Bug#727708: SystemD

2014-02-12 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 12/02/14 19:43, Brandon wrote:
> I have been a long time debian user. Please do not implement systemd. I
> don't want to switch to another OS but I will.

For the jessie release, it should be possible to uninstall systemd on
GNU/Linux and still have most functionality.  The non-Linux ports are
likely going to work that way, which means the init scripts will have
been already tested for this.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52fbd56a.4000...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: Call for votes on init system resolution

2014-02-08 Thread Steven Chamberlain
Hi,

Thank you both for inviting comments on this from a porter's POV.

Steve Langasek  writes:
>>  - Packages in jessie must retain compatibility with sysvinit startup
>>interfaces (i.e., init scripts in /etc/init.d).

This would be greatly reassuring;  if adopting systemd, this is IMHO the
primary concern for the non-Linux ports (and of using other init systems
on GNU/Linux).  I don't know how willing maintainers are to accept it,
but I assume there are multiple reasons to still maintain sysvinit
scripts in jessie:

1. a smooth upgrade process
2. ease of backporting, perhaps
3. for the benefit of using other init systems on GNU/Linux
4. for the benefit of non-systemd ports

If 4. had been the only reason, I think porters would accept some number
of packages becoming linux-any, to avoid burdening their maintainers
unreasonably.  (Similarly, we may yet be unable to support packages
requiring logind, if nobody ports it).

On 08/02/14 20:38, Russ Allbery wrote:
> Package maintainers are strongly encouraged to merge any contributions
> for support of init systems other than the Linux default, and to add
> that support themselves if they're willing and capable of doing so.
> In particular, package maintainers should put a high priority on
> merging changes to support any init system which is the default on one
> of Debian's non-Linux ports.

A quick poll on the debian-bsd@ list showed that if Upstart had been
chosen as default on GNU/Linux, it would have been favoured on
GNU/kFreeBSD, too.  (BTW I'm extremely thankful to Dimitri and any
others at Canonical who made efforts to port it).

But otherwise, given systemd as default, the overall preference was to
keep using sysvinit for jessie (which surprised me, as this wasn't my
own preference).  In second place would be OpenRC (4:0 over Upstart,
again surprising as it is a reversal of the above).

https://lists.debian.org/debian-bsd/2014/01/msg00300.html

A draft statement on the debian-hurd@ list asks that sysvinit scripts
remain in place, and proposes that GNU/Hurd porters help maintain them,
being keen to adopt OpenRC later:

https://lists.debian.org/debian-hurd/2014/01/msg00051.html

This actually sounds beneficial all around.  If porters were only
writing OpenRC runscripts, that wouldn't help much with the need to
anyway keep the sysvinit scripts maintained:  work that benefits
GNU/Linux users too.

What I also like about this is that non-default init systems will all
have plenty of time to evolve (or appear, or disappear);  I'm hopeful
that for jessie+1 the successor to sysvinit will have become obvious.

So Russ's paragraph above, referring to the default init system on
non-Linux ports - if that is going to be sysvinit - would have
effectively the same meaning as the following:

> For the jessie release, all packages that currently support being run
> under sysvinit should continue to support sysvinit unless there is no
> technically feasible way to do so.  Reasonable changes to preserve or
> improve sysvinit support should be accepted through the jessie
> release.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: call for votes on default Linux init system for jessie

2014-02-08 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 08/02/14 23:24, Steve Langasek wrote:
> There has never been anything blocking any
> Debian developer from doing work on improving the integration of systemd in
> Debian, on their own packages or on the packages of others.

OTOH I'm eagerly awaiting the TC's decision[s] because it will likely
influence the direction of the non-Linux ports.

If Upstart had won somehow, most people working on GNU/kFreeBSD seemed
willing to adopt it on those grounds.  But it no longer seems the likely
choice for GNU/Linux.

And assuming systemd wins, a policy decision on dependencies and level
of coupling may lead to ports either supporting or dropping certain
packages, or a whole desktop environment.

