Re: administration of initscripts

[Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca>]

> I have been using Debian for many years now.  In all of that time  I
> have never wanted to "manage" init scripts.  I always wonder.  What
> are people trying to do?
> What is more complicated than this.  If you want it then install it.
> If you don't want it then remove or purge it.  With those two commands
> all management is handled automatically.

I don't know need/use multiple run-levels.  But I do wish it were
easier/standard to disable particular services.  Uninstalling the
corresponding package is not always an option (e.g. I'm thinking of the
network-manager package, for example, or a daemon which you prefer to
run "on demand" when a particular user logs in, ...).

Many daemons can be disabled via their /etc/default/foo file, but not
all and not always in the same way (e.g. for one of them I had to
put an "exit 1" in that file since there was no var for it).


        Stefan