Bug#1115317: Draft Ballot Re: Bug#1115317: advice for using /var/lock (which is a link to /run/lock) (#1110981)

Hi,

At the last TC meeting we discussed this bug; I think our conclusion 
then was that systemd needs to comply with policy and thus FHS regarding 
/var/lock which still needs to be usable for serial device locks, and we 
talked about a couple of options for how bounded our decision should be. 
I was asked to draft a ballot.

Here's a draft - please LMK you're OK with it or propose amendments.

I think the "The TC is sympathetic to..." paragraph represents 
consensus, but if you'd like it to be ballot-optional, LMK.

===8<===
In #1115317, the Technical Committee (TC) was asked about the future of 
/var/lock, following a systemd upload which made this directory only 
writable by root. Bug #1110980 was opened against systemd, pointing out 
that FHS (and thus Debian Policy) has /var/lock as the standard 
interface for system-wide locks of serial devices and similar.

In the upstream discussion of the issue ( 
https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/38563 ) the systemd authors 
declined to remain FHS-compliant, but rather noted that downstream 
distributions might wish to arrange for systemd to create /var/lock with 
appropriate permissions if they wish to. Nevertheless, #1110980 was 
closed "wontfix".

The TC is sympathetic to the argument that flock(2) is a superior 
locking mechanism, and that an end-state where all existing software 
that still uses locks in /var/lock is migrated to using flock(2) instead 
would be desirable.

0) The Technical Committee notes that an important part of the role of a 
Debian Developer is ensuring that software in Debian complies with 
Debian Policy. That a particular upstream is not interested in FHS 
compliance is not a sufficient reason for a Debian package to disregard 
the FHS as it is incorporated into Debian Policy.

The TC therefore resolves that systemd shall provide /var/lock with 
relaxed enough permissions that existing Debian software that uses 
/var/lock for system-wide locks of serial devices (and similar purposes) 
works again. The TC exercises its power under constitution #6.1.4 to 
overrule the systemd maintainers in this regard.

1) This change to systemd must persist until a satisfactory migration of 
impacted software has occurred and Policy updated accordingly.

2) This change to systemd must persist until the TC allows otherwise, 
which the TC expects to do once a suitable transition plan has been agreed.

Ballot options:

A) Issue items 0 + 1
B) Issue items 0 + 2
N) Further discussion

===8<===

Thanks,

Matthew