2007/6/13, Mark Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > On Wed, Jun 13, 2007 at 03:07:29PM +0200, Michael Biebl wrote: > > > Whoever conceived and introduced this idea of disabling services via > > /etc/default/$package deserves to be tarred and feathered. It is a > > horribly broken idea. Unfortunately quite a few people adopted this > > scheme. > > There's really not much option for daemons that can't be started by > default. Not installing the init script is generally unhepful for > people who have actually provided the appropriate configuration while > starting before that is obviously problematic.
Can you give some examples where a daemon can't be started by default? I can only think of the two atm: 1.) Missing configuration data - Easy solution: Check for the configuration, e.g. a missing config file are missing setting in a config file. In that case, exit and (optionally, probably based on the VERBOSE setting) give a warning message. 2.) Software that can be run in usermode *or* daemon mode, where usermode is likely the more often used one, e.g. rsync, as Erich pointed out. - As Erich already proposed, this could be solved via a separate package, shipping the init-script. Although I agree, this might be a bit heavyweight. > > Why is using /etc/default/$package bad: > > - Because it makes your init script useless if it is disabled via > > /etc/default/. You aren't able any more to start it manually. > > - It makes the init system inconsistent and ambiguous > > - It breaks graphical frontends. Imagine a user, that tries to > > start/stop a service via a GUI, but nothing happens, because the init > > script just exits. > > Note that this only applies to enabling and disabling services via the > init scripts - other configuration such as additional arguments for > daemons doesn't have the same issues. Sure, I didn't question that. Providing configuration data for the init script is a valid use of /etc/default/. I hoped that I made it clear that I was only criticising the use of /etc/default for enabling/disabling init scripts. Cheers, Michael -- Why is it that all of the instruments seeking intelligent life in the universe are pointed away from Earth? _______________________________________________ initscripts-ng-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/initscripts-ng-devel
