Bug#1091864: TC decision on avahi vs systemd-resolved - #1091864

Helmut Grohne <[email protected]> Tue, 25 Feb 2025 18:54:46 +0100

Newsgroups	gmane.linux.debian.devel.ctte
Message-ID	<20250225175446.GA1723595__34572.6533139654$1740520489$gmane$org@subdivi.de>

The Debian Technical Committee was asked to rule about a dispute between
the avahi and systemd maintainers in #1091864.

The following resolution was passed. The decision was reached
unanimously meeting the required 3:1 majority requirement for overruling
a maintainer.

=== Resolution ===

The CTTE reaffirms that avahi-daemon is the default mDNS implementation
in Debian trixie. Therefore systemd-resolved should disable the mDNS
functionality in its default installation in Debian trixie.

=== End Resolution ===

=== Rationale ===

It was considered to allow both implementations to coexist. However,
binding a UDP port is required for operation and that tends to not work.
As a result, consensus between the relevant package maintainers was
reached that when both implementations were installed that avahi should
be in charge. Disagreement existed about whether systemd-resolved should
support mDNS in the absence of avahi-daemon and how mDNS would be
disabled in systemd-resolved when avahi-daemon would be installed. It
was also noted that systemd-resolved requires mDNS to additionally be
enabled per interface, which does not yet happen by default. Given that
historically, avahi was the only implementation of mDNS and that other
distributions such as Fedora also disable mDNS in resolved by default,
the members of the Debian Technical Committee agreed that for the time
being and for trixie, we should continue using avahi as the default
implementation and it is typically part of a desktop installation due to
reverse dependencies. We also recognize that the code base of avahi is
aging and that one its primary developers is now developing systemd. As
a result, the decision is limited to the trixie release to leave room
for future changes.

=== End Rationale ===

Please refer to https://bugs.debian.org/1091864 for the complete
discussion.

Helmut for the Technical Committee

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