IMHO it was a little frustrating that Ian's ballot couldn't go ahead
last week and reach a consensus on both issues.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: TC resolution revised draft

2014-01-31 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 31/01/14 14:02, Sébastien Villemot wrote:
> the reason of the victory of upstart in this hypothetical
> vote is that systemd proponents prefer to lose on the coupling question
> rather than on the init system question

If having systemd is still a preference despite the outcome of the other
question, you can avoid losing on it by simply putting the systemd
options with equal preference:

DT = DL > UL > UT

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: TC resolution revised draft

2014-01-31 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 31/01/14 14:02, Sébastien Villemot wrote:
> P1: DT > UT > DL > UL
> P2: DL > UL > DT > UT
> P3: UT > UL > DL > DT
> P4: UT > UL > DL > DT

> Of course, in the alternative scenario with two consecutive ballots (one
> on the init, followed by one on the coupling), it would not have been
> possible to express this preference over the relative importance of the
> two questions, so one could argue that this is a feature of the single
> ballot with all options.

Yes I think this is by design, and IMHO desirable.  Imagine if the
questions were uncoupled and decided in *reverse* order, someone might
decide to compromise on their choice of init system, due to the result
of the first decision making their original choice less palatable.  I
think that's what people are expressing in their vote.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: multiple init systems - formal resolution proposal - Don't like software, don't use it. Absolutely.

2014-01-30 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 30/01/14 17:01, Thorsten Glaser wrote:
> And the GNOME/systemd people are invited to make their dream
> of the FLOS GNOME OS into a Debian derivate or Pure Blend.

If the chosen default is something other than systemd, and if the TC
resolution does not prevent GNOME having a hard dependency on systemd
interfaces, then systemd would effectively belong to task-gnome-desktop

That situation is basically how the pure blends work already?  And it
still means the Debian GNOME DVD could give the ideal setup for GNOME.
And the 'default' can be decided irrespective of what GNOME needs?

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52ea8bfc.2020...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: TC resolution revised draft

2014-01-30 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 30/01/14 14:40, Ian Jackson wrote:
>   D DM U UM O OM V VM GR and of course FD
> 
> I think we can probably leave out one of each of O OM V VM.  If anyone
> has a preference for O and V over OM and VM please say so.

Couldn't it bias the outcome if votes might otherwise have been split
between O and OM for example?  And so better to leave them in?

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52ea66ef.1060...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: multiple init systems - formal resolution proposal - Don't like software, don't use it. Absolutely.

2014-01-30 Thread Steven Chamberlain
Putting it another way, then, I expect there are some people who will
not want systemd on their GNU/Linux systems.  I don't think it matters
if their reasons are technical, political, irrational fear or personal
dislike of the creator;  I'd like them to have that choice and for it to
work as well as possible.

Whatever init system we use on the non-Linux ports (which will certainly
not be systemd), I expect it will be fully available to Debian GNU/Linux
installs, with init scripts that we'd have to maintain already for the
sake of our ports.  Hopefully that is some reassurance.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: call for votes on default Linux init system for jessie

2014-01-29 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 19:01, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Tue, Jan 28, 2014 at 07:05:01PM -0500, Michael Gilbert wrote:
> > What makes you think gnome is going to be the default?
> > 
> > http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=tasksel/tasksel.git;a=commitdiff;h=dfca406eb694e0ac00ea04b12fc912237e01c9b5
> 
> Read the text in debian/changelog that is there - the final decision 
> will be made in August (or later).
> 
> I was sarcastically describing a worst-case scenario that is not 
> completely impossible - in reality I would expect enough sanity
> in Debian to ensure that something depending on a non-default
> init system cannot be part of a default installation.

I'd expect Debian GNOME install media would still give a GNOME desktop
by default, Debian KDE disc gives you KDE, etc.

Would it be crazy to suggest putting the preferred init system
in the 'task'?  A Debian GNOME install would likely install systemd,
otherwise it could be something else.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/20140129172039.gb21...@squeeze.pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: On diversity

2014-01-19 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 19/01/14 18:23, Josselin Mouette wrote:
> I also have to insist that GNOME 3.10+ *needs* a working logind even for
> basic functionality, and that starting with v205, logind *needs* systemd
> as PID 1.

