Bug#935607: lintian: classify "Starting $DESC" in init.d scripts

[Dmitry Bogatov <KAction@disroot.org>]

[ Should I tag '-moreinfo' on reply, or you prefer doing it yourself? ]

[2019-08-24 14:44] "Chris Lamb" <lamby@debian.org>
> > some init.d script print description of service they are starting with
> > following line:
> > 
> > 	log_daemon_msg "Starting X display manager" "xdm"
> > or
> > 	log_action_begin_msg "Starting $DESC"
> > 
> > The pattern is `"Starting '. Some (minority, I think) do the same, but
> > only if $VERBOSE != no, like this:
> > 
> > 	[ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
>
> Can you describe what is wrong with this? (So we can add it to the
> long description at the very least...)

Both behaviours are fine, as long they are used consistently. Otherwise
they cause wierd output when $VERBOSE = no (see #658374).  For example
this output with VERBOSE=yes:

	Starting Foo # ignores VERBOSE
	Foo writes output on its own
	Starting Bar # checks VERBOSE
	Bar writes output on its own

turns into following confusing output with VERBOSE=no

	Starting Foo # ignores VERBOSE
	Foo writes output on its own
	Bar writes output on its own

which creats illusion that "Bar writes output on its own" is caused by
Foo.

> Also, do we need to do this for "stop" or other actions too?

Yes, this too. Thanks.

> > Please add classification tag, that distinguish these cases. After that,
> > minority behaviour could be marked with minor severity tag
>
> Just FYI what we prefer to do here is to mark it as 'experimental' but
> the idea is the same (ie. fix false-positives first).

That is fine. Note, that both behaviours are correct, they just need to
be uniform. I'd avoid marking some behaviour as more preferable than
another, as long as we do not have data to say which is majority.

Hope it clarifies.
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