needrestart on Ubuntu 24.04 is restarting google-guest-agent startup and shutdown scrips on reinstall but they should not be restarted

[Philip Roche]

[Impact]
The recent change in Ubuntu 24.04 and needrestart which results in services being restarted automatically , details @ https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-release-notes/39890#services-restart-on-unattended-upgrade-26, has resulted in unexpected behaviour on Google GCE ubuntu 24.04 images where if the google-guest-agent package is reinstalled then needrestart will restart the `google-startup-scripts.service` and `google-shutdown-scripts.service` but these should only be run during the lifetime of the instance and should not be restarted.

[Test plan]

Boot a Noble image on GCE

rm /etc/needrestart/conf.d/google-guest-agent.conf # Remove the workaround
apt reinstall libc6
# Check that the scripts weren't restarted

[ Where problems could occur ]

Assuming no syntax error, this is fairly safe as a version of it has been shipped in the GCE images as a workaround, and the service names are pretty specific.

[Original report]
The recent change in Ubuntu 24.04 and needrestart which results in services being restarted automatically , details @ https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-release-notes/39890#services-restart-on-unattended-upgrade-26, has resulted in unexpected behaviour on Google GCE ubuntu 24.04 images where if the google-guest-agent package is reinstalled then needrestart will restart the `google-startup-scripts.service` and `google-shutdown-scripts.service` but these should only be run during the lifetime of the instance and should not be restarted.

It can be worked around by setting `NEEDRESTART_SUSPEND=1` prior to any re-install as per the needrestart man pages @ https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/noble/man1/needrestart.1.html?&_ga=2.32620542.1557010342.1713949275-1490161839.1713949275#environment or by appending to the needrestart configuration `echo "\$nrconf{override_rc}{qr(^google-(shutdown|startup)-scripts\.service$)} = 0;" >> /etc/needrestart/conf.d/google-guest-agent.conf` which will disable this behaviour for any future google-guest-agent upgrade or reinstall.

This bug is to track the work of getting this added to the packaged `/etc/needrestart/needrestart.conf` configuration.

Similar to the work done for cloud-init @ https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/needrestart/+bug/2059337

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package needrestart - 3.6-8ubuntu3

---------------
needrestart (3.6-8ubuntu3) oracular; urgency=medium

  * d/p/ubuntu-mode.patch: Don't touch /run/reboot-required on kernel updates
    (LP: #2065863)
  * Ubuntu mode: disable it if restart mode has been explicitly set
    (LP: #2068543)
  * Add some inline documentation for the Ubuntu mode (LP: #2068573)
  * Don't restart the google-guest-agent service (LP: #2063442)
  * Don't restart the GH runner provisioner (LP: #2067800)
  * tests: guard against looping when failing.

 -- Simon Chopin <email address hidden> Fri, 14 Jun 2024 11:57:11 +0200