Hi Devuan developers,

I am inclined to make an updated version of sysv-rc-conf available in
trixie-backports, and therefore excalibur-backports, but I'd like to make the
case for migrating this version to excalibur proper.

The version of sysv-rc-conf currently in excalibur (0.99-10) is defective in
not understanding dependency-based booting or LSB headers and yet is quite
popular and often mentioned or suggested in the context of changing system
service enablement, even though update-rc.d is the recommended interface.

These two key omissions probably don't have a big impact in most cases because
the call to insserv on installation of packages containing services sets up
symlinks and their priority numbers in a way that means future disabling and
re-enabling works fine without considering dependencies.

As well as fixing 20 bugs in the Debian BTS, the proposed version of
sysv-rc-conf does understand LSB headers (for determining defaults) and by
default invokes insserv to update boot dependencies (and the fallback symlink
priority numbers). It is these two new features that lead me to think it would
be in users' best interests to add this version to the imminent release.

Unfortunately I started working on this package too late for the trixie
freeze. I appreciate there may be complications in managing a diverged
version in Devuan by this route so I am prepared for this idea to be
shot down!

I append the relevant changelog entries for the proposed version to include.

What do you think?

Andrew

 sysv-rc-conf (1.1.1-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * New upstream release.
     - tolerate LSB header parsing errors
     - don't install manpages for internal library modules
   * drop patch applied upstream
   * add autopkgtests
 .
 sysv-rc-conf (1.1.0-1) unstable; urgency=medium
 .
   * Upload to unstable.
   * New upstream release.
     * use tristate widget for floating services (Closes: #285850, #318568)
     * add PgDn/PgUp/Home screen navigation (Closes: #339064)
     * quit from help screen only leaves help (Closes: #292809)
     * refresh documentation, including tristate mode (Closes: #292808)
     * add --UI defaulting to off for -P (Closes: #810746, #743803)
     * line up columns with --list (Closes: #578080)
     * toggle all multiuser runlevels with 'm' key (Closes: #577841)
     * add 'd' key and 'reset' command to use LSB defaults (Closes: #584083)
     * operate read-only when not-root and add read-only option
     * add warning when used with systemd
   * patch to fix RO use when not yet run with RW access to create state dir
   * add /etc/sysv-rc-conf.conf, causing insserv to be used by default to
     update dependency-based boot sequence and adjust sort order.
   * add /usr/sbin/chkconfig alternative, using newly-extended emulation
   * change packaging branch to debian/latest
   * fix typos in 0.99-11 changelog
   * weaken dependency on sysv-rc, not essential for organising symlink farm
 .
 sysv-rc-conf (1.0.0-1) experimental; urgency=medium
 .
   [ Andrew Bower ]
   * New upstream release.
     - drop patches adopted upstream
     - new upstream maintainer and project location with signed upstream tags
     - fix updating of outdated service cache lines (Closes: #462197)
     - add --width option to change service label width
       (Closes: #282850, #515176, #559284)
       Thanks: Thomas Hooge <thomas@???>
     - auto-size service label width by default (Closes: #500928)
     - don't create symlinks for non-existent initscripts (Closes: #463813)
     - ignore hidden symlinks (Closes: #317919) Thanks: Thomas Hood
 .
 sysv-rc-conf (0.99-11) experimental; urgency=medium
 .
   * New maintainer (Closes: #615551)
   * fix restore action in GUI (Closes: #428300)
   * conflict with systemd instead of depending on sysvinit (Closes: #1101338)
     - sysv-rc-conf has some utility managing runlevels for init systems that
       retain initscript fallback capabilities and prior to switching inits.
     - many unintended users will have been shaken out by the dependency in
       place on bookworm and trixie: the risk of confusion is now much reduced.
   * update package description with context to evaluate suitability
   * add README.Debian with caveats as to the suitability of sysv-rc-conf
   * use autogenerated man page, retaining reproducibility
   * update S-V: no changes needed
   * convert copyright to DEP-5
   * add DEP-3 headers to patches
   * add upstream metadata
   * add salsa CI
   * add initial gbp.conf defining debian branch