bird3 package upgrades - graceful restart?

[LEdoian]

On Mon, Jan 05, 2026 at 09:49:37PM +0100, Christoph via Bird-users wrote:
> David Petera via Bird-users:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > do you guys by any chance have the utility `needrestart` on your system?
> 
> It does not appear to be installed:

I had a quick look at the package and it seems that the postinst script
contains the following autogenerated snippet, that could also be the
culprit:

| # Automatically added by dh_installinit/13.24.2
| if [ "$1" = "configure" ] || [ "$1" = "abort-upgrade" ] || [ "$1" = "abort-deconfigure" ] || [ "$1" = "abort-remove" ] ; then
|         if [ -z "$DPKG_ROOT" ] && [ -x "/etc/init.d/bird" ]; then
|                 update-rc.d bird defaults >/dev/null
|                 if [ -n "$2" ]; then
|                         _dh_action=restart
|                 else
|                         _dh_action=start
|                 fi
|                 invoke-rc.d bird $_dh_action || exit 1
|         fi
| fi
| # End automatically added section

I am not too proficient in debian packaging nor I am running BIRD on a
Debian system currently, but I think the `configure` action is part of
package upgrade, so this could also be a culprit? (I have no idea under
what circumstances is `$DPKG_ROOT` populated, though.)

I cannot verify that this really is the culprit, but if it is, I think,
according to dh_installinit(1) manpage, that `distro/pkg/deb/rules`
should use `--no-restart-on-upgrade` in `override_dh_installinit` (and
possibly in `override_dh_installsystemd` too?)

Again, take this with some amount of salt, I was just curious and opened
the .deb in midnight commander and made some guesses :-)

Best regards,
LEdoian