[pkg-firebird-general] Bug#448616: firebird2.0-classic: dependency on xinetd is completely unreasonable

[Hamish Moffatt]

On Wed, Oct 31, 2007 at 11:35:05AM +0200, Damyan Ivanov wrote:
> -=| Hamish Moffatt, Wed, Oct 31, 2007 at 08:06:20AM +1100 |=-
> > > No, you can disable all xinetd-provided services and use inetd
> > > implementation of your choice.
> > 
> > No you can't, because xinetd diverts openbsd-inetd's binary.
> This seems like xinetd's flaw, but I see your point.

I agree, xinetd's behaviour is not right. You even lose existing inetd
services by default, because xinetd disables openbsd-inetd and doesn't
offer its services in the default configuration. I reported #448617
about that. xinetd does not seem to be in good shape and it appears
there is a WNPP RFA (request-for-adoption) filed for it.

> My last straw for using xinetd is that it is easier to maintain two
> server installs via debconf (enabling 2.0, disabling 2.1 etc). As this
> is rather uncommon, I think I'll remove this functionality (simplifying
> postinsts, avoiding a debconf question) and make all firebird server
> packages conflict with each other.
> 
> Having two servers installed at the same time is dangerous anyway, and
> if one wants to migrate databases, she can backup with the old server,
> install the new (removing the old) and restore. Not much of a hassle.
> 
> Does all this sound as a good plan to you?

Yes that sounds good. Coincidentally, I installed the official Firebird 
2.0 package on Windows last night on a machine that already had 1.5
installed, and it told me that I would need to remove 1.5 first or that
2.0 would be installed but not configured. I think this is consistent
with your proposal for the Debian packages.

I was a bit confused that despite selecting which firebird server I
wanted enabled in the postinst, the /etc/xinetd.d/firebird20 file still
had the service disabled - I guess your proposal will address that also?

> Thanks for bringing this up (and for insisting there is a problem). BTW
> dropping xinetd from the dependency would even allow for firebird to
> move from extra to optional priority :)

Very good :)

Unfortunately I don't know Firebird well and couldn't achieve my
original aim anyway. A customer sent me an FDB file which I wish to
inspect in flamerobin, but I couldn't work out how to get flamerobin to
register the database successfully.. I got various server/authentication
errors. I'll try again later.


Thanks
Hamish
-- 
Hamish Moffatt VK3SB <hamish at debian.org> <hamish at cloud.net.au>