Rationale (Constitution 6.1(5)):
1. Currently libpam-systemd (which is pulled in by quite a few
- dependency chains) Depends on `systemd-sysv | systemd-shim'.
+ dependency chains) Depends on `systemd-sysv | systemd-shim (>= 8-2)'.
-2. The effect of this is that installing certain leaf packages which
- depend on libpam-systemd can cause a user's init system to be
- switched to systemd, even on systems where a user has deliberately
- chosen not to use the default init system, and even when the switch
- is unnecessary.
+2. The effect of this is that installing some packages which depend
+ (directly or indirectly) on libpam-systemd can cause a user's init
+ system to be switched to systemd, even on systems where a user has
+ deliberately chosen not to use the default init system, and even
+ when the switch is unnecessary.
3. Swappping the order of these dependencies would avoid that and has
- no harmful effect.
+ no harmful effect:
+
+4. In particular, on systems that already have systemd-sysv installed,
+ libpam-systemd will still not pull in systemd-shim, thus minimizing
+ the risk of breakage on systemd systems. However, on systems that
+ intentionally do not have systemd installed, the installation of
+ libpam-systemd will then prefer to pull in systemd-shim and keep
+ the installed init system rather than switching to systemd-sysv.
Decision (Constitution 6.1(4)):
-4. We therefore overrule the decision of the maintainer of
+5. We therefore overrule the decision of the maintainer of
libpam-systemd binary package. The Depends entry
systemd-sysv | systemd-shim (>= 8-2)
should be replaced by
systemd-shim (>= 8-2) | systemd-sysv
-Release (Constitution 6.1(5)):
+6. For the avoidance of doubt, we do not intend to set this specific
+ syntax in stone. For example, if in future libpam-systemd needs to
+ depend on a later systemd-shim, or needs a versioned rather than
+ unversioned dependency on systemd-sysv, that is fine and would not
+ contradict our decision.
+
+Release (Constitution 6.1(5)):
-5. We request that the Release Team allow this change to into jessie.
- (This request should be conveyed to the Release Team, after the
- change is in unstable, by filing an unblock request in the usual
- way.)
+7. Our advice is that this change should be in jessie. If necessary,
+ this view should be conveyed to the Release Team, after the change
+ is in unstable, by filing an unblock request in the usual way.