17:00:39 #startmeeting 17:00:39 Meeting started Thu Sep 25 17:00:39 2014 UTC. The chair is dondelelcaro. Information about MeetBot at http://wiki.debian.org/MeetBot. 17:00:39 Useful Commands: #action #agreed #help #info #idea #link #topic. 17:00:40 good morning 17:00:47 #topic Who is here? 17:00:50 Don Armstrong 17:00:56 Keith Packard 17:01:05 keithp: morning! 17:01:10 Hola! 17:02:20 As usual, the impeding meeting encouraged me to do some ctte work this morning :-) 17:02:24 heh 17:02:47 trying to identify the rest of our participants 17:03:29 argh sorry, I can't make it tonight, Kirsten has karate practice and I have neglected to realise far enough in advance to arrange alternate childcare cover 17:03:37 cjwatson: no worries 17:03:50 cjwatson: you'll have more fun than we will anyways 17:05:05 I think I've pinged everyone now; rra isn't on IRC right now 17:05:21 bdale was around an hour ago 17:06:12 Diziet just told me that he won't be able to make it 17:07:44 pinged bdale via sms 17:07:58 well, I'll at least get the next meeting on the calendar, and I'll try to at least get the agenda into shape 17:08:11 #topic Next Meeting? 17:08:48 meetings.ics has a bug in it at present 17:09:03 the next meeting is currently scheduled for the 30th; 17:09:11 that works for me 17:09:21 keithp: ah, wouldn't surprise me... I hand write it 17:09:30 shall I push the fix? 17:09:34 absolutely 17:10:09 Bdale Garbee 17:10:17 sorry I'm late .. packing for move this Sat is underway! 17:10:23 bdale: I figured as much! 17:10:39 cjwatson and Diziet both send regrets 17:10:48 ok 17:10:55 03Keith Packard 05master 40ee6c3 06debian-ctte 10meetings.ics Fix typo in meetings.ics 17:11:02 next meeting is currently date -d 'Thu Oct 30 2014 17:00 UTC' 17:11:29 I think that might be after the end of DST in europe, so it might switch the time slightly 17:11:41 10/30 is an all-day LF board meeting, but I can probably participate in an IRC meeting here in parallel 17:11:50 OK 17:12:26 #agreed next meeting is currently date -d 'Thu Oct 30 2014 17:00 UTC' 17:12:45 I guess since there are three of us, we can at least go through the agenda items and get things back up to date 17:12:48 #topic #717076 Decide between libjpeg-turbo and libjpeg8 et al. 17:13:16 I think this was taken care of, so it probably shouldn't be on the agenda 17:13:28 #topic #636783 constitution: super-majority bug 17:14:33 I think the last thing that happened here was two action items for Diziet 17:14:44 #action Diziet to integrate text as asked by Matthew V 17:14:53 #action Diziet to put resolution integrated text into git 17:15:14 an[y 17:15:15 agreed 17:15:19 any other comments here? 17:15:27 nope 17:15:31 nope 17:16:12 #topic #636783 constitution: casting vote 17:16:26 also needing Diziet action 17:16:33 I kind of have the set of constitution items lumped together in my mind .. skip past them? 17:16:37 #action Diziet to draft casting vote to 3 options: change to 9 with casting, change to 9 without casting, FD 17:16:44 yeah, I'll skip them 17:16:55 I just want to hit them and shove the action items back in 17:17:02 #topic #636783 constitution: minimum discussion period 17:17:03 I look forward to Diziet's next round of proposals, but no need to flail in the meantime 17:17:11 ok 17:17:18 #action diziet to draft a proposal 17:17:28 #topic #636783 constitution: TC member retirement/rollover 17:17:39 #action diziet to draft a proposal (actually for this one; the previous was skipped) 17:17:56 #topic #636783 constitution: TC chair retirement/rollover 17:18:17 #action Diziet to draft TC election automatic trigger on new TC member, and manual trigger by another TC member ? 17:18:22 #topic #681419 Depends: foo | foo-nonfree 17:18:42 I think vorlon called for votes on this 17:19:04 I voted 17:19:06 ah, right 17:19:08 I voted too 17:19:18 I'll clean this one up and announce the decision 17:19:27 sounds right 17:19:30 #action dondelelcaro to finalize voting for #671418 and announce decision 17:19:53 #topic #741573 menu systems and mime-support 17:20:15 keithp: I think this one is yours currently, right? 17:20:23 yes 17:20:31 I wrote up a list of potential ballot items and posted that 17:20:58 I would like to get consensus on that list, so I think we can make progress here today by deleting ones that we don't like 17:22:40 can the two of you see that email? (it's also in the repo under bug 741573) 17:23:26 keithp_alternatives.txt, right? 17:23:31 yes 17:24:36 reading 17:25:09 I think that #1, #6, and #7 probably aren't necessary 17:25:17 first question is whether those capture the range of potential ballot items 17:25:23 yeah, 7 is just like 8 17:25:44 bdale: it's slightly different in that we would say we weren't interested in ever deciding 17:25:44 I think so; there's not something that I would want to vote for that isn't there 17:26:11 I see your point, but I don't think that's practically different than FD 17:26:24 and I also don't think it'd be the winning option, so it just feels like clutter 17:26:38 agreed, I think we should remove it 17:26:47 so you don't have an 'allow either, prefer desktop' kind of entry 17:26:48 I just wanted to have it listed for completeness 17:27:12 I guess that's sort of like 3 17:27:57 bounding 'require' in the