Re: Should webapp enable an apache module if needed?
* Tore Anderson
> A user must be allowed to have full control over the configuration of
> a package without fearing "pleasant" suprises such as modules getting
> enabled/disabled without him knowing.
* Uwe Steinmann
> Does that mean that, 'yes' a webapp must enable all apache modules
> it needs, but it should ask the the user first?
Sean Finney mentioned that the Apache team provides an abstraction
layer for the modules, which I'm not familiar with but is quite likely
a good idea to use if it's working properly.
In my opinion, the postinst logic should be something like this:
1) check if the required modules are enabled, if they are: goto 4
2) ask the user permission to enable the required modules, if
permission is not granted: exit gracefully
3) enable the modules
4) ask the user permission to enable the default configuration
required for your webapp to work, if not granted: exit gracefully
5) symlink your config snippet into /etc/apache/conf.d or whereever
6) tell Apache to sanity-check and reload its configuration
The default answer to 2 and 4 should be "no, permission not granted",
so that people with DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive will have their
configuration left untouched. It would be very nice if the abstracion
layer in question handled all of this and rolled it into a dh_webapp
program or something like that.
Do note that I'm speaking only on behalf of myself and my personal
preferences here, though.
Regards,
--
Tore Anderson
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