Too many default services on

[Stephen John Smoogen]

On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 9:02 AM, Harald Hoyer <harald at redhat.com> wrote:
> Yaakov Nemoy wrote:
>  > On Mon, Mar 31, 2008 at 4:37 AM, Harald Hoyer <harald at redhat.com> wrote:
>  >> Trying a yum everything install, I found out, that booting now takes endlessly.
>  >>
>  >>  # ls /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S*|wc -l
>  >>  95
>  >>
>  >>  Please review, if the packages really need to be "on" after an install.
>  >>
>  >>  # for i in  /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S*; do rpm -qf /etc/init.d/${i/*S[0-9][0-9]/};done | sort -u
>  > <snip>
>  >
>  > You've just installed everything.  I wouldn't be worried about boot
>  > time as much.  Many of these packages, you would expect that someone
>  > wil actually use the services they provide.  IE, what's the point of
>  > installing apache if you are not going to have it run at startup.
>  > There might be issues about security, but if we can't secure Apache
>  > anyways, what's the point of including it in Fedora?  My point is, if
>  > I install apache, it's useless if it's insecure or not running
>  > anyways, so I fail to see why we want to have it not start up by
>  > default (possibly in a more than usually secure mode to protect noobs
>  > from themselves).
>
>  err... an unconfigured apache does not need to run.
>  what is the problem of writing:
>
>  # chkconfig --level 3 httpd on
>  # service httpd start
>
>  after you have configured apache properly??

This is a debate that goes back to Red Hat Linux 3.0.3, and probably
been in Slackware email lists even longer. For every person who says
they think it should be off, there is at least one person who argues
why they want it on. And for everyone who says that every service
should have a sane default condition on start up (minimal config file
etc).. there is someone who argues quite vociferously the opposite.
And because it is all psychological.. there is no answer or argument
that answers the question definitive.

I will note that these discussions seem to show up right before a
release and right afterwords.. they are never answered to anyone's
satisfaction... and other than satisfying by "showing how your world
view is absolutely correct and the others is complete bull" over and
over again.. it does not suceed in doing anything. [I say this because
my attempt at ludicrous humor about paths and directory names ended up
being taken seriously by too many people.]

Personally, I believe that a service should be off by default AND
should explicitely test that any of its parents are on before it will
start (eg if you have to have named running before your service can
workk.. don't just exit with "FAILED" and no log about why you
failed.)
-- 
Stephen J Smoogen. -- CSIRT/Linux System Administrator
How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed
in a naughty world. = Shakespeare. "The Merchant of Venice"