Migrating Debian and Ubuntu packages to systemd
Exceptions in rules Files
It does occasionally happen that debian/rules includes other contents in addition to the call to dh. At best, separate entries just supplement the work of dh and override individual parts (targets). At worst, administrators will have to deal with a completely self-written rules file. It is important to keep a cool head if this happens: rules files normally use the debhelper suite.
Debhelper provides an approach for the package maintainer to change the normal sequence of steps for virtually any target. It is important to consider whether a target with the name override_dh_installinit exists. If so, the rules script is doing its own thing at this point. Unfortunately, it isn't possible to make a general statement about adapting to systemd. In such situations, the important thing in the end is that the script calls the dh_installinit, dh_systemd_enable, and dh_systemd_start commands within the override_dh_installinit target. If this happens, the debhelper scripts for systemd are aboard.
If dh is Missing Completely
Sometimes the rules file does not call dh at all, which is often the case for scripts that have some years under their belt and have long been abandoned. Anyone dealing with such a package would be best off making sure that the three debhelper commands in debian/rules exist within the binary-arch and the binary-indep target. In most cases, this precaution is sufficient to ensure the systemd integration works correctly.
Infos
- systemd: https://wiki.freedesktop.org/www/Software/systemd/
- Debian: https://www.debian.org
- Mark Shuttleworth, "Losing graciously": http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/1316
- List of Ubuntu packages still to be converted: http://people.canonical.com/~jhunt/systemd/packages-to-convert/
- Comparison of Upstart and systemd unit files: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SystemdForUpstartUsers
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