On Thu, Apr 02 2009, Dave Ewart wrote: > On Thursday, 02.04.2009 at 10:12 -0500, Manoj Srivastava wrote: > >> > At the risk of starting a holy war, and kind of highjaking, >> > shouldn't Debian *not* start just-installed daemons by default? Or >> > at least ask while installing if such daemon is to be started >> > automatically (like sshd does, i think)? >> >> The argument is that if the user did not want the daemon started, >> they would not have installed the package. And while there can be a >> debconf question about it starting, the questions should be of low >> priority (I insatlled the package, didn't I? why ask me over and over >> whether I really really want it running?), and the default should be >> yes. > > It's not always clear. Sometimes, you don't know until > post-installation that a package includes a daemon at all.
Hmm. Then the description might be seen to be lacking. Please file a wishlist bug, with your suggestions. In any case, if the maintainer thinks most people want to run the daemon, and you are in a minority, you will have to arange for the daemon not to be started. >> This is why Debian has debconf -- so that any critical configuration >> should be done at install, and there should be reasonable, >> non-obnoxious defaults set by the package anyway. > > Well, that's also unclear. Running a daemon with defaults is not always > desired, and may in fact cause problems. Sure. But your opinion might not be the majority opinion. Can't please everyone. > I must admit that I like the OpenBSD approach here. Installing a > package just installs the binaries. At the end of the installation, it > says something like: > > To make the daemon start at each boot, add the following to > /etc/rc.local: > > if [ -x /usr/local/sbin/somedaemon ]; then > /usr/local/sbin/somedaemon > fi > > This may be a less convenient approach, but it does meet the criterion > of Least Surprise: a daemon won't be started automatically before you > have a chance to configure it, for example. I would be very surprised if I installed a package and it was not immediately functional, and left me with obscure, unguided configuration to do. I expect Debian packages to ship daemons with sane defaults, and for the daemons to work. If I wanted *BSD, I know where to find them. manoj -- Anyone who goes to a psychiatrist ought to have his head examined. Samuel Goldwyn Manoj Srivastava <sriva...@acm.org> <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/> 1024D/BF24424C print 4966 F272 D093 B493 410B 924B 21BA DABB BF24 424C -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org