Sorry if this has been already answered, but if that's the opinion of
GNOME maintainers, isn't this okay (starting in jessie or jessie+1)?
Have GNOME depend on logind and indirectly systemd-as-pid1, and just be
unavailable on other init systems.  Much of GNOME would thus become
linux-any and be removed from GNU/kFreeBSD, but there are still other
desktop environments to choose from.

That is, until/unless someone else can provide an alternate
implementation of logind, or whatever else is needed, then it would
become installable/usable again.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52dc1c3a.6010...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: Thoughts/Summary on the init-system

2014-01-19 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 19/01/14 18:15, Andreas Metzler wrote:
> could you provide a little bit of background why you consider both
> "Systemd on Linux, openrc/sysv-rc on non-Linux" and "Upstart
> everywhere" viable long-term but not "systemd on Linux  and upstart on
> !Linux"?

As a porter, I'd slightly prefer we switch to OpenRC on GNU/kFreeBSD.
But, if Upstart were chosen as the default on Debian GNU/Linux, that
might be sufficient to change my mind;  we could stay more closely in
sync with the Linux ports and avoid so much duplication of effort that
way.  So, I would agree exactly with what Andi said.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52dc1908.4030...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: Init system resolution open questions

2014-01-19 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 19/01/14 12:20, Adrian Bunk wrote:
> Why do you want Debian to support multiple init systems in the first place?

I think because:

* whichever is chosen as default, there will be some users who
specifically don't like it, or specifically want something else
(including major consumers like Ubuntu (Upstart), or Spotify (systemd),
or Google (SysV))

* the non-Linux ports may have no choice but to get some other init
system working anyway (if systemd is chosen as the default on Linux - I
am quite certain it would never be ported)

* if people are going to be doing the above work anyway, let's make it
available to everyone, Linux and non-Linux users alike

* if the chosen init system turns out to be a disaster, we'd have an
easy way out if we weren't fully reliant on it;  or maybe another init
system comes along for jessie+1, better than anything we have now, we'd
have more agility in being able to adopt it right away (not like this
current situation)


> What level of support (if any) would that guarantee for Debian's ports 
> to non-Linux kernels?

I don't think anyone can guarantee that in a volunteer project;  nobody
can be forced to do the work if they don't want to.  Porters may have to
work hard and restore any lost functionality they care enough about.  I
imagine such problems will be RC-severity bugs, so it should be possible
within existing practices to get patches applied or NMUd.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52dbda7f.8000...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: Upstart running on GNU/kFreeBSD

2014-01-16 Thread Steven Chamberlain
James Hunt just let us know they have Upstart running on GNU/kFreeBSD -
although not yet doing the /etc/rcS.d early boot tasks like remount root
filesystem read-rewrite - it's a fairly significant development:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/upstart-devel/2014-January/003010.html

AFAIK neither OpenRC nor Upstart have been ported to GNU/Hurd yet, but
I'd guess at least one of them could be ported in time for jessie.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: Bits from linux.conf.au

2014-01-16 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 16/01/14 06:09, Martin Pitt wrote:
> There's no practical way to drop sysv of course, at least as long as
> we have non-Linux ports.

If maintainers are particularly keen to drop support for SysV, that
encourages porters to go with either OpenRC or a port of Upstart.

Then you could drop SysV support as long as your package has a native
init definition for whichever of those is used on ports.  Porters could
test or even write that for you.

On 16/01/14 09:03, Anthony Towns wrote:
> It's reasonable to semi-continuously test installation scripts for
> thousands of packages -- that's what piuparts does

The modern init systems likely have a clearer idea of whether the daemon
started successfully or not, so this seems to make sense.  If tests can
be run on every port, that would also catch daemon startup bugs that are
not even due to the init script.

A really nice dashboard may also show a diff of changes in the default
init script, to keep track of when the others might need updating.
Maybe that's similar to how translators' work is done.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52d7cc9b.90...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: Bits from linux.conf.au

2014-01-15 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 15/01/14 21:48, Russ Allbery wrote:
> If OpenRC proves to be of broad interest and becomes supported, at least
> at the non-default level, I doubt we would continue to support sysv
> without OpenRC for very long [...] the upgrade path from
> sysvinit only to sysvinit with OpenRC should be fairly smooth.

