Advice about cfengine2 package
A package I maintain, cfengine2, contains three daemons, any or all
of which are useful for some people. It also has cfagent, the program
that actually does the configuration stuff it's asked to do.
At present, none of these daemons are started -- the package has no
init script, so it's up to the user to write one, should he require
this.
I have been asked to provide an init script in a bug report. This has
the problem for me that should I fit one to the package, its default
behaviour would change.
I can see a number of ways out of it, but have no clear idea which is
best:
* Split the package into its component parts, such that each daemon
is in a separate package. Have an init script for each. The admin
chooses which daemons run by adding and removing packages.
* Put a debconf message into the package warning that the behaviour
has changed. Write one init script. Allow the user to configure
which daemons start at boot-time by editing /etc/default/cfengine2
which contains RUN_CFEXECD=0; RUN_CFENVD=1; ...
* As above, but manage /etc/default/cfengine2 by debconf. If I do
this, must this file not be a conffile?
* Write three init scripts and keep them in the same single package.
Has this got a precedent?
I'd be very grateful for anyone's perspective on the possible
solutions, and for alternatives I may not have considered.
--
Andrew Stribblehill <ads@debian.org>
Systems programmer, IT Service, University of Durham, England
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