Sam Hartman:
Hi. As part of reviewing an issue for the technical committee, I just
read policy section 9.3 in its entirety.
Section 9.3.1 really seems to be showing its age. That section covers
runlevels and the sequencing numbers after S and K in rc.d links
without reference to dependency-based boot ordering, init systems
other than sysinit, etc.
In an ideal world I'd encourage that section to be updated to talk
about how boot ordering works on modern Debian.
Absent that, I'd recommend significantly trimming the section to just
cover the fact that there are run levels and that there are these
numbers after S and K and not go into what the numbers after S and K mean.
This has just come up on the Debian Developers' mailing list, where
Ansgar Burchardt also thought of filing a bug.
The work has actually been done, if you want it. Long since.
The Debian Policy Manual never got updated in the wake of the Debian
systemd Hoo-Hah. It remains written from the viewpoint that System 5
init and rc are the defaults, and that upstart is a novelty addendum.
Several people in 2014 publicly proposed starting a Policy Manual
revision. They never finished, to my knowledge, and their proposals
remain part-done (to this day, as far as I know, although I haven't
re-checked since 2015). I didn't make a public announcement, and just
got on and did a rewrite. (-:
It is here, complete with SGML patch:
https://jdebp.eu./Proposals/DebianPolicy/
