Re: install daemon without starting it

[Ken Irving <fnkci@uaf.edu>]

On Thu, Apr 02, 2009 at 02:23:38PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> On Thu, 02 Apr 2009 10:12:54 -0500 Manoj Srivastava wrote:
> 
> >         There are mechanisms by which the site admin can tailor the
> >  selection of daemons that start -- but the default should be I
> >  installed it, and I installed it for a reason, so I want the thing
> >  running.
> 
> But perhaps I don't want it to run until after I modify the default
> configuration.  I may install a web server, but I may want it to serve
> only over a LAN interface, and not over my public interface.  I know I
> can block this at the firewall, but I want defense in depth, and I'm
> suggesting that there can be perfectly common use cases where I want
> the thing installed, and eventually even running, but not just yet, or
> right now.

The package maintainer makes the determination of whether a package 
runs by default or not.  In my experience web servers and firewalls
don't run, probably for reasons such as you describe, and the admin
needs to go in and configure them, or in some cases edit a setting
under /etc/default/<package> or elsewhere.  Many packages do run by
default, and I appreciate and have never had a problem with that.  It
would probably be reasonable to file a bug for a package that one 
thinks does the wrong thing (first checking for existing bugs
of course), or maybe as a wishlist item.

I flagged the first response to this thread as a possibly useful trick
for the event that I might want to prevent a package from starting 
automatically, but likely will never use it.

Ken
-- 
Ken Irving