On Sun, Apr 29, 2001 at 10:29:58PM -0600, Dwayne C. Litzenberger wrote: > Why does a server automatically get run just because it's installed? For > instance, portmap is installed by default whether you're using NFS or not, and > bnetd runs even if I just installed the package for bnchat. Shouldn't the > default be to not run daemons unless they are explicitly enabled, like an > "exit" at the beginning of all daemon-starting init scripts that must be > commented out? The 'exit 0' line in the beginning of the init file is a bad idea. for so many times i've commented out the '### comment this line to really start the service' lines. and then after upgrade gotten in to the position where i have to diff bethween two maintainer scripts to add the changes or just replace the old script and recomment the exit line. the usual policy has been, (to my knowledge) if you can't set reasonable defaults for the daemon (yes, this is why debconf is there) you should add some method that won't allow it to start. Otherwise, if you can set reasonable defaults or better yet, configure it while installing, it should be enabled by default. the above schema allows upgrading of packages without always editing the init files, and almost always assures that you have working system after installing the packages. If you don't want the daemons to start, don't install it. there are no daemons that either cannot be easily disabled (with update-inetd or something) or removed. This is one of the most powerful features of Debian, why would we want to ruin that? -- -< Sami Haahtinen >- -< 2209 3C53 D0FB 041C F7B1 F908 A9B6 F730 B83D 761C >-
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