Discussion on https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/657402 and via email.

Email from Dominique Leuenberger, 2019-01-24

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Some more thinking and tinkering around the problems with suse-module-
tools - and your https://github.com/openSUSE/rpm-config-SUSE/pull/6

Adding a runtime dependency from suse-module-tools to dracut is a bad
thing (with the current setup), as you already know:
* coreutils buildrequires suse-module-tools in order to get the initrd
macros in place.
* coreutils is part of the distro bootstrap cycle (which is already
large/too large). Adding dracut (plus dependency chain) into this cycle
will make it close to impossible to bootstrap any new distro, namely
SLE16

This shall not mean that dracut as a dependency on suse-module-tools is
wrong per se, and as you did in the last weeks, we should try to find a
solution for this issue, and I think the started path is not the worst:

* we remove the macro to rebuild the initrd from suse-module-tools, and
move that to a common place (rpm-config-SUSE comes to mind, it already
contains commonly used macros)
* With this, coreutils could completely give up on the dependency on
suse-module-tools, which means s-module-tools could be downgraded from
a ring0 to a ring1 package. The macro is already smart enough to skipt
over the execution of /usr/lib/module-init-tools/regenerate-initrd-
posttrans if it does not exist
* An additional problem will show up though: dracut requires suse-
module-tools, and suse-module-tools will require dracut. To break that
cycle in OBS you will have to add a "#!BuildIgnore: suse-module-tools"
to suse-module-tools.spec.

This way forward would solve the technical difficulties we have around
building a self-contained distro, without making it harder on the
distro maintainers AND will allow us to add a dependency to s-m-t that
is being interpreted by OBS (or we could even add a fileprovides then -
once coreutils no longer cares for it)

If any mail recipient has a valid reason AGAINST this plan, please
speak up - but please also offer alternative solutions. Otherwise,
let's get things moving. There are still two ring0 packages that will
need touching (rpm-config-SUSE and coreutils) - and ring0 packages are
'tough' as they put a high load onto the distro build, meaning stagins
willing to take them are scarse.
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https://github.com/openSUSE/rpm-config-SUSE/pull/6 has been accepted for
rpm-config-SUSE. The initrd-related macros have _not_ been removed from
suse-module-tools yet (15.0.20).

The dependency on mkinitrd has been replaced by a weak "recommends".