I do hope for something like this.  Continuing to support SysV doesn't
have to be a requirement.  A comfortable transition away from SysV
initscripts is possible, as long as native init definitions are provided
for the official init system[s], and for whatever the ports have.
(That's also why GNU/kFreeBSD and Hurd ought to pick the same).

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52d708dd.6070...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: Bits from linux.conf.au

2014-01-15 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 15/01/14 21:01, Joerg Jaspert wrote:
> Likewise I think one can forget the porters of an arch to do so.
> [...]
> As much as it may be hated, a clean decision "this is it, the rest is
> officially not supported" [...]

If the decision were something like that, and only systemd were
officially supported, don't expect porters of non-Linux arches to down
tools and give up.  We may have to drop lots of stuff if we can't get it
working without systemd.  But I expect we'd still put out a release
(official or not) with some other compatible init system and our own
init scripts for whatever we have to.

I also think some people would care enough about running GNU/Linux
without systemd, that we could combine our efforts in that case.

I'd like to know as soon as possible if non-Linux ports ought to focus
efforts on our existing SysV init, switching to OpenRC, or be trying to
port Upstart.  I'm personally undecided and the tech-ctte decision could
easily sway my opinion on this.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: Bits from linux.conf.au

2014-01-13 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 13/01/14 20:57, Bdale Garbee wrote:
> Ian Jackson  writes:
>> I'm coming round to the view that we should be planning to support
>> multiple systems indefinitely.
> 
> This has been my opinion all along.  Various assertions that it's
> somehow just too hard really haven't swayed me.  The tricky bit, I
> think, is to define just what "support" means in the context of
> non-default init systems.  

IIRC, when kfreebsd became a release goal for squeeze, there was some
policy that certain fixes were allowed to be handled as RC bugs,
especially during the freeze.  That allowed porters to potentially get
something NMUd or unblocked if it was important to getting things
working on that system.

Could each proposed/approved init system for jessie be handled like
this, generally?  The respective teams would contribute the necessary
work to make sure things work with that system.  Maintainers would need
to accommodate reasonable changes (mostly adding native init scripts) if
they haven't already.

That to me sounds enough like 'supporting' an init system.  After
committing to such goals, once the work really gets underway, any
specific disagreements between teams over how to do things or what's
reasonable, could be handled separately as they arise, and escalated to
the ctte where necessary?

It wouldn't matter to me which is ultimately chosen as the default in
that case, if I only knew I wouldn't be wasting my time working on a
particular init system.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: Bits from linux.conf.au

2014-01-13 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 13/01/14 13:48, Vincent Lefevre wrote:
> On 2014-01-13 13:15:07 +0000, Steven Chamberlain wrote:
>> In the slides[0] 13 to 15, he summarises init systems something like:
>> * SysV - simple, familiar and deterministic
> 
> Deterministic?

Only the traditional SysV.  Debian since squeeze uses startpar so will
start *some* things concurrently (same Sxx number).  And where that
happens, it's much simpler to see/control it as files in /etc/rc2.d,
than e.g. events being triggered and such.

> Well, the scripts may be started sequentially, but this doesn't mean
> that the daemons will be and always in the same order.

Actually, even if they forked in the same order every time, they might
not be *ready* in the same order.  That would be the rationale for
readiness protocols and other features of the more complex init systems.

> In (1):
>   spamd start
>   wicd start/OK
>   sshd start/OK
>   spamd OK
>   postfix start/OK
> 
> In (2):
>   spamd start
>   sshd start/OK
>   wicd start/OK
>   spamd OK
>   postfix start/OK
> 
> This isn't deterministic at all.

I think that's just because insserv+startpar was being used here, not
the traditional SysV.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52d3f298.6030...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: Bits from linux.conf.au

2014-01-13 Thread Steven Chamberlain
On 13/01/14 12:15, Thorsten Glaser wrote:
> Алексей Шилин dixit:
>> In his talk [2] at 13:50 Marc briefly touched the init system choice 
>> question.
> 
> Can you please provide a transcript, for those among us who
> do not watch any video?

