Bug#1138547: debian-policy: Add openRC section to starting system services

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On Sun, 31 May 2026 20:18, Simon McVittie <[email protected]> wrote:
>On Sun, 31 May 2026 at 18:36:10 +0200, Matthias Geiger wrote:
>>After discussion with upstream I think it is best
>>to install the service files to /etc/rc/init.d
>...
>>Another possibility would be for the services to live under /usr/, but 
>>this would require coordination with upstream.
>
>Please bear in mind that if the services are in /etc, then they will 
>remain on the system when a service is removed-but-not-purged, and need 
>to be carefully written to not break boot in that situation. This is one 
>of the ongoing problems with LSB /etc/init.d scripts: it has been worked 
>around in recent dh_installinit versions by chmod'ing them -x on package 
>removal, but that's extra maintainer-script code that ideally wouldn't 
>have been necessary.
>
>Similarly, if OpenRC services have metadata similar to the LSB "INIT 
>INFO" section, and there is a bug in that metadata in the service left 
>behind by a package that has been removed, there's no Policy-compliant 
>way to fix that bug. In the past we've had situations where some 
>semi-related package has to ship a non-Policy-compliant maintainer 
>script to delete a broken init script, because otherwise it would have 
>broken upgrades.
>
>I think putting the equivalents of init scripts and systemd services in 
>/usr with a mechanism for overrides in /etc, similar to how systemd 
>services were done, would be a good choice for new init systems.

Right, that makes sense. I have talked with upstream, and they would 
also be willing to support /usr/ with overrides in /etc/. Since this is 
still being worked on, for the time being I would leave this for now, 
and revisit once that change has landed in unstable.

best,

werdahias
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