(might be even RC, not properly cleaning up state on remove)

# find systemd -name *home* -o -name *userdbd*

# apt install systemd-homed
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following additional packages will be installed:
  systemd-userdbd
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  systemd-homed systemd-userdbd
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 621 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1433 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
Get:1 http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid/main amd64 systemd-userdbd amd64 251.2-7 [150 kB]
Get:2 http://ftp.debian.org/debian sid/main amd64 systemd-homed amd64 251.2-7 [471 kB]
Fetched 621 kB in 0s (32.4 MB/s)
Retrieving bug reports... Done
Parsing Found/Fixed information... Done
Selecting previously unselected package systemd-userdbd.
(Reading database ... 498739 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../systemd-userdbd_251.2-7_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking systemd-userdbd (251.2-7) ...
Selecting previously unselected package systemd-homed.
Preparing to unpack .../systemd-homed_251.2-7_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking systemd-homed (251.2-7) ...
Setting up systemd-userdbd (251.2-7) ...
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/systemd-userdbd.socket -> /lib/systemd/system/systemd-userdbd.socket.
Setting up systemd-homed (251.2-7) ...
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/systemd-homed.service.wants/systemd-homed-activate.service -> /lib/systemd/system/systemd-homed-activate.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.home1.service -> /lib/systemd/system/systemd-homed.service.
Created symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/systemd-homed.service -> /lib/systemd/system/systemd-
homed.service.
Deep recursion on subroutine "main::get_link_closure" at /usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper line 253, <$fh> line 23.
/usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper: error: unable to read /lib/systemd/system/systemd-homed.service
Deep recursion on subroutine "main::get_link_closure" at /usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper line 253, <$fh> line 41.
/usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper: error: unable to read /lib/systemd/system/systemd-homed-activate.service
Processing triggers for man-db (2.10.2-1) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.14.0-1) ...
[master 8d9b0a5] committing changes in /etc made by "apt install systemd-homed"
 Author: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>
 11 files changed, 33 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)
 create mode 100644 systemd/homed.conf
 create mode 120000 systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.home1.service
 create mode 120000 systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/systemd-homed.service
 create mode 120000 systemd/system/sockets.target.wants/systemd-userdbd.socket
 create mode 120000 systemd/system/systemd-homed.service.wants/systemd-homed-activate.service


→ Issue number one: Deep recursion on subroutine "main::get_link_closure" at /usr/bin/deb-systemd-helper line 253, <$fh> line 23.


Now purging the package again:

# apt purge systemd-homed
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  systemd-homed*
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 1 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
After this operation, 1172 kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n]
(Reading database ... 498771 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing systemd-homed (251.2-7) ...
Processing triggers for dbus (1.14.0-1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.10.2-1) ...
(Reading database ... 498749 files and directories currently installed.)
Purging configuration files for systemd-homed (251.2-7) ...
[master 9e93901] committing changes in /etc made by "apt purge systemd-homed"
 Author: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>
 7 files changed, 3 insertions(+), 28 deletions(-)
 delete mode 100644 systemd/homed.conf

# find systemd -name *home*
systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.home1.service
systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/systemd-homed.service
systemd/system/systemd-homed.service.wants
systemd/system/systemd-homed.service.wants/systemd-homed-activate.service


→ Issue number two: Looks like none of the enablement symlinks has been removed.


This might be a bug in i-s-h, but filing against systemd-homed for
now.

systemd-homed.service:
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alias=dbus-org.freedesktop.home1.service
Also=systemd-homed-activate.service systemd-userdbd.service

systemd-homed-activate.service:
[Install]
WantedBy=systemd-homed.service
Also=systemd-homed.service

→ we have a circular dependency here, maybe deb-systemd-helper get's
confused by that


systemd-userdbd.service:
[Install]
Also=systemd-userdbd.socket

systemd-userdbd.socket:
[Install]
WantedBy=sockets.target

→ Another indirection



@bluca, @fsateler: Any ideas?

Am 30.06.22 um 14:26 schrieb Michael Biebl:


I just checked that we can mitigate this issue by removing this circular
Also= dependency. It is indeed deb-systemd-helper getting confused by
that and as a result not writing proper state files to
/var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper.
So the damage is already done during installation in postinst.
Thus raising to RC to warn users from installing systemd-homed atm.

I propose a patch like the attached one, i.e. dropping the Also= from
systemd-homed-active.service. WDYT?

I've also cloned the issue for i-s-h, as we might want to fix that
properly. My perl is a bit rusty, so would appreciate help with that.

@bluca: do you think the attached patch is suitable for upstream?

I find this circular Also= dependency kinda odd, I have to admit.

Regards,
Michael

I don't think so, this seems clearly a bug in i-s-h. Ideally we should
really drop all of that and just use presets as RPMs do... but it's a
lot of work.

Kind regards,
Luca Boccassi

Am 30.06.22 um 16:13 schrieb Luca Boccassi:

Are you against shipping this patch for the time being until we have a
proper fix?

We have i-s-h/deb-systemd-helper for a couple of reasons (none of which
can be solved by presets afaics)

- distinction between uninstalled/purged state in Debian.
We want to ensure that if you have a install/remove/install sequence,
the enablement state of the service is preserved.
For that we need to keep additional state, that is only removed on purge.
If we remove the enablement symlinks on remove, we can't preserve the state.
If we remove the enablement symlinks on purge, the service files are no
longer around, so we can't do a proper cleanup.

- masking a service upon uninstallation
This is a sad reality, as packages still ship legacy SysV init scripts
which are conffiles and would suddenly become active if a package is
removed but not purged.

I certainly would like to get rid of i-s-h, but I don't see how that is
doable.

