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Date:      Sat, 16 Feb 2013 01:21:33 -0800
From:      Jeremy Chadwick <jdc@koitsu.org>
To:        Boris Samorodov <bsam@passap.ru>
Cc:        freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: some issues with /usr/sbin/service
Message-ID:  <20130216092133.GA31449@icarus.home.lan>
In-Reply-To: <511F4205.50509@passap.ru>
References:  <511E0D43.6070900@dssgmbh.de> <20130215105710.GA6130@icarus.home.lan> <20130215193210.GB85777@in-addr.com> <20130215212020.GA17516@icarus.home.lan> <20130215213257.GA20155@icarus.home.lan> <511F4205.50509@passap.ru>

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On Sat, Feb 16, 2013 at 12:23:33PM +0400, Boris Samorodov wrote:
> 16.02.2013 01:32, Jeremy Chadwick ??????????:
> 
> > Follow up -- I read Alfred's most recent mail.  Lo and behold, I find
> > this in /var/log/messages (but such did not come to my terminal):
> > 
> > Feb 15 13:26:20 icarus jdc: /usr/sbin/service: WARNING: $svnserve_enable is not set properly - see rc.conf(5).
> > Feb 15 13:26:20 icarus jdc: /usr/sbin/service: WARNING: $smartd_enable is not set properly - see rc.conf(5).
> > Feb 15 13:26:20 icarus jdc: /usr/sbin/service: WARNING: $rsyncd_enable is not set properly - see rc.conf(5).
> > Feb 15 13:26:20 icarus jdc: /usr/sbin/service: WARNING: $htcacheclean_enable is not set properly - see rc.conf(5).
> > Feb 15 13:26:20 icarus jdc: /usr/sbin/service: WARNING: $fetchmail_enable is not set properly - see rc.conf(5).
> > 
> > Cute.  Agreed -- this is unacceptable on two levels (as I see it):
> > 
> > 1) These messages should be going to stdout or stderr in some way, so
> > honestly logger(8) should be called with the "-s" flag (IMO).
> 
> Fully agreed here.

It turns out logger -s has no effect, just like how the echo 1>&2
statements in warn() and err() have no effect either (these should be
outputting the warnings in question to stderr) -- see rc.subr's source
for what I'm referring to.

Gary and I have been discussing this off-list and the reason has been
found: service(8) has this code in it:

	checkyesno $rcvar 2>/dev/null && echo $file

This explains why there's no warn() or err() output on the terminal --
it's being redirected to /dev/null prior.

I do not know who maintains the rc(8) and rc.subr(8) framework, but
they've got their work cut out for them.

(Note: the echo statements in warn() and err() could be replaced with
"logger -s" as I said; this would allow the "echo 1>&2" to be removed)

> > 2) These messages should not be displayed at all (i.e. lack of an
> > xxx_enable variable should imply xxx_enable="no").
> 
> I see this message as one more level of supervision.
> 
> If undefined at /etc/make.conf the value of xxx_enable is "no" from the
> system's POV (i.e. the service is not strarted). From the
> admininstrators's POV the port was installed BUT is not used. It's up
> to admininstrator whether it's OK or not -- just let him remind.

I believe the point you're trying to make is that the warning in
question should 'act as a reminder to the administrator that they need
to set xxx_enable="yes" in rc.conf'.

If not: please explain if you could what you mean, because I don't
understand.

If so: I strongly disagree with this method of approach, as what you've
proposed is a borderline straw man argument.

Reminding the admin to set xxx_enable is presently done inside most
ports' pkg-message.  IMO, this should really be done inside bsd.port.mk
when USE_RC_SUBR is used, emitting a message during install that says
something like:

To enable the xxx service, please add the following to /etc/rc.conf:
xxx_enable="yes"

Of course, I don't know if this would work for packages.

The current message for <missing xxx_enable in rc.conf> is this:

WARNING: $xxx_enable is not set properly - see rc.conf(5).

The message is entirely misleading for this specific situation; it isn't
"reminding" an administrator -- if anything it's confusing them (thread
is case in point).  If we're going to cater to ignorance, then the
message should reflect the situation.

Thus IMO, this is what ***should*** happen:

Definition in rc.conf    Behaviour/result
-----------------------  -------------------------------------------
myprog_enable="yes"      emit no warnings, service should run
myprog_enable="no"       emit no warnings, service should not run
myprog_enable="abc123"   emit a warning,   service should not run
<no definition>          emit no warnings, service should not run

It's too bad FreeBSD doesn't have a real services framework like
Solaris's smf/svccfg/svcs/svcadm, which in itself alleviates this entire
situation.  Services are registered with svccfg during installation;
there's no config file, thus no chance of a <no xxx_enable definition>
situation.

This software also comes to mind (folks who think systemd is a great
solution should read the 2nd link):

http://www.skarnet.org/software/s6/index.html
http://www.skarnet.org/software/s6/why.html

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                   jdc@koitsu.org |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                http://jdc.koitsu.org/ |
| Mountain View, CA, US                                            |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.             PGP 4BD6C0CB |



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