initscripts and how many patches to carry

[Ian Jackson]

There's a bug report (http://bugzilla.ubuntu.com/1580) which complains
basically that many of our /etc/init.d scripts use `echo ...' rather
than log_begin_msg etc.  This is of course suboptimal.

However, are we really intending to patch /all/ of our init scripts in
main to fix this ?  Wouldn't it be better to offer relevant patches to
Debian and provide this slight user experience improvement on a
best-effort basis in the meantime ?

There are approximately 96 init.d scripts in Breezy main that would
need to be edited.  26 of those are in Breezy packages identical to a
Debian version, and 70 are in already-Ubuntu-modified packages.

I would suggest that there are probably better things for us to spend
our effort on.  But, on the other hand, if we're going to do it it
ought not to be done piecemeal.  If we do decide to bite that bullet,
proper use of special-purpose automation could significantly reduce
the per-package effort involved.

Ian.