Server issues

[Scott Kitterman]

On Tuesday 20 November 2007 10:56, Loye Young wrote:

> > About not starting avahi-daemon: (this is ubuntu/debian specific)
>
> <snip details>
> (1) Your comments are helpful and should be easily accessible in the
> documentation.
> (2) AVAHI_DAEMON_START=0 should be default, IMHO. Better yet, avahi
> shouldn't be on the system at all unless specifically installed. At most,
> it should be a "Suggested" dependency.
> (3) Still doesn't explain how to get avahi off the machine and leave it in
> a usable and upgradeable state.

Agreed.  IMO it's in technical compliance with no open ports by default, but 
really stretches the spirit of it.

> > So what is the missing documentation in avahi?
>
> (1) See above.
> (2) How it interacts with and overrides (some would argue "hijacks") the
> normal Debian networking system of ifupdown, /etc/network/interfaces, etc.
> (3) What the jargon in the documentation means. E.g., the following line
> from the avahi-daemon manpage is unintelligible to someone who doesn't
> already know the avahi system:
>        " The  daemon  registers local  IP addresses and static services
> using mDNS/DNS-SD and provides
>        two IPC APIs for local programs to make use of the mDNS  record
> cache the  avahi-daemon maintains. "
> Whoever wrote this must have an affinity for tax regulations under the U.S.
> Internal Revenue Code. ;-)

Personally I'd rather stay entirely away from it.  The entire mDNS idea is a 
gross DNS hack that ends up piling .local queries up against the DNS roots.

Scott K