Starting services automatically after install

[Aaron Toponce <aaron.toponce@gmail.com>]

I'm trying to dig through the archives to see if this has been discussed,
and I'm only finding random one-off discussions here and there about it.
Nothing concrete. If it has already been discussed in great detail, my
apologies.

By default in Debian, when a service package is installed, such as
openssh-server, or isc-dhcp-server, it starts the service. This seems
counter-intuitive to me. I would think that the standard mode of practice
for installing and running a service would be as follows:

    1. Install package
    2. Configure service
    3. Start service

Instead, I find myself doing a lot of:

    1. Install package
    2. Stop service
    3. Configure service
    4. Start service

I only bring this up, because I recently booted into a Debian Live 6.0.4
image, and found 32 (thirty-two!) services listening on external
interfaces, including port 6667! Further, ISC DHCP tried starting, although
it failed. Why is a DHCP server trying to start on a rescue tool?! Why is a
rescue tool running any services at all?! Especially ones listening on
external interfaces!

Anyay, that's off-topic. Just because I have installed a service package,
doesn't mean I want the service immediately running after installation. I
would like to spend the necessary time as an administrator to configure and
secure the service to my liking, before starting the service.

I would be interested in the opinions of the rest of the development
community on this, and why Debian handles services the way it does
currently. For comparison, Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux do not start
a service after install. {Free,Open,Net}BSD start some, but never on
external interfaces. AFAIK, Arch Linux does not any services by default
after installation. . It seems that only Debian-based operating systems do.

Thanks,

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