On Wed, Jul 15, 2026 at 12:43:26PM +0200, Helmut Grohne wrote: >... > B. systemd-tmpfiles works at all times even when it is temporarily > deconfigured (e.g. for being upgraded or replacing the provider). > > This is the policy requirement for essential packages. > > C. A systemd-tmpfiles provider is part of the transitively essential > set. > > Policy requires that this implies B. >...
Where does policy require that? Section 3.8. only requires it for packages marked "Essential: yes". I also do not see how such a requirement would make sense: Shared libraries can be part of the transitively essential set, but packages cannot assume the availability of a library since it might disappear during an upgrade to the next release. Therefore all users already have to depend on shared libraries in the transitively essential set in any case. When dh_installtmpfiles generates dependencies, then C should be fine even without B, similar to shared libraries. >From a practical point of view, I do also not see why passwd using systemd-tmpfiles might be fine, but packages in the transitively essential set like libselinux1 should be banned from using systemd-tmpfiles due to one implementation using libsystemd-shared. > Helmut cu Adrian
