[Pkg-sysvinit-devel] Bug#632091: Please add an interface to disable use of the '-i' option.

[Wouter Verhelst]

Hi Petter,

I haven't seen any response to this since my below-quoted mail. Is this
because you're not interested in fixing this bug? I'd be disappointed if
that was true.

I believe I gave a solid argument that explains why wake-on-lan support
does not matter for this bug:

On Thu, Sep 01, 2011 at 09:46:50AM +0200, Wouter Verhelst wrote:
[...]
> Having said all that, I absolutely doubt whether changing the default is
> even going to have any effect. When a system has a configured network
> interface, *and the system is not running off the network*, the
> networking initscript will bring it down. In that case, 'halt -i' has no
> effect.
> 
> If, on the other hand, the networking script did not bring the interface
> down, then there are two options: either it is not configured (in which
> case the interface is most likely not in use and therefore has no
> network cable, in which case using or not using 'halt -i' makes no
> difference), or it is configured but the networking init script detected
> that it should not be brought down for some reason (in which case using
> 'halt -i' is *wrong*)
> 
> So I can see three scenarios; and in none of these three scenarios do I
> see a case where using 'halt -i' is the correct and desired way forward.
> But perhaps I'm missing something?

Even if I am missing something, you said yourself that for some network
drivers the network needs to be brought down, while for others it does
not. That implies that all else being equal, it does not matter what the
default is, since you will always have some subgroup of users for whom
wake-on-lan will not work (if the network is brought down, the users for
whom it needs to be up; and if the network is left up, the users for
whom it needs to be down).

However, all else is *not* equal, since bringing the network down when
the system is a netbooted system is *always* wrong. Once you do that,
you break the entire system, and nothing will work anymore.

But all that is your call, I guess, which means this is still valid:

> Anyway, I'd be happy to provide patches, but then please tell me how
> you'd like it to happen.

-- 
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the following formula:

pi zz a