[Bug 1897932] Re: systemd-repart not packaged

[Lukas Märdian]

After the discussion on the mailing list (ubuntu-devel@) has settled, and @bluca provided an updated MP#427557 to ship systemd-repart as an additional binary package in Jammy (universe, not installed by default), I've moved ahead and staged the changes to provide an upgrade path (removal of systemd-repart in Kinetic++, now provided by the "systemd" binary itself):
https://git.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-core-dev/ubuntu/+source/systemd/commit/?h=ubuntu-kinetic&id=2281670aa8007179170d5cc485bb94e3bbc3b63c

I've tested that Jammy's systemd-repart binary is removed/replaced by
Kinetic's "systemd" binary on "apt full-upgrade".

Also, I've verified that the systemd-repart build-time test is executed
when running the build locally (dpkg-buildpackage) and full test logs
can be found in "build-deb/meson-logs/testlog.txt". The systemd-repart
test is being skipped when ran in sbuild, due to missing the /dev/loop-
control device.

The new TEST-58-REPART autopkgtest is executed as part of the
"upstream-2" test suite.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1897932

Title:
  systemd-repart not packaged

Status in systemd package in Ubuntu:
  Fix Released
Status in systemd source package in Jammy:
  Confirmed
Status in systemd package in Debian:
  Fix Released

Bug description:
  [Impact]

  systemd-repart is not (as of 246.6-1ubuntu1) packaged in the
  Ubuntu/Debian packages of systemd - probably because it has an extra
  dependency?

  The bug reporter would like to use it in their new raspberry pi images
  where they don't have cloud-init installed. The reporter is already
  using systemd-growfs, but they are missing the nice partition resizing
  part (so are using cloud-initramfs-growroot).

  Furthermore, in the mkosi image builder
  (https://github.com/systemd/mkosi), the systemd/mkosi developers would
  like to start using systemd-repart for partitioning. Unfortunately,
  they're currently blocked on this because 22.04 doesn't ship systemd-
  repart. The upstream CI uses Github Actions which runs on Ubuntu Jammy
  and will do so until the next Ubuntu LTS is released. If we have to
  wait for the next LTS to be released, we'll have to wait for a
  considerable amount of time before we're able to start using systemd-
  repart.

  Being able to use systemd-repart will allow the systemd/mkosi developers to take advantage of its improved interface compared to sfdisk,
  as well as its builtin protections against race conditions surrounding the use of loop devices. The systemd/mkosi developers expect to
  be able to get rid of some nasty loop device failure in mkosi by using systemd-repart.

  [Test Plan]
  This is a missing extra executable. Once enabled it has self-tests in the build-time unit tests, and also a regression test in the autopkgtest 'upstream' suite.

  * Attach (local) build-log showing the systemd-repart self-tests passing, as found in build-deb/meson-logs/testlog.txt
  * Attach autopkgtest logs showing the regression tests passing (especially TEST-58-REPART from "upstream-2" testsuite)
  * Test upgrade-path Jammy->Kinetic to make sure systemd-repart is properly replaced by Kinetic's "systemd" binary package

  [Where problems could occur]
  Shipping systemd-repart will come with no additional risk. While there is a systemd-repart.service that runs on boot, it's configured to not do anything if no config files are shipped with the system or provided by the user. As such, the service, if enabled, will effectively be a noop. Aside from the service, there's the CLI tool systemd-repart and the accompanying man pages that will be shipped as part of the systemd package.

  Given that there's no risk involved with enabling systemd-repart, and
  given the useful features it provides, the systemd/mkosi developers
  would like to request that systemd-repart be enabled in Ubuntu and
  backported to Jammy so that they can start adopting it in mkosi.

  Runtime behavior of existing components is not affected by the build
  config change.

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