Bug#208010: Require init.d scripts comply with LSB
Christoph Anton Mitterer <calestyo@scientia.net> writes:
> btw: Perhaps someone can explain me, when the Policy requests:
>> These scripts should not fail obscurely when the configuration files
>> remain but the package has been removed, as configuration files remain
>> on the system after the package has been removed.
> I mean are there any special technical reasons?
> At least from a conceptual point of view it should be just the opposite
> IMO. I see no harm if such a script would fail, except nasty error
> messages. And then a user can still decide to purge the package,.. and
> perhaps save his personal customisations to the scripts (if any).
It's normal in Debian for init scripts to be left behind after packages
are removed, since Debian's package management system retains
configuration files by default (which includes init scripts). This is
true across a wide variety of configuration files, and you'll find several
statements in Policy requiring that the system behave reasonably (not
produce lots of errors) in this state.
This is a design principle and design goal for Debian that goes beyond
just init scripts. Having a package removed but not purged should not
cause errors, send the administrator mail from cron jobs, and so forth.
> With dependency based boot it could even harm, that such scripts are
> there but don't fail.
Package dependencies are not satisfied if the other package only has
config files installed, and package dependencies are the correct way of
solving this problem.
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
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