On Wed, 17 Feb 2016, Apollon Oikonomopoulos wrote:
Package: dovecot-core
Version: 1:2.2.18-2+b1
Severity: normal
Dear Maintainer,
dovecot-core currently ships and enables (via dh_systemd_enable) two
units: dovecot.socket and dovecot.service. However, enabling
dovecot.socket by default is a bit problematic in this case, for the
following reasons:
- dovecot.socket makes assumptions about the listening sockets; it
assumes an IMAP-only setup with dovecot listening on TCP ports 143
and 993, which may or may not be the case. Note that this is done
even if dovecot-imapd is not installed in the system.
- invoke-rc.d, as used in the maintainer scripts, does not handle
socket units at all. This may cause unpredictable behavior during
package upgrades on busy servers, since dovecot.service is stopped in
prerm, but may be (re-)started anytime before the new packages have
been (fully) unpacked if it is triggered by the socket unit.
- dh_systemd_start also does not start the socket unit by default,
while the socket unit will be started on the next boot,
differentiating boot-time and installation-time behavior.
- dovecot.service is enabled and started anyway during boot, so using
socket activation for dovecot in this case seems to be redundant.
IMHO, it is okay for dovecot.socket to be shipped with the package, but
it should not be enabled by default. Instead it should be left inactive
and up to the admin to decide whether to explicitly enable it or not.
I must admit I am not up to speed on how systemd works. I didn't know it
was enabled. :-) What is the best way to install it but leave it
inactive? Comment it out? Move it somewhere? Or something else?
--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jald...@debian.org>
