On Fri 05 Jul 2019 at 09:56:39 +0300, Reco wrote: > On Thu, Jul 04, 2019 at 09:42:11PM +0100, Brian wrote: > > On Thu 04 Jul 2019 at 22:05:09 +0200, to...@tuxteam.de wrote: > > > > > On Thu, Jul 04, 2019 at 08:56:45PM +0100, Tixy wrote: > > > > On Thu, 2019-07-04 at 20:01 +0100, Brian wrote: > > > > > On Thu 04 Jul 2019 at 19:18:13 +0300, Reco wrote: > > > > > > > > > > [...] > > > > > > > > > > > I'd also consider exterminating avahi with extreme prejudice, i.e. > > > > > > 'apt > > > > > > purge avahi-daemon'. Really simplifies things. Not installing this > > > > > > software in the first place works even better. > > > > > > > > > > Gene Heskett can follow this advice if he wishes. It is to be hoped > > > > > that every other user ignores it. > > Oh, it seems that I've touched a nerve. My apologies just in case.
No need to apologise. I was intrigued with the suggestion and simply wondered what the technical reason was and how not installing avahi would benefit a user. > > > > Why? It's advice I decided for myself 10 or more years ago after seeing > > > > constant reports of zeroconf bugs in various OSes and kit, and > > > > realising that sort of thing was also running on my Linux machines. The > > > > whole idea of automagically setting up networks just sounds like a > > > > problem and security hole waiting to happen. So I decided to nuke it > > > > from orbit, it was the only safe thing to do. > > > > > > As always, all generalizations suck. Some do avahi, others don't (full > > > disclosure: I am in the "don't" camp, as many may have guessed :-) > > > > If nobody objects I would like to reword that statement. Many, many > > users will have avahi-daemon on their systems; a few won't. > > [1] says that half of the Debian users participating in popcon have > avahi-daemon installed. Your assertion that "don't camp" is a minority > is off. That's a first. Popularity contest statistics are a rough and ready basis for deciding on a course of action, but sufficient to counter a rough and ready argument. http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/the_popcon_problem/ > Second, contrary to the popular thinking here, the world does not start > and does not end with GNOME and x86 along with the CUPS installed. > And while avahi enhances CUPS' usability indeed, it has little > usefulness otherwise. The enhancements it brings to the printing system are sufficient to more than justify its place on a user's machine. > Third, whatever good avahi does is limited to a single L2 network > segment by the very definition of how it works. This particular problem > shows it BTW. > > > > The idea > > that > > > > > Not installing this software in the first place works even better. > > > > requires clarification. > > Easy. You don't understand what the software does (Gene's here), or you > don't need its functions (I'm here) - you just do not install it. You > don't fight with it, you don't try to "disable" it in myriad ways, and > you do not build assorted kludges alongside of it - you do not install > it, simple as that. > > > [1] https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=avahi Not installing avahi-daemon or purging it when it is not required is reasonable; I do both on some machines here. -- Brian.