Bug#107862: newly installed services start automatically
Package: general
Version: N/A; reported 2001-08-06
Severity: normal
I installed another package today (pdnsd, not that it matters) that
has a startup script in /etc/init.d, and I've been wondering about
this for a while. Newly installed services like this automatically
start as part of the installation process. I can think of a few
problems with this. The first is just a matter of convenience; the
admin may want to configure the program before starting it. More
severe is a problem from personal experience: on installing the ipx
software, the default settings were apparently so mismatched with
the network my machine was on as to cause a kernel panic. Upon
restarting, the package system was so screwed up (since critical
files were open when it crashed) that I resorted to a full reinstall.
So the question is, is it really necessary for new services to be
started automatically? Usually it isn't really a problem, but on the
off chance something goes horribly wrong, having an unusable system
isn't fun. (...and if I've just missed some option to dselect / apt /
dpkg in the docs, is there a good reason that this behavior is the
default?)
Mike McGuire
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