Re: install daemon without starting it
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 <srivasta@acm.org> <http://www.golden-gryphon.com/>
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