Paul Wise <pabs@debian.org> writes: > On Mon, May 13, 2013 at 1:01 AM, Philip Hands wrote: > >> I don't know about you, but I find it quite reassuring to be able to >> confirm that the first half of an install is going pretty well when I >> get to see the "useless" dummy page from Apache. I'd imagine someone >> installing their first web server would also find that reassuring (I >> still remember grinning broadly when first seeing it). If it were also >> their first Debian server, then forcing them to find an extra ON switch >> after installing apache just seems like an extra and unneeded barrier. > > I think it would be better for apache to ask via debconf which vhosts > you want to setup and which directories/configs/etc they should use. > >> The "should it run on install?" question is a matter of taste and >> judgement, which is why it is not the case with rsyncd. > > We have debconf to resolve matters of taste. > >> The current state of rsyncd is probably my fault (as initial packager of >> rsync). One _could_ have an rsyncd package, containing just a commented >> out example /etc/rsyncd.conf and the init.d script, but I don't really >> see the point. If ...ENABLE=false settings are banned in defaults files >> (as I've come to think they should be) then in the case of rsyncd, one >> could make the running of the daemon conditional on the existence of the >> $RSYNC_CONFIG_FILE file (which is not shipped in the package). > > Probably the rsync package should just ask you via debconf if you want > to serve any directories and what their names and paths should be. > Since most folks who have rsync installed don't need rsyncd, the > default would be to not setup anything. It looks to me as though your apache and rsyncd suggestions are straying into the forbidden territory of using debconf as a registry. As for the matter of taste, if someone wants to have a debconf question along the likes of: Disable all daemons by default at install time? and tweak update-rc.d et al to attempt to do something appropriate, and oversee the resulting deluge of bugs, then that seems like a reasonable use of debconf. Doing that might even flush out some existing bugs in the way some packages deal with daemons being started during an install, thus contributing to the quality of Debian generally. Seems like a lot of effort though, and I cannot imagine any of the whingers actually taking on the task. Cheers, Phil. -- |)| Philip Hands [+44 (0)20 8530 9560] http://www.hands.com/ |-| HANDS.COM Ltd. http://www.uk.debian.org/ |(| 10 Onslow Gardens, South Woodford, London E18 1NE ENGLAND
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