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Re: not starting packages at boot



On Fri, Jan 21, 2005 at 12:09:42PM +0800, Dan Jacobson wrote:
> Now that maintainers realized that one might like a package installed,
> but perhaps only plans to use it unoften, it only makes sense for not
> starting at boot to be offered as a friendly configuration option,
> instead of needing some devious guerilla techniques to thwart the
> packages starting.

For packages I maintain that provide system services, I use another
solution than making it a configuration option.  The packages are split
into a package providing the programs, and a -run package providing the
service.  Users that don't want the service to be enabled by default
simply don't install the -run package.

This additionally has an advantage concerning virtual packages
representing a system service, such as ftp-server, mail-transport-agent,
system-log-daemon, or imap-server.  Here's the rationale from the
bincimap-run package:

$ sed -ne '18~1p' </usr/share/doc/bincimap-run/README.Debian

The bincimap-run package provides the virtual package ``imap-server'' and
conflicts with other packages providing ``imap-server''.  This ensures that
bincimap is the only service that listens on the address 0.0.0.0:993 on a
system, and also satisfies packages that depend on a running imap service.
The bincimap package without the bincimap-run package can be installed
alongside other imap-server packages on a system, e.g. to provide different
imap or imaps services on different addresses simultaneously.

 -- Gerrit Pape <pape@smarden.org>, Fri, 17 Oct 2003 07:45:52 +0000
$ 

Regards, Gerrit.
-- 
Open projects at http://smarden.org/pape/.



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