Is $syslog a Required-Start or a Should-Start?

[Petter Reinholdtsen]

[Frédéric Brière]
> Following the insserv "flipping of the switch" last week, I noticed that
> several init scripts on my system were lacking a dependency on $syslog.
> (The debhelper sample init script is lacking such a dependency, and I
> suspect many maintainers copied it w/o too much thought.)

Right.  Good that you discovered this now. :)

> Before filing bug reports, I'd like to know whether $syslog should
> be a Required-Start or a Should-Start.  While most init scripts (and
> the example on wiki.debian.org) specify the former, some scripts opt
> for the latter, which seems to make sense given how packages
> typically don't depend on system-log-daemon anyway.  Is there a
> definitive answer on this matter?

I would say, it depend on the package.  In most cases, the program
would work just fine without a syslog collector, and in these cases I
believe it make most sense to use Should-Start.  If it require a
syslog server, it should use Required-Start.  Technically it does not
really matter with the current definition of $syslog (see
/etc/insserv.conf).  $syslog will be considered to be available even
if no init.d script implement it.

When you file bug reports, please usertag them, making them show up at
<URL: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org >.

Happy hacking,
-- 
Petter Reinholdtsen