Dear Santiago,

in Debian derivatives (such as Kali Linux), we need to fork base-files
and adjust a few things, in particular the name of the distribution,
which is hardcoded to "Debian" in a number of files.

It would be a bit easier for us if this was configurable, by setting a
variable in debian/rules.

Please find attached a patch to this effect.

As you can see the patch is trivial, and maybe a bit too dumb.

Another (smarter?) approach would be to change the content of the
variable OSNAME to be "Debian GNU/Linux" (instead of just "GNU/Linux"),
and then adjust the templates to just use "#OSNAME#" in place of
"Debian #OSNAME#".

There's no urgency, we've had a fork of base-files in Kali since the
beginning, and it's straightforward to maintain. But at the same time,
it seems to me that this change is a nice improvement at no cost, it
doesn't really add any complexity to the base-files package.

Thanks for your consideration,

Best,

Arnaud

severity 1111436 wishlist
thanks

Thanks for the report. Your patch may look simple and innocent, but
every "parameterization" adds some complexity and the problem is that
we know how it starts, but we don't know how it can end. See #959471
for an example of a similar request.

So, I'm keeping this open as wishlist because I have not decided yet
how much support I want to provide to forks (if any at all).

Thanks.

Hello,

Thanks for your feedback, and pointer to another discussion.

I see that, in #959471, Guillem aims at the definitive solution. I
completely support his approach, from the point of view of a Debian
derivative, it's just great. But of course it's a harder sell to accept
his patch, because of reviewing the changes, and assessing how it will
fare in the long run...

While here I propose a change that is much lighter, and still provides a
real benefit for derivatives.

Let me also attach two patches, an implementation for the second
approach I proposed, ie. changing the value of OSNAME from "GNU/Linux"
to "Debian GNU/Linux". I find it a bit more elegant.

Note that any derivative HAVE TO fork base-files, whether they like it
or not.

Because there's no clear path for how to fork and modify base-files,
some derivatives don't do it right, so "Debian" is still hardcoded in
some system files, instead of having been replaced with
"<DerivativeName>". Or, when users of the derivative want to file a bug,
it lands on bugs.debian.org, instead of landing on the bugtracker of the
derivative.

IMO it's a win for both Debian and its derivatives if base-files is easy
to fork, so what Guillem proposes at #959471 makes lots of sense.

But as you said, it adds complexity and it's a cost for the maintenance
of the package, and that's at your appreciation.

Thanks for your reading!

Best,

Arnaud

Sorry for the late reply.

Your last two patches make full sense to me. Applied.
there is a definition at all), is that it was some kind fallback that
only took effect for Debian GNU/kFreeBSD if I remember well.

Maybe it's not necessary anymore, but it does not make harm either,
so I've kept it as is.

Thanks.

We believe that the bug you reported is fixed in the latest version of
base-files, 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 1111436@bugs.debian.org,
and the maintainer will reopen the bug report if appropriate.

Debian distribution maintenance software
pp.
Santiago Vila <sanvila@debian.org> (supplier of updated base-files 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: Sun, 31 May 2026 11:20:00 +0200
Source: base-files
Architecture: source
Version: 14.2
Distribution: unstable
Urgency: medium
Maintainer: Santiago Vila <sanvila@debian.org>
Changed-By: Santiago Vila <sanvila@debian.org>
Closes: 1111436
Changes:
 base-files (14.2) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Make it easier for derivatives to change the name of the system.
     Thanks to Arnaud Rebillout. Closes: #1111436.
   * Fix copyright-refers-to-symlink-license lintian warning.
   * Fix missing-field-in-dep5-copyright lintian warning.
   * Drop some unused lintian overrides.
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