In the slides[0] 13 to 15, he summarises init systems something like:
* SysV - simple, familiar and deterministic
* Upstart - fast boot, makes sense on laptops, but inherently racey
* systemd - interesting concept, but too disruptive/complex to buy into

Then he gives a preference for Debian's own insserv and startpar.  It
allows for boot order to be fixed (after running insserv once, the same
/etc/rc2.d/Sxx numbering may be rsync'd out to many machines).  startpar
allows for some limited/controlled amount of concurrency to happen, for
extra speed.

For servers, their priority is in reliability/reproducibility of boot
(especially for pre-deployment testing), as the machines are so rarely
rebooted, and engineer time to debug any boot problem is so costly.

It's worth mentioning their boot is customised already for their
environment.  Before the root filesystem is mounted, there seems to be
some centralised logging, and an sshd started in the initrd, for human
or automated intervention in case the machine doesn't finish booting.
That may have pushed them in favour of a simpler init system.

[0]: http://marc.merlins.org/linux/talks/ProdNG-LCA2014/ProdNG.odp

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/52d3e6db.9040...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: init system other points, and conclusion

2014-01-04 Thread Steven Chamberlain
Commenting as a porter, the decision on default init system might affect
me something like this:

If GNU/Linux defaults to Upstart, it's likely in porters' interest to
get that working as well as possible so we can keep consistency with
Linux arches.  I'm really grateful of Dimitri's work on this already.

But if GNU/Linux defaults to systemd, I'd say that's far too big, too
specialised around Linux, and likely to be a moving target to either
port it or maintain something compatible.

In that case, we may have to do the best we can with one of the other
init systems.  I'd wonder if it's still worth porting Upstart if few
systems would be using it, or packages having Upstart jobs.  I have good
feelings about OpenRC (which Gentoo already uses as an alternative
alongside systemd), or keeping plain sysvinit might even be still viable
for jessie only.

On Sat, 4 Jan 2014 14:09:57 +0800 Anthony Towns wrote:
> I wonder if folks could clarify what status they expect secondary init
> systems to have in Debian?

This aspect is most crucial to the ports.  At the very least, we'd need
to be able to get patches applied to fix startup issues on our init
system, even if the maintainer doesn't test or want to support this.  In
the worst case, we might have to give up on getting something like GNOME
working usefully without systemd, and thus not be able to ship it on
non-Linux ports.

Policy may need to explain whether hard systemd requirement is
permissible, if it should be expressed in package dependencies, or what
it should do otherwise (e.g. refuse to start, fail with error message,
fall back to something with reduced functionality).

If policy requires keeping functional sysvinit scripts around for
jessie, and/or (more controversially) can discourage the use of specific
non-portable functionality - which I think would be things like "expect
fork" or socket activation - I'm not necessarily saying this is a good
idea, but it would obviously work in our favour.

If non-Linux ports end up running and testing daemons on an alternate
init system *anyway*, I'd love for that work to benefit GNU/Linux users
who dislike the chosen default init system and want to use what we're
using instead.  And vice-versa, anyone running such a system and
finding/fixing startup issues, would likely be helping the ports.

[please keep me in Cc if responding directly to anything I said here]

Thanks,
Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: tech-ctte: Decide which init system to default to in Debian.

2013-11-29 Thread Steven Chamberlain
The original question was which init system[s] are going to be the
default.  But there are still some other things I'm curious about:

1. we already have alternate init systems in the archive;  could it be
some kind of release goal to ensure they are installable?  i.e. make it
possible for them to satisfy the dependencies of essential packages.
(Steve Langasek's metapackage idea in [0] seems to be in the right
direction for accomplishing that, except it wouldn't work for OpenRC or
indeed for keeping the original sysvinit/sysv-rc).

[0]: http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2013/11/msg00389.html

2. would exceptions be permitted;  could some packages explicitly depend
on a non-default init system if it's the only one providing
functionality it needs (and still be part of a stable release)?  I'm
thinking that GNOME might (someday, if replacements for logind or other
APIs can't be found) want to do this, if systemd isn't chosen as the
sole default on GNU/Linux.  (It seems similar to a maintainer being able
to restrict packages to Arch: linux-any if they cannot / do not want to
support non-Linux ports).