context of policy might help me think about it 17:28:01 depends on if you think recommendations are ever listened to, or if we need 'requires' to have any effect 17:28:34 ok 17:30:03 So, the other big question is what the scope of the menu systems should be; right now, the policy says 'anything that runs without arguments' should have a menu entry 17:31:05 yeah; I think that's a mistake unless there is a command line menu I don't know about 17:31:16 which is clearly the opinion of 'menu' advocates, but I'm not there 17:31:37 well, both menu and desktop allow for entries for applications that only run in a terminal 17:32:13 so, one option would be to define a policy for applications that *want* a menu entry, and a separate recommendation for the class of applications which should want a menu entry 17:32:23 but isn't that meant in the desktop case for things where a terminal window needs to be launched to run it, not so much for a "things you might want a command line menu for"? 17:32:38 ok 17:32:42 sure, we could use it that way 17:32:43 I think that's nominally the same list 17:33:24 policy currently says that applications that run without options 'should' have a menu entry 17:33:44 I think that's about right; gives packagers the right to *not* have a menu entry if they think it's silly 17:33:53 while generally encouraging menu entries 17:34:07 ok, I agree 17:34:13 ok; that seems fine to me too 17:35:05 moreover, the issue brought to the tech-ctte was solely about how to provide menu entries, not when to provide entries, so we'd be increasing the scope of the answer by doing that 17:35:46 right 17:36:02 and I think policy has it right currently, and if someone on the CTTE disagrees, we can always go to policy to change it 17:36:16 iwj has pushed a draft of 4) 17:37:03 If that's as far as he thinks we need to go in that direction, perhaps we can not have 1-3 on the ballot? 17:38:01 so, require some menu, require desktop/allow menu, require desktop/disallow menu, fd 17:39:03 pass that by iwj, and if he's ok with that list, we go with it? 17:39:09 sounds good to me 17:39:30 if he wants a 'require menu' option, I'm happy to have it on the ballot 17:39:33 ok. I'll write up a ballot with his content for that option, new content for 5) and my content for 6 17:39:45 ok 17:40:15 #action keithp to write up a ballot with iwj's content for that option, new content for 5) and my content for 6 17:40:32 #topic #762194 Automatic switch to systemd on wheezy->jessie upgrades 17:40:34 How long to wait with that before asking for a vote? Or should I pend that until the next meeting? 17:40:36 sorry, very late 17:40:59 keithp: probably post it to the list, then see if anyone responds in a week? 17:41:04 sounds good 17:41:15 (less if you get positive responses) 17:41:17 aba: no worries 17:41:46 from what I can tell from the discussion on list, most people seem agreed that we shouldn't automatically switch to systemd on upgrade 17:42:00 vorlon sends his regrets too 17:42:01 I have to agree with that; it can really break things 17:42:06 I agree 17:42:23 default for new installs != auto-upgrading 17:42:24 same as e.g. with exim3 to exim4 17:43:08 what do you do to people running gnome though? 17:43:20 dunno 17:43:24 that's the big question 17:43:30 'sorry for your poor life choices'? 17:43:39 harsh 17:43:47 i don't understand why we wouldn't want to get systemd on upgrade 17:43:55 the last discussion I read was about how to prompt in such cases and what to say 17:43:56 Install a new metapackage with pulls in systemd etc on upgrade? 17:44:07 (or ask an question or whatever) 17:44:10 jcristau: it means a huge interruption in how you interact with the machine 17:44:26 and may easily break locally installed software or custom hacks in sysvinit 17:44:41 does it? i haven't changed the way i interact with my machine... 17:44:54 You can't just edit files in /etc/init.d and expect things to work 17:45:21 so I've moved a number of machines to systemd without negative consequences. my concerns are therefore more about pushing change on users without having them at least be able to think about and accept the change rather than known difficulties 17:45:33 case in point; we have a hacked VPN on a machine that needed DNS to work before it could start; with sysvinit, ordering 'happened' to work. with systemd, it failed. 17:45:39 I think changing the init systems should be as smooth as possible for those who want to have it done during upgrade. 17:45:52 aba: absolutely 17:45:58 we installed insserv on upgrades, that also changed init script ordering 17:45:58 but I don't think the default answer is "it should be done" 17:46:22 it should be easy, it should "just work", but even then something as fundamental as changing the init system seems like it probably deserves an interactive prompt to me 17:46:28 as example, we didn't replace exim3 with exim4 on upgrades 17:46:30 aba: you can't run gnome without it 17:46:32 and users are going to have difficulties if we don't switch to systemd by default because the sysvinit stuff is going to bitrot 17:46:38 keithp: that's the sad part of it. 17:46:50 keithp: I haven't yet made up my mind how to deal with that 17:47:05 it's pretty easy .. just don't run gnome 17:47:15 jcristau: I agree we should have an recommendation that people should switch the init provider. 