[debhelper-devel] Bug#749400: Bug#749400: dh_installinit: disable init scripts on removal of package

[Niels Thykier]

Alan Jenkins:
> On 09/06/17 18:55, Niels Thykier wrote:
>> [...]
> 
> :-(.  I guess my hope was, this bug report showed some sort of
> precedent, that policy did not prevent the idea.  Otherwise, this bug
> would have been shut down earlier on.
> 

Sorry, it doesn't. :)

> I.e. the code running `update-rc.d FOO disable` at removal, would surely
> overwrite the customization done by the admin, but that didn't stop that
> code being pushed to unstable.  (And it's not the reason it was reverted).
> 

I assumed it didn't given the request.  Turns out I was wrong to assume
it, which makes me glad that the other part broke so quickly.  I am not
sure anyone would have noticed the overwrite part until much later.

> [...]
> 
> It suggests, this proposal would also need to save the enabled state(s)
> at package removal and be able to restore them later...

Correct, and all of that logic should basically be in update-rc.d (so
the details of how that state is stored is not embedded into thousands
of maintscripts)

> but that's more than I'd be willing to implement.
> 

That is entirely fair. :)  At the moment, I don't have time to do this
either.

> However I can imagine saving a "mask" under /var/lib/update-rc.d/, which
> has a similar disabling effect to a systemd mask. Implementing this in
> /etc/init.d/rc.  And patching the systemd-sysv-generator to match it.
> 

If you are up for it, I can CC the maintainers of the relevant packages
and we can hear if they think it would be a viable solution. :)

> For native systemd services... I would then be able to simply remove all
> the `mask` code in dh_systemd_enable, to solve my issue (described in
> #864504)
> 
> Alan
> 
> [...]

:)

Thanks,
~Niels