#1134555 cachefilesd: silently exits on non-SELinux systems due to secctx line in config

Package:
cachefilesd
Source:
cachefilesd
Description:
support fscache on already mounted filesystem
Submitter:
Scott Tringali
Date:
2026-04-21 18:27:02 UTC
Severity:
normal
Tags:
#1134555#5
Date:
2026-04-21 18:25:39 UTC
From:
To:
If the secctx directive is uncommented in /etc/cachefilesd.conf (as
shown in upstream documentation and many online guides), the daemon
exits immediately with code 1 on systems without SELinux. No error
is logged to syslog, no output is produced on stderr, and even the
-d (debug) flag produces no diagnostic.

The default Debian config ships secctx commented out, so this does
not affect fresh installs. However the silent failure makes it very
difficult to diagnose when users follow upstream docs or examples
that include the line.

Steps to reproduce:

   1. Uncomment the secctx line in /etc/cachefilesd.conf
   2. systemctl restart cachefilesd
   3. systemctl status shows "active (exited)", no process running
   4. No error in syslog, no stderr, nothing from -d flag

   5. Comment out the secctx line
   6. systemctl restart cachefilesd
   7. Daemon runs correctly

Expected behavior:

   - Daemon should log a clear error explaining that the secctx
     directive cannot be applied without SELinux, then exit
   - Or skip the directive with a warning and continue running

Actual behavior:

   - Silent exit, code 1, no diagnostic output anywhere

Environment:

   Debian 13 (trixie)
   Kernel 6.12.74+deb13+1-amd64
   cachefilesd 0.10.10-0.4
   SELinux: not installed / not enabled