[Pkg-lirc-maint] Bug#860296: lirc is spamming syslog with messages

[Alec Leamas]

On Wed, 09 Aug 2017 12:43:19 +0200 
=?utf-8?q?J=C3=B6rg_Frings-F=C3=BCrst?= <debian at jff-webhosting.net> wrote:

 >
 > the same here.
 >
 > Lirc is installed as a dependency.

This is IMHO the basic problem. lirc should really never be installed as 
a dependency (lirc-lib is another story). Installing lirc means 
installing the server/service which as of now means running some 
thousands lines of old code handling all sorts of user input as root. 
This should only be done if you really need the server i. e., have IR 
hardware attached. If not used, the server should be disabled or the 
lirc package just removed.

 > My suggestion would be to test for the requested devices at startup 
once and
 > then use the device hotplug to load the driver and to activate lirc.

This is not really possible since all sorts of hardware can be used for 
IR reception. This includes generic USB devices such as FTDI chips and 
e. g., serial ports where noit hotplugging isn't available.

As of now, lircd is using systemd socket activation and is started when 
the fist client tries to connect. Untortunately, any application with 
lirc support will try to connect and thus starts the server.


Cheers!

--alec