Bug#775447: Does not update or remove /var/log/dmesg

[Michael Biebl]

Hi Ben,

Am 15.01.2015 um 20:41 schrieb Ben Hutchings:
> Since I switched to systemd as pid 1, /var/log/dmesg is no longer
> updated.  I realise that it is not really needed because systemd
> captures kernel messages and feeds them to the syslog daemon via
> journald.
> 
> However, /var/log/dmesg is not removed either, and it took me a
> little while to realise that I was looking at stale information
> from the last initscripts boot.
> 
> Please arrange to either update or remove it when systemd is pid 1.

I don't think we want to update /var/log/dmesg under systemd. As you
said, we have a much more elaborate solution with the journal.

I also feel a bit uneasy about removing /var/log/dmesg within the
systemd package (either in the maintainer scripts or by other means),
since this log file is not owned by systemd. I'm pretty sure we would
get angry mails from admins if we removed their log files.

We could maybe think about renaming /var/log/dmesg to something like
/var/log/dmesg-better-name-to-be-found.

Then again, if someone boots again with sysvinit (via the
/lib/sysvinit/init fallback), this file would be re-created. So this
wouldn't be a complete solution either.

Maybe the simplest solution is, to simply document this fact somewhere
(README.Debian, release notes, something else), along with other
sysvinit compat issues.

Michael


-- 
Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the
universe are pointed away from Earth?

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