At 22.16 24/09/03 -0400, Noah L. Meyerhans wrote:
How 'bout this idea: We can create a user-definable policy as to whether or not newly installed packages that provide init scripts actually have these init scripts run during their postinst. So, we have a file in /etc/defaults or something that is sourced by postinst. If a variable (START_ON_INSTALL, or something) is set, then the service will be run if this is a new install. If it's an upgrade, then the service will be restarted as usual. If START_ON_INSTALL is not set, however, the postinst will continue with its tasks but exit without actually starting the service. In the default installation, START_ON_INSTALL would be unset, and services wouldn't get started.
I think thisi is not wise:- Why I must have services installed that I cannot use (are not started by default)?
- Why I must have services installed that I don't need?- If I have a security choice as you suggest, I have a great probability to set high security and next not be able to have services running (how about selecting which services I want to be run by default?)
I think the best choice is to leave in the default installation (where I select nothing in Tasksel and don't run dselect) the very minimum services needed, leaving to the user (tasksel is made for this) the choice to add the requested services.
A nice suggestion to package maintainers is to add in the postscript a question on running the service bu default (as an example, I seldom use the netatalk service to share files with a MAC - normally I disable it as it slows down the statrup a lot and I start it by hans when needed; on every upgrade it gets started by default again....)
Ciao
Stefano Salvi