FS#59364 - [mkinitcpio] Please depend on 'udev' rather than 'systemd'

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Luke Shumaker (lukeshu) - Tuesday, 17 July 2018, 05:11 GMT
Last edited by Toolybird (Toolybird) - Friday, 14 April 2023, 08:02 GMT
Task Type General Gripe
Category Packages: Core
Status Closed
Assigned To Giancarlo Razzolini (grazzolini)
Morten Linderud (Foxboron)
Architecture All
Severity Very Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

Description:

mkinitcpio depends=(systemd) because it depends on udev, and for a while now, udev is part of systemd (accordingly, systemd provides=(udev)).

Users of derivatives of Arch (and users of AUR?) might like to install a different init system, and a different udev implementation. By editing mkinitcpio's depends=() to more precisely identify what it needs, it would make it so that downstream distros don't need to edit the PKGBUILD of mkinitcpio.

This would be helpful to Parabola.

Additional info:
* package version(s): mkinitcpio 24-2
This task depends upon

Closed by  Toolybird (Toolybird)
Friday, 14 April 2023, 08:02 GMT
Reason for closing:  Won't implement
Additional comments about closing:  See comments
Comment by Giancarlo Razzolini (grazzolini) - Wednesday, 20 March 2019, 18:13 GMT
I'm making some changes to the mkinitcpio package and, since systemd provides udev, I see no reason to change the dependency on it to udev.
Comment by Luke Shumaker (lukeshu) - Saturday, 23 March 2019, 16:05 GMT
If looking only at what is in the official Arch repos: There's no reason to depend on 'udev' rather than 'systemd'; as 'systemd' is the only package that provides=('udev').

If you are willing to consider packages outside of the official Arch repos (AUR, or packages in downstream distributions like Parabola): Packages other than 'systemd' also provides=('udev'), for example 'eudev' (in AUR and in Parabola), or 'systemd-udev' (in Parabola; systemd's udev but without the rest of systemd).

Currently, AUR users of 'eudev' have to build a separate 'mkinitcpio' package, where the _only_ difference from 'core/mkinitcpio' is that it doesn't depend on 'systemd'. It would be good for AUR/eudev users to not have to do that.

Currently, Parabola maintainers have to maintain a modified version of the 'mkinitcpio' package, rather than importing it verbatim; the _only_ difference from Arch's 'core/mkinitcpio' is that it depends on 'udev' instead of 'systemd'. It would be good for the Parabola maintainers to not have to do that.

But again, if only looking at official Arch, there's not a good reason to make the change. But, as a Parabola contributor, I would very much appreciate the change; hence why I filed it as a "general gripe", not as a bug.
Comment by Giancarlo Razzolini (grazzolini) - Monday, 25 March 2019, 17:18 GMT
I have discussed this with Dave, he made no objections. I'm just considering if we should optionally depend on systemd given that we have systemd specific hooks, that are not enabled by default. I don't think this is needed since our udev is provided by systemd itself. I'll think a little more on this, also consider if there are implications for our new base-system (or whatever name it will be) package discussion.
Comment by Toolybird (Toolybird) - Friday, 14 April 2023, 07:16 GMT
Do the current mkinitcpio maintainers have an opinion here? Parabola seem to be getting by without it. systemd is becoming more necessary these days it seems...so I would therefore propose closing as "Won't implement".
Comment by Morten Linderud (Foxboron) - Friday, 14 April 2023, 07:47 GMT
My long-term ambition is to have the systemd hooks enabled by default in `mkinitcpio` and move the busybox hooks to "unmaintained" unless someone steps up to help out on them.

It's unclear to me if moving around the dependencies on the package is worth it.
Comment by Toolybird (Toolybird) - Friday, 14 April 2023, 08:02 GMT
Thanks @Foxboron, that's good information :) We can always reconsider should the need arise.

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