Bug#1122564: elogind: directly Depends and Build-Depends on dbus

[Mark Hindley]

Control: tags -1 patch

Simon,

Thanks for highlighting this.

Surprisingly (to me, at least) and contrary to the upstream documentation,
removing Build-Depends: dbus seems to make no difference to the packages:

$ debdiff ./elogind_255.17-1debian2.dsc ./elogind_255.17-1debian3.dsc
diff -Nru elogind-255.17/debian/changelog elogind-255.17/debian/changelog
--- elogind-255.17/debian/changelog	2025-04-02 08:39:17.000000000 +0100
+++ elogind-255.17/debian/changelog	2025-12-12 09:09:33.000000000 +0000
@@ -1,3 +1,9 @@
+elogind (255.17-1debian3) UNRELEASED; urgency=medium
+
+  * d/control: Build-Depends drop dbus. (Closes: #1122564)
+
+ -- Mark Hindley <leepen at debian.org>  Fri, 12 Dec 2025 09:09:33 +0000
+
 elogind (255.17-1debian2) unstable; urgency=medium
 
   * d/control:
diff -Nru elogind-255.17/debian/control elogind-255.17/debian/control
--- elogind-255.17/debian/control	2025-04-02 08:39:17.000000000 +0100
+++ elogind-255.17/debian/control	2025-12-12 09:09:33.000000000 +0000
@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
                libselinux1-dev,
                libmount-dev,
                libglib2.0-dev <!nocheck>,
-               dbus (>= 1.9.14) <!nocheck>,
 
 Package: elogind
 Section: admin

+ debdiff ./elogind_255.17-1debian2_amd64.changes ./elogind_255.17-1debian3_amd64.changes
File lists identical (after any substitutions)

Control files of package elogind: lines which differ (wdiff format)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Version: [-255.17-1debian2-] {+255.17-1debian3+}

Control files of package libelogind0: lines which differ (wdiff format)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Version: [-255.17-1debian2-] {+255.17-1debian3+}

Control files of package libpam-elogind: lines which differ (wdiff format)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.39), libcap2 (>= 1:2.10), libpam0g (>= 0.99.7.1), elogind (= [-255.17-1debian2),-] {+255.17-1debian3),+} libpam-runtime
Provides: logind (= [-255.17-1debian2)-] {+255.17-1debian3)+}
Version: [-255.17-1debian2-] {+255.17-1debian3+}

I also notice the existing (255.17-1debian2) buildlog has

  Features
    enabled                        : ACL, SELinux, SMACK, efi, polkit, utmp
    disabled                       : AUDIT, xenctrl, dbus, glib, debug elogind, debug hashmap, debug mmap cache, debug siphash, trace logging, slow tests, install tests, coverage, static-libelogind

Looking in meson.build, the dbus dependency that is tested in dbus-1. This sets
HAVE_DBUS, but I don't see that being used anywhere. So, my inclination is that
this is cruft that can safely be dropped.

As for the runtime dependency, the current default-dbus-system-bus, dbus-broker,
requires systemd-sysv and is therefore not installable with elogind.

On Thu, Dec 11, 2025 at 12:13:09PM +0000, Simon McVittie wrote:
> If the intention of this dependency is "this package needs a working 
> D-Bus system bus, whatever implementation Debian prefers at the moment", 
> consider replacing the runtime Depends on dbus with:
> default-dbus-system-bus | dbus-system-bus

Here, apt would fall back dbus-system-bus, ie dbus. So nothing is gained in the
short-term.

Do you see a longer term benefit?

Thanks and best wishes

Mark