5b7eeca490c2792f7da2fbbaae901ba1b371294c59d6b1d4f5f673d 45712
init-system-helpers_1.69+nmu2.tar.xz
Files:
6dd20d79786b5cc016bf4efe59d80e6b 2384 admin optional
init-system-helpers_1.69+nmu2.dsc
061d46942a00076a39e57cde383de6ad 45712 admin optional
init-system-helpers_1.69+nmu2.tar.xz
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----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=ql/j
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
pgphA6jUVW_rM.pgp
Description: PGP signature
--- End Message ---
