Debian Project about the beginning (GR, general resolution) project developers for , which will determine the project's future policy regarding binding to systemd, support for alternative init systems, and interoperability with derived distributions that do not use systemd. Voting will last until December 27 inclusive, the results will be announced on December 28.
Let us recall that in 2014 the technical committee default distribution on systemd, but not decisions regarding support for multiple provisioning systems (the vote was won by the item indicating the committee's unwillingness to make a decision on this issue). The committee leader recommended that package maintainers maintain support for sysvinit as an alternative init system, but indicated that he could not impose his point of view and that the decision should be made independently in each case.
After this, some developers attempted general vote, but preliminary voting showed that there was no need to make a decision on the issue of using multiple initialization systems. A few months ago, after with the inclusion of the elogind package (necessary for running GNOME without systemd) in the testing branch due to a conflict with libsystemd, the issue was again raised by the Debian project leader, since the developers could not agree, and their communication turned into a confrontation and reached a dead end.
The current vote will allow policy to be adopted regarding multiple provisioning systems, and if the clause requiring support for alternative systems wins, maintainers will not be able to ignore or delay such issues. After discussing the three voting points initially proposed by the project leader, the number of options was expanded to eight. When voting, you can select several items at once, ranking the selected items by level of preference. About a thousand developers who participate in maintaining packages and maintaining the infrastructure have the right to vote.
Suggested options:
The main focus is on systemd. Providing support for alternative init systems is not a priority, but maintainers may optionally include init scripts for such systems in packages.
Support for a variety of init systems and the ability to boot Debian with init systems other than systemd.
To run services, packages must include init scripts; supplying only systemd unit files without sysv init scripts is unacceptable.
systemd remains preferred, but the possibility of maintaining alternative initialization systems is left. Technologies such as elogind, which allow applications bound to systemd to run in alternative environments, are seen as important. Packages may include init files for alternative systems.
Support for systems that do not use systemd, but without making changes that would hinder development. The developers agree to support multiple init systems for the foreseeable future, but also believe it is necessary to work on improving systemd support. The development and maintenance of specific solutions should be left to the communities interested in those solutions, but other maintainers should actively help and contribute to problem solving when the need arises. Ideally, packages should function using any init system, which can be achieved by supplying traditional init scripts or using other mechanisms that allow them to work without systemd. The inability to work without systemd is considered a bug, but not a release-blocking bug, unless there is a ready-made solution for working without systemd, but they refuse to save it (for example, when the problem is caused by deleting a previously supplied init script).
Supports portability without introducing changes that hinder development. Debian continues to be seen as a bridge for integrating different software that provides equivalent or similar functionality. Portability between hardware platforms and software stacks is an important goal, and the integration of alternative technologies is encouraged, even if the worldview of their creators differs from the general consensus. The position regarding systemd and other initialization systems completely coincides with point 4.
Making support for multiple initialization systems mandatory. Providing the ability to run Debian with init systems other than systemd continues to be important to the project. Each package must work with pid1 handlers other than systemd, unless the software included in the package was originally intended to work only with systemd and does not support running without systemd (the absence of init scripts does not count as intended only for working with systemd).
Supports portability and multiple implementations. The general principles are exactly the same as point 5, but there are no specific requirements for systemd and init systems, and no obligations are imposed on developers. Developers are encouraged to take into account each other's interests, make compromises and find common solutions that are satisfactory for various parties.
Continued discussion. The item can be used to downgrade unacceptable options.