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/529907fc.7040...@pyro.eu.org



Re: Bug#727708: systemd (security) bugs (was: init system question)

2013-11-29 Thread Steven Chamberlain
As a system administrator, the idea of a 'kitchen sink' init system
terrifies me.  I would need exceptionally high confidence in its authors
and design principles before allowing it to run as root on my systems
and depend on it to boot even to single user.  I wouldn't even invest
much time enquiring into this, if I knew I could manage with something
simpler having less scope for security/reliability bugs.

OTOH I would be much more forgiving if this were being used for, say,
employees' own desktop machines in a protected corporate IT environment.
 Lots of systemd's features seem particularly convenient for that use
case.  And security is enforced in other ways there (the only people
with access at all, know they risk getting fired for trying to escalate
privileges or DoS).

Adopting systemd may have been much simpler if it had been separate from
and launched by the simple init, starting only the services that have
unit files because they really require its functionality.  If no
installed software on that system needs it, it wouldn't even need to be
installed.

But otherwise I think there are GNU/Linux users who want the choice of
using systemd or being able to use something else.  Preferably without
having to switch a different distro or third-party derivative.

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/5298f9d0.8000...@pyro.eu.org



Bug#727708: init system question before the technical committee

2013-11-27 Thread Steven Chamberlain
The sysvinit page doesn't have a specific maintainer/advocate.  It is a
collection of opinions from discussion on debian-devel@ and elsewhere.
Other camps have already responded to parts they don't agree with.

Unless any volunteers want to make last-minute small changes, it can
probably be taken as 'complete' as soon the tech-ctte is ready to move
forward with this.  I think maintainers of all the other proposals have
said they are ready now.

Thanks,
Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: init system question before the technical committee

2013-11-21 Thread Steven Chamberlain
Hi,

On 10/11/13 18:23, Russ Allbery wrote:
> What is the current status of the other position statements from the
> perspective of their maintainers?  Do people have a feel for when they'll
> consider their positions finalized, at least pending Technical Committee
> feedback and questions?

Sorry to be so late with this.  I've made some small, final changes to
this position statement and I'd like to call it 'complete':
https://wiki.debian.org/Debate/initsystem/multiple

I don't really feel that any "contra $initsystem" sections or rebuttals
are needed on this page and it reads nicer this way.  And I'm too tired
to argue this much more;  the debate has already taken far more energy
than I would like.

Thanks,
Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#727708: tech-ctte: Decide which init system to default to in Debian.

2013-10-28 Thread Steven Chamberlain
Hi!

Please may I suggest another option for consideration:  a commitment to
support two chosen init systems.

On mainstream ports (Linux amd64, i386) where two init systems are
available, a package should be tested and made to work reasonably well
on both.  Any port would have at least one of these init systems.  This
offers users a choice to avoid a particular init system, try the new
features in another one, or perhaps stay with what they already have.

It would require work, but maybe this turns argument into something that
can be accomplished through team effort.  Supposing systemd and sysvinit
were chosen:
* systemd folks would aim to make best use of the existing sysvinit
scripts, and provide help to packages where improvement can be made;
* sysvinit users and porters can help ensure things keep working there.

I've begun a debate page here, more suggestions are welcome:
https://wiki.debian.org/debate/initsystem/multiple
or follow up on debian-devel@

Thanks!
Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org



signature.asc
Description: OpenPGP digital signature


Bug#699808: tech-ctte: syslinux vs the wheezy release

2013-02-08 Thread Steven Chamberlain
Hi,

On 08/02/13 20:52, Bdale Garbee wrote:
> Joey Hess  writes:
>> syslinux is GPL'd, so this would result in shipping d-i images in wheezy
>> which contain a GPL'd binary for which there is no source in wheezy.
> 
> My unstated assumption was that if d-i were able to successfully build
> against the syslinux version in sid, that said version would be promoted
> into testing before the actual release.

But the new upload of syslinux would not satisfy the Release Team's
freeze policy, would it?  As per their most recent 'bits' mail to d-d-a
and published at:

http://release.debian.org/wheezy/freeze_policy.html

Regards,
-- 
Steven Chamberlain
ste...@pyro.eu.org


-- 
To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-ctte-requ...@lists.debian.org
with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
Archive: http://lists.debian.org/51158fbb.5070...@pyro.eu.org