3 libpam-systemd to switch alternate dependency ordering
7 The committee decided that systemd-shim should be the first listed
8 alternative dependency of libpam-systemd instead of systemd-sysv.
12 The technical committe was asked in #746578 to override the ordering
13 of the alternative dependencies on systemd-sysv and systemd-shim to
14 prefer the installation of systemd-shim in cases where sysvinit-core
15 was already installed.
19 The committee would like to thank everyone who participated in the
20 discussion of #746578, especially Josh Triplett, Serge Hallyn, Sam
21 Hartman, Cameron Norman, and Michael Biebl.
25 Rationale (Constitution 6.1(5)):
27 1. Currently libpam-systemd (which is pulled in by quite a few
28 dependency chains) Depends on `systemd-sysv | systemd-shim (>= 8-2)'.
30 2. The effect of this is that installing some packages which depend
31 (directly or indirectly) on libpam-systemd can cause a user's init
32 system to be switched to systemd, even on systems where a user has
33 deliberately chosen not to use the default init system, and even
34 when the switch is unnecessary.
36 3. Swappping the order of these dependencies would avoid that and has
39 4. In particular, on systems that already have systemd-sysv installed,
40 libpam-systemd will still not pull in systemd-shim, thus minimizing
41 the risk of breakage on systemd systems. However, on systems that
42 intentionally do not have systemd-sysv installed, the installation
43 of libpam-systemd will then prefer to pull in systemd-shim and keep
44 the installed init system rather than switching to systemd-sysv.
46 Decision (Constitution 6.1(4)):
48 5. We therefore overrule the decision of the maintainer of
49 libpam-systemd binary package. The Depends entry
50 systemd-sysv | systemd-shim (>= 8-2)
52 systemd-shim (>= 8-2) | systemd-sysv
54 6. For the avoidance of doubt, we do not intend to set this specific
55 syntax in stone. For example, if in future libpam-systemd needs to
56 depend on a later systemd-shim, or needs a versioned rather than
57 unversioned dependency on systemd-sysv, that is fine and would not
58 contradict our decision.
60 Release (Constitution 6.1(5)):
62 7. Our advice is that this change should be in jessie. If necessary,
63 this view should be conveyed to the Release Team, after the change
64 is in unstable, by filing an unblock request in the usual way.