Re-Proposal - preserve freedom of choice of init systems
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I wish to propose the following general resolution, and hereby call
for seconds. This GR resolution proposal is identical to that
proposed by Matthew Vernon in March:
https://lists.debian.org/debian-vote/2014/03/msg00000.html
and the substantive text is that which was drafted for the purposes of
the technical committee's vote (where they decided not to pass a
resolution on the subject).
IMO developments since March show that the concerns put forward then
were well-founded. Following discussions elsewhere including -devel I
have received enough offers of seconds by private email.
As Matthew said, I don't think further lengthy discussion of the
issues is likely to be productive, and therefore hope we can bring
this swiftly to a vote. This is particularly true given the impact on
the jessie release.
Thanks,
Ian.
** Begin Proposal **
0. Rationale
Debian has decided (via the technical committee) to change its
default init system for the next release. The technical committee
decided not to decide about the question of "coupling" i.e. whether
other packages in Debian may depend on a particular init system.
This GR seeks to preserve the freedom of our users now to select an
init system of their choice, and the project's freedom to select a
different init system in the future. It will avoid Debian becoming
accidentally locked in to a particular init system (for example,
because so much unrelated software has ended up depending on a
particular init system that the burden of effort required to change
init system becomes too great). A number of init systems exist, and
it is clear that there is not yet broad consensus as to what the
best init system might look like.
This GR does not make any comment on the relative merits of
different init systems; the technical committee has decided upon the
default init system for Linux for jessie.
1. Exercise of the TC's power to set policy
For jessie and later releases, the TC's power to set technical
policy (Constitution 6.1.1) is exercised as follows:
2. Loose coupling of init systems
In general, software may not require a specific init system to be
pid 1. The exceptions to this are as follows:
* alternative init system implementations
* special-use packages such as managers for init systems
* cooperating groups of packages intended for use with specific init
systems
provided that these are not themselves required by other software
whose main purpose is not the operation of a specific init system.
Degraded operation with some init systems is tolerable, so long as
the degradation is no worse than what the Debian project would
consider a tolerable (non-RC) bug even if it were affecting all
users. So the lack of support for a particular init system does not
excuse a bug nor reduce its severity; but conversely, nor is a bug
more serious simply because it is an incompatibility of some software
with some init system(s).
Maintainers are encouraged to accept technically sound patches
to enable improved interoperation with various init systems.
3. Notes and rubric
This resolution is a Position Statement about Issues of the Day
(Constitution 4.1.5), triggering the General Resolution override
clause in the TC's resolution of the 11th of February.
The TC's decision on the default init system for Linux in jessie
stands undisturbed.
However, the TC resolution is altered to add the additional text
in sections (1) and (2) above.
** End Proposal **
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