the netbase/inetd conspiracy

[Marco d'Itri <md@Linux.IT>]

I discussed with the xinetd and rlinetd maintainers about how to kill
the netbase package and allow users to really choose their favourite
inet superserver. Please comment.

The plan allows to have installed at the same time more than one daemon.
The changes needed to update-inetd have been discussed but I still have
to think about some details.
So far I think the update-inetd syntax will not change, even if it's
very inetd-specific.


The current situation:

Package: netbase
Depends: net-tools | iproute, ifupdown, ipchains | ipfwadm | iptables, netkit-inetd, tcpd, netkit-ping | iputils-ping, debconf
Suggests: ipmasqadm | ipautofw | iptables, portmap, netkit-rpc
Conflicts: xinetd (<= 2.2.1-8), netstd (<< 3.00), nfs-common (<< 1:0.3.2-1), nfs-user-server (<< 2.2beta47-9), nis (<= 3.6-2), rstatd (<= 3.03-3), rwalld (<= 0.16-1), rusersd (<= 0.17-1), ugidd (<< 2.2beta47-9)



The Plan:

STEP 0:
The present situation: everything depends on netbase.
(statd, apt-proxy and atftpd currently depend on netkit-inetd instead)

STEP 1:
netbase:
 Depends: iputils-ping | netkit-ping,
     openbsd-inetd (>= STEP-1) | xinetd (>= STEP-1) | netkit-inetd (>= STEP-1)

inetd daemon packages now Provides: inet-superserver
inetd daemon packages now Depends: tcpd if appropriate
inetd daemon packages now Conflicts: netbase (< STEP-1),
				other inetd daemon packages (< STEP-1)
netbase does not Depends: tcpd anymore
netbase does not Depends: ipchains | ipfwadm | iptables anymore
netbase now has a versioned Depends: on any inetd daemon package (>= STEP-1)
to ease transition.

update-inetd is moved from netbase to all inet daemon packages and
managed with alternatives. The shared code would be about ~5 KB of help
and options parsing, so there is no point in having a common package
providing the common parts of the program.

ipchains/ipfwadm/iptables are not needed anymore because 2.0 kernels
support has been dropped from libc, so /etc/init.d/networking can be
made much simpler.

STEP 2:
all programs which need a inetd daemon now Depends: inet-superserver
netbase does not Depends: on inetd daemon packages anymore


STEP ?:
/etc/init.d/networking is moved to another package (ifupdown?) which:
Replaces: netbase
Conflicts: netbase (< STEP-?)

STEP ?:
What about the netbase dependancy on ping? Can it be removed as soon
as iputils-ping is made Priority: important? Or not?

STEP ?:
What about the netbase dependancy on net-tools | iproute?

STEP ?:
Find a newer man page for resolv+(5) and move it to the manpages package.
gateways(5) and /etc/gateways should become part of the routed package.

STEP ?:
Move /etc/* (and possibly some debconf questions) to another package
(base-files?) and kill netbase.


-- 
ciao,
Marco