Do I need any part of Avahi at all?

[Robert Heller]

At Mon, 28 Sep 2020 20:08:01 +0100 "Ubuntu user technical support,  not for general discussions" <ubuntu-users at lists.ubuntu.com> wrote:

> 
> On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 07:34:09PM +0100, Brian wrote:
> > On Mon 28 Sep 2020 at 14:51:52 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
> > 
> > > On Mon, Sep 28, 2020 at 03:25:32PM +0200, Oliver Grawert wrote:
> > > > hi,
> > > > Am Montag, den 28.09.2020, 12:35 +0100 schrieb Chris Green:
> > > > > I run several [x]ubuntu systems on a small home LAN.  There is a
> > > > > separate Raspberry Pi system running dnsmasq to provide local DNS and
> > > > > DHCP.
> > > > > 
> > > > > Therefore I don't think I need any part of Avahi, am I right?  Can I
> > > > > simply uninstall it all?  There's avahi-autoipd, avahi-daemon and
> > > > > avahi-utils plus some libraries.
> > > > > 
> > > > all newer "driverless" printers (or rather cups itself) do hard-depend
> > > > on avahi features. if you plan to use any such printer in your network
> > > > without a lot of manual tinkering with cups and drivers you probably
> > > > want to keep it around (though i think installing cups will pull it in
> > > > via a dependenc anyway) ... otherwise avahi is just for convenience
> > > > 
> > > Yes (OP here) cups and some other stuff seem to depend on the avahi
> > > libararies but one can remove avahi-autoipd, avahi-daemon and
> > > avahi-utils without any other things going with them.
> > > 
> > > So I think I will get rid of them as I have had occasional issues with
> > > them.
> > 
> > avahi-autoipd: may be used on networks which lack a DHCP server. That
> >                likely does not apply to you. Most users will not miss
> >                it. What occasional issues have you had with it?
> > 
> > avahi-utils: if a user does not want to interact with the Avahi daemon,
> >              this package is not needed. What occasional issues have
> >              you had with it?
> > 
> > avahi-daemon: allows applications to publish and resolve mDNS/DNS-SD
> >               records. Most users appreciate and make use of this 
> >               facility. What occasional issues have you had with it?
> > 
> > These "occasional issues" you have had quite likely do not relate to a
> > cause originating with any of the packages above.
> > 
> Why get so defensive?  In general if something really isn't needed and
> it's a daemon or something else that runs without me asking then I
> like to be rid of it.
> 
> The issues I have had in the past *may or may not* be anything to to
> with avahi and zeroconf but they certainly are down in the DNS and
> DHCP areas of how things work so one less variable to chase after when
> things go awry is a 'good thing' IMHO.

+1

Avahi just add *confusing* compications in a network that is "statically" 
managed, that is where all of the machines on the network have known IP 
addresses and hostnames, and things like printers are managed by a