[Pkg-samba-maint] Bug#488275: samba and winbind: initscript miss 'status' option

[Steve Langasek]

On Fri, Jun 27, 2008 at 04:25:06PM +0200, Tim Stoop wrote:
> Package: samba
> Version: 3.0.24-6etch10
> Severity: wishlist

> The initscripts for both samba and winbind are not LSB compliant because
> they miss the 'status' option. Please provide the 'status' option in the
> initscripts.

This is indeed most definitely a wishlist.  There is no requirement or
expectation that Debian init scripts comply with the LSB init script policy,
which is targeted at the init scripts of LSB *packages*, not LSB
implementations; and Debian packages are most definitely not LSB packages.

> In particular I'm running into this problem when trying to create a
> Samba failover setup: Heartbeat 2 requires the status option.

I don't think this is a reasonable expectation of heartbeat on a Debian
system and believe this should be regarded as a bug if the Debian heartbeat
package does this.

> More info about LSB compliant initscripts:
> <http://www.linuxfoundation.org/spec/refspecs/LSB_3.0.0/LSB-Core-generic/LSB-Core-generic/iniscrptact.html>

That's interesting, I certainly don't remember the LSB init script section
reading like an exact clone of Debian policy with an added mandatory
"status" option... I wonder when that happened? :)

Note that the LSB also specifies meanings for various non-zero return values
for init scripts for actions other than status.  The vast majority of Debian
init scripts do not comply with this, as they simply forward on the exit
value of whatever command failed, which may be of an arbitrary,
service-defined value.

So I really don't believe we should be trying to pick init scripts off
one-by-one with bugs asking to add the LSB status option when this is not
part of Debian policy; we should reach a consensus about whether this is
something that Debian should support, and get it added explicitly to policy
on its own merits.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
Ubuntu Developer                                    http://www.debian.org/
slangasek at ubuntu.com                                     vorlon at debian.org