Re: Starting services automatically after install

[Tollef Fog Heen <tfheen@err.no>]

]] Jonas Smedegaard 

> > A problem with using policy-rc.d is you don't know whether a service 
> > is being started because it's the initial install or if it's because 
> > of an upgrade.  I'll sometimes not want the service to start on 
> > initial installation (because chef is just about to plop its 
> > configuration into place), but if it's an upgrade, then please just 
> > restart the service.
> 
> You could setup your local policy to check if the service exist in e.g. 
> /etc/local-ok-services/ and then when you've customized or 
> security-checked or whatever each service you do a
> 
>    touch /etc/local-ok-services/$service
> 
> Or did I misunderstand?

You could do something like this, and it would handle most cases, but
not all corner cases. However, it's a workaround for information that
the system already has.  The postinst already know whether it's an
initial installation or not, invoke-rc.d and policy-rc.d should just be
told so it can make a better decision.

(An obvious problem with having a whitelist is then what happens when
you purge a package?  It won't magically be removed from the whitelist
and so you end up in an unwanted situation.)

> (We haven't spoken much in person, but I regard you as pretty clever so 
> am surprised that you describe this as a problem and I feel it so simple 
> to solve...)

The 90% solution is easy, I don't think the 100% solution is that easy.
I haven't investigated it deeply though.

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are