Regards,
Michael

Given the problem is that i-s-h doesn't generate the correct postinst,
can we instead add a workaround to the postinst itself?

i-s-h could be reduced to ship snippets that simply maintain this
state after a remove till the next install/purge?

At some point we should just nuke the sysv unit generator upstream.
It's been 10+ years, there was plenty of time to add native units
where needed.
Then this becomes moot - the old init scripts would be just inert when
booting under systemd.

Am 30.06.22 um 16:32 schrieb Luca Boccassi:

No, it's not an incorrect postinst. The generated postinst code looks
fine afaics.

It's deb-systemd-helper failing in postinst [1] (due to the circular
Also=) and subsequently not writing any state files to
/var/lib/systemd/deb-systemd-helper (which means it can't clean up the
state on purge).


I'm pasting the error message again, for reference

I see, then could it be fixed in the postinst manually after the calls
added by the helper?

Am 30.06.22 um 17:31 schrieb Luca Boccassi:

I don't see how.

Am 30.06.22 um 16:32 schrieb Luca Boccassi:

Dropping SysV init support would indeed solve that issue.

$ apt-file search /etc/init.d/  | wc -l
1311
$ apt-file search /etc/init.d/  | cut -f1 -d':' | sort -u | wc -l
1180

So we have 1180 package shipping 1311 SysV init scripts.

According to [1], we have 314 source packages which lack 365 service
units. So our coverage is only about 72%.
Dropping systemd-sysv-generator would break quite a lot of packages. Too
many imho.

Before we can do this, there should be a more active push to get the
remaining packages migrated.

A MBF seems like a good first step.

This needs someone though to actively work on this.


Any volunteers?




[1]
https://lintian.debian.org/tags/missing-systemd-service-for-init.d-script

Am 30.06.22 um 18:18 schrieb Michael Biebl:
shell what deb-systemd-helper is doing in perl and creating the state
files ourselves.
Feasible, yes. Doable, I'd say no.
I'd rather prefer a one-line patch.

The problem is some files leftover, no? Just delete them in the
postinst or postrm?

Am 30.06.22 um 22:31 schrieb Luca Boccassi:

My main motivation is to "stop the bleeding" as quickly as possible.

If we continue to create those broken state files, we'd have to keep
those postinst/postrm cleanup routines for a possibly long time.

I'd rather just fix i-s-h, here's a MR, it fixes the issue for me, can
you give it a go as well please? I'll do an upload once it's confirmed
and reviewed

https://salsa.debian.org/debian/init-system-helpers/-/merge_requests/21

Kind regards,
Luca Boccassi

Am 02.07.22 um 18:30 schrieb Luca Boccassi:

Thank you, bluca.
Without having tested it and without knowing Perl very well, the MR
looks ok to me.
I think Felipe is a bit more familiar with Perl, so if he could give his
ack, that would be good I think.

Cheers,
Michael

I have uploaded i-s-h, should we close this one now?

Kind regards,
Luca Boccassi

Am 04.07.22 um 12:36 schrieb Luca Boccassi:

I've seen the upload. Thanks!

I was debating with myself whether systemd-homed should get a tightened,
versioned Depends on i-s-h to prevent this issue from happening.

This would make a backport a bit harder, but maybe a stable upload of
i-s-h with this fix is a good idea anyway?

Regards,
Michael

It's a new package and optional, so maybe it's not worth it - but up
to you, if you want to add that and a backport to be safer, I don't
have any objection.

Kind regards,
Luca Boccassi

Am 04.07.22 um 13:13 schrieb Luca Boccassi:

Ok, I'll add the versioned Depends on i-s-h then and also make a
corresponding backports upload. That's the least I can do.

I'm currently working on a systemd v251 backport and would include this
change there as well.

Regards and thanks again for the i-s-h fix,

Michael

Hello,

Bug #1014115 in systemd reported by you has been fixed in the
Git repository and is awaiting an upload. You can see the commit
message below and you can check the diff of the fix at:

https://salsa.debian.org/systemd-team/systemd/-/commit/dd0c655fa5ff1c65ef0ed1dd427fa3b2a66c9bc1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Add versioned dependency on init-system-helpers to systemd-homed

Ensure that we have a version of deb-systemd-helper which properly
handles loops in Also= dependencies.

Closes: #1014115
------------------------------------------------------------------------

(this message was generated automatically)
-- 
Greetings

https://bugs.debian.org/1014115

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
systemd, which is due to be installed in the Debian FTP archive.

A summary of the changes between this version and the previous one is
attached.

Thank you for reporting the bug, which will now be closed.  If you
have further comments please address them to 1014115@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org> (supplier of updated systemd package)

(This message was generated automatically at their request; if you
believe that there is a problem with it please contact the archive
administrators by mailing ftpmaster@ftp-master.debian.org)
Format: 1.8
Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2022 21:23:38 +0200
Source: systemd
Architecture: source
Version: 251.2-8
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Debian systemd Maintainers <pkg-systemd-maintainers@lists.alioth.debian.org>
Changed-By: Michael Biebl <biebl@debian.org>
Closes: 1014115
Changes:
 systemd (251.2-8) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * autopkgtest: install openssl for upstream test.
     Install openssl explicitly and do not rely on other packages, like
     swtpm-libs, to pull this dependency for us.
     Used by TEST-50-DISSECT, which otherwise just silently skips the test.
   * Add versioned dependency on init-system-helpers to systemd-homed.
     Ensure that we have a version of deb-systemd-helper which properly
     handles loops in Also= dependencies. (Closes: #1014115)
   * Demote shlibs dependencies of libsystemd0 from Pre-Depends to Depends.
     As systemctl, which is quasi-essential, no longer links against
     libsystemd0, we do not need those strict requirements anymore.
   * Work around some more dh_installman issues
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