Package: chrony Version: 4.0-8 Severity: normal X-Debbugs-Cc: s.egb...@sbcglobal.net
Dear Maintainer, I have a use case for running both ntp and chrony packages. The Debian APT is using 'Conflicts: time-daemon' in chrony and ntp packages. We cannot EVER install both packages due to this 'Conflicts' metatag. My use case here: * ntp is the upstream interface and is using its own encryption. * chrony is the downstream broadcasting NTP protocol and is using its own encryption. * systemd-timesyncd does not support encryption (v247), so it got ignored. Nothing we can do would allow the installation of both packages. ALTERNATIVE APPROACH -------------------- One thing that MAY work for all is to split out the packages into * ntp-client-only (which has the APT 'Conflict: chrony, systemd-timesyncd' * ntp-server-client (has the APT 'Conflict: ntp-client-only' * chrony-client-only (which has the APT 'Conflict: ntp, systemd-timesyncd' * chrony-server-client (which has the APT 'Conflict: chrony-client-only' Suggessted *-client-only settings --------------------------------- Only the *-client-only package would have the default settings for desktop, dynamic IP interface, et. al. These *-client-only packages would have THE apt metatag setting of covering old naming-convention packages with 'Conflicts: [chrony|ntp|systemd-timesyncd]' Suggested *-server-client settings ---------------------------------- The *-server-client would have its config files be configured as 'client-only' but allows for drop-in config settings into their respective drop-in include directory. Might even have a dpkg-[p]reconfigure script for additional info for being in server mode (such as interface/subnet). Interaction between *-client-only/*-server-client packages ---------------------------------------------------------- Of course, this *-server-client package class would NOT be deleting any config files that it did NOT install, thus enabling customization to be left behind and untouch. We could even make the *-client-only be dominate and 'blow-away' settings (ok, not that drastic, just simply rename away with *.dpkg filetype) on these drop-in config files. And APT 'Conflicts:' shall not be used by any *-server-client package. Interaction between *-server-client and systemd-timesyncd --------------------------------------------------------- Well, systemd-timesyncd is only good for client-side. We ought to be able to support this new 'Conflicts: *-client-only' still. No need to remove systemd-timesyncd if one of the *-server-client got installed. Admin would just need to be smart about how to set both package classes together. Summary ------- Yeah, it's a bit heady. Not sure why we went down this 'Conflicts:' route for time-daemon packages. I can see the need to meet ease of use for the desktop community, but certinaly not at a heavy cost toward the server community. -- System Information: Debian Release: 11.0 APT prefers stable-updates APT policy: (500, 'stable-updates'), (500, 'stable-security'), (500, 'stable') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 5.10.46 (SMP w/4 CPU threads) Kernel taint flags: TAINT_UNSIGNED_MODULE Locale: LANG=en_US.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8), LANGUAGE not set Shell: /bin/sh linked to /usr/bin/dash Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system) LSM: AppArmor: enabled Versions of packages chrony depends on: ii adduser 3.118 ii init-system-helpers 1.60 ii iproute2 5.10.0-4 ii libc6 2.31-13 ii libcap2 1:2.44-1 ii libedit2 3.1-20191231-2+b1 ii libgnutls30 3.7.1-5 ii libnettle8 3.7.3-1 ii libseccomp2 2.5.1-1 ii tzdata 2021a-1 ii ucf 3.0043 chrony recommends no packages. Versions of packages chrony suggests: ii bind9-dnsutils [dnsutils] 1:9.16.15-1 pn networkd-dispatcher <none> -- Configuration Files: /etc/default/chrony changed: DAEMON_OPTS="-F 1 -L 0" -- no debconf information
