[Pkg-samba-maint] Bug#1085617: samba package has obsolete file /etc/init.d/samba-ad-dc

[Michael Tokarev]

26.10.2024 11:48, Eric Valette wrote:
> On 26/10/2024 10:22, Michael Tokarev wrote:
>> Hi!
>>
>> Please do test the updated samba packages.
> 
> I did and was unhappy with the installation of samba-ad-dc due to recommneds promotion although 95% of users do not need it.

You're free to remove it (and maybe python3-samba too), and
it wont be installed again.

Please note that before the samba-ad-dc split, you didn't have
such possibility at all since both the file server functionality
and all ad-dc stuff were in single samba package, "although 95% of
users do not need it", as you wrote.  Now you do have such choice.

With the adding of Recommends, I just restored the historical
status-quo, but the possibility to remove unused components
remains.

It is only single upgrade path which is annoying - when you
don't use ad-dc functionality, upgraded samba to the split
version but before this bug has been closed (so to version
before 4.21.1-2) - at this point you didn't have samba-ad-dc
installed which you don't use.  And now with 4.21.1-2, this
samba-ad-dc package is installed.  So for a while you didn't
have unused package installed, but on later upgrade it is
installed.  Feel free to remove it and it wont bother you
again, it's that simple.  It is just a Recommends.

However, there are multiple cases when people faced breakage
of their systems who actually used AD-DC functionality.  Now
this is addressed by adding samba-ad-dc to Recommends of samba,
-- at least for those who dont' skip installing recommends.

This is exactly what I mean by "better safe than sorry" -
for you it is just unused package which you can trivially
remove, which does not do any harm.  For others it is a
broken system with lots'a windows machines and users being
unable to login.

But this particular aspect has nothing to do with the bug
report in question, which is about the obsolete conffiles
in samba package after the split.

>> Also, with this new samba release, I added samba-ad-dc to
>> the Recommends: of samba - so with default settings (which
>> is to install recommended packages), on upgrade, people will
>> have the new samba-ad-dc package installed too, - this will
>> ensure existing ad-dc setups wont be broken.  Yes, it means
>> more unused packages (also for new installs) for people who
>> only need file-server functionality without active directory,
>> but it is easy to remove and it's better to play safe than
>> sorry.
> 
> Well I do not really catch that: if samba-ad-dc was not installed, the init.d file was useless and noboby will notice removal and if it was the 
> service was used.
> 
> And before the split, I guess both were installed.

I don't understand what you wrote.

> And correct me if I'm wrong but up to now, the installations with active directory would broke during migration to split version  (unless you do 
> special things in install to detect the package is missing when going to pre-split to split or package is an empty stub that only does config).

No, see above.  Now with the new Recommends in place,
people who upgrade from pre-split to current version
will get the newly-recommended samba-ad-dc installed
*too*, so their AD-DC will keep running.  It was only
broken before 4.21.1-2 where the Recommends wasn't in
place, - for such systems, samba-ad-dc had to be installed
explicitly.

Once again, this bug report is not about package split,
but about the left-over config "helpfully" kept by
dpkg.

Thanks,

/mtj