Bug#1131137: sysvinit-core: inittab.d support unreasonably verbose

[Jesse Smith]

On Wed, 18 Mar 2026 09:13:22 +0000 Mark Hindley wrote:
 > Control: tags -1 upstream
 >
 > Andrew,
 >
 > Thanks for this.
 >
 > On Tue, Mar 17, 2026 at 11:48:24PM +0000, Andrew Bower wrote:
 > > When booting with sysvinit, the following message is invariably 
displayed:
 > >
 > > INIT: No inittab.d directory found
 > >
 > > This is a little excessive for a default installation as the visual 
footprint
 > > from init should be minimal. It does not seem to be valid as an 
error or a
 > > warning.
 >
 > I agree. I think this could/should be silently ignored (upstream).


I had mixed feelings about this. It's valid information, but it is 
checking for an optional feature. I have decided to remove the warning 
about inittab.d not being found, but have left in status messages about 
reading .tab files inside that directory.


 >
 > > This can be worked around by adding a directory in 
debian.sysvinit-core.dirs.
 >
 > Really that adds unnecessary cruft.
 >
 > > However, this then leads us to a documentation issue: you have to 
read the
 > > source code to realise that only files ending ".tab" will be read. 
Therefore I
 > > suggest the patch below [4] would be a better resolution in the 
debian package,
 > > including a README to explain this point.
 > >
 > > But we are not out of the woods. The change [1] that introduced 
this feature
 > > did not document it. So I suggest that the upstream documents the 
directory and
 > > its constraints in the man pages.
 >
 > Certainly that would be worth documenting, again upstream.
 >

Agreed. I've added a note about this in our inittab manual page.


 > > Then if you do use the feature, you get excessively verbose output 
due to [2]:
 > >
 > > printf("Got line: %s\n", buf);
 > >
 > > I think upstream should remove that.
 >
 > That looks like debug leftovers to me.
 >

Agreed. I'm removing this line upstream.


I think that covers everything. These fixes and the updated 
documentation will be in SysV init version 3.16

- Jesse

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