17:47:17 jcristau: there's a different issue -- eventually we expect most people to run systemd, but we need to give people a choice about when to switch 17:47:22 aba: you're far more likely to have local config changes to exim than to /etc/init.d/rc 17:47:45 they can choose when they upgrade to jessie 17:47:48 but breaking mail is far less worse than breaking init. 17:48:04 otherwise, I agree with keithp here 17:48:06 we're fixing init 17:48:14 jcristau: changing is not the same as fixing :-) 17:48:29 changing is not the same as breaking. aba said breaking. 17:48:51 but it may break things 17:48:53 jcristau: we may well break some local config, and init is fairly hard to fix if it really breaks badly 17:48:54 the potential to breaking. 17:49:02 dondelelcaro: it's a dist upgrade. of course it will break things. 17:49:26 as one simple example, if you have an fstab entry for a device that's not present at boot, sysvinit will whine but continue to boot .. systemd treats it as a dependency failure and stops the boot, right? 17:50:03 well, e.g. Zugschlus is currently fighting to keep the root hard disk encrypted with systemd 17:50:13 and it's really ugly if your system cannot decrypt root anymore 17:50:15 so, imagine someone with an out-of-date fstab entry trying to do a remote upgrade to jessie and ending up with a system that fails to reboot? 17:51:02 I've had constant problems with installing services that come un-configured, and systemd can't start them, so the postinst script fails 17:51:33 systemd doesn't (yet) support the usual ways of disabling services in debian 17:51:40 those sound like bugs that should get fixed, of course 17:51:44 of course 17:51:58 but people should fail hard on detecting those 17:52:02 + not 17:52:06 I couldn't figure out how to fix them though, because systemd didn't provide any way to use the existing /etc/default/ contents 17:52:10 keithp: that sounds like a bug. not a fundamental problem that means we should leave dist-upgrade out in the cold dark sysvinit ages 17:52:10 aba: exactly 17:52:16 aba: Hmm? Encrypted disks should work just fine as long as the initramfs mounts them (which you need for the root fs anyway). 17:52:42 ansgar: I forgot details, but there is a bug report because one debian-extension is missing 17:52:58 ansgar: and also it's just an example - I hope this specific one to be fixed before release 17:53:03 aba: Yes, support for keyscripts outside of the initramfs. 17:53:33 surely if you fail to decrypt /, it can't be systemd's fault, systemd isn't started yet 17:53:38 so, for jessie, I fear we'll release with bugs of this nature which cause systems to fail to boot with systemd 17:55:11 looks like we have an agreement in the ctte but not in this # 17:55:37 I guess we just need to draft up some options, and see what the feedback is on this 17:55:45 does someone here currently want to take the lead? 17:56:27 keithp: But will a later upgrade or non-upgrade be less painful? sysvinit->systemd upgrades will probably be less tested for jessie+1. 17:57:11 ansgar: our recommendation should be that people change the init provider ASAP, and before jessie+1 (unless they want to stick with sysv-init) 17:57:16 ansgar: we should expect that as systemd matures that people naturally migrate to it over time, and that we have fewer non-systemd systems by jessie+1 17:57:41 and if not, sysvinit->systemd is even more important to get right for jessie+1 17:58:10 and presumably if the support for sysvinit has bitrotted by that point, it would be possible to require systemd before jessie+1 upgrade 17:58:37 seems reasonable to me .. this really is all about who's willing to do what work where and when 17:59:03 what's wrong with getting it right this time? 17:59:10 jcristau: you have a month 17:59:21 you have 6 17:59:22 we're not sure enough (yet) that we get it done 18:00:29 jcristau: I would like to see the resolution occur before the freeze starts 18:00:53 I guess I can draft up some initial ideas here, and then we can see what sticks or gets shot down 18:00:57 so, to the question, I'm too overwhelmed by real life to take lead on this in the next month .. anyone else on the ctte here today want to volunteer to draft something? 18:01:09 dondelelcaro: cool 18:01:19 #action dondelelcaro to draft up initial points for sysvinit->systemd automatic upgrade question 18:01:24 #topic #750135 Maintainer of aptitude package 18:01:48 I fear that was the one I wanted to do something and failed last month 18:01:57 aba: yeah; no worries 18:02:27 I'll plan to do it this month instead 18:02:30 OK 18:02:39 #actui 18:02:41 err... 18:03:06 #action aba to propose a process to try out on #750135 Including the maintainer perhaps providing private response to us, and also perhaps an irc conversation 18:03:09 okie dokie 18:03:15 #topic Additional Business 18:03:20 anything else that I've missed? 18:03:30 not here 18:03:34 none here 18:03:47 I'm off to another meeting... 18:03:50 except that I try to notice the difference between DST between europe and us better 18:03:57 * aba will go home now 18:04:05 aba: heh. I think we're all still in DST, right? 18:04:06 #endmeeting