Re: Bug#553135: sendmail-base: maintainer-script-calls-init-script-directly prerm:67 than using invoke-rc.d. The use of invoke-rc.d to invoke the /etc/init.d/* initscripts instead of calling them directly is required. Maintainer scripts may call the init script directly only if invoke-rc.d is not available.
Helmut Grohne <helmut@subdivi.de> writes:
> thanks to Manoj for pointing this out and Richard for explaining it.
> Unfortunately this rc bug is still open after two months.
> Short summary:
> sendmail-base.prerm invokes an init script without invoke-rc.d which
> technically is forbidden by the Debian policy. (report from Manoj)
> The part that is invoked is not a standard command (clean) and would
> that way produce a warning. (pointed out by Richard)
> Let me outline possible solutions:
> 1) Tag it as wontfix and decrease severity.
> The reason for using invoke-rc.d is that it can prevent starting and
> stopping daemons when this is not desired. Cleaning the queue does
> not interfere with this.
> 2) Use invoke-rc.d --force. (suggested by Richard)
> 3) Move the queue cleaning script somewhere else and call it from the
> init script.
> Please decide about a solution and solve this issue.
Personally, I find it strange to use init script targets for things like
cleaning the mail queue, which doesn't (at least on first glance) have
much to do with starting or stopping the service, which is the function of
the init script. Why not just call the relevant commands directly or
provide a sendmail-clean shell script that does this? If I were an
administrator, I wouldn't think to look in the init script for that
functionality.
That being said, this is clearly not the problem that either Policy or the
Lintian tag were designed to catch, and you should feel free to decrease
the severity and add an override. Also, please feel free to report a bug
against Lintian for issuing this warning when the init script is being
called with a non-standard function (ie, not start, stop, reload, restart,
or force-reload).
--
Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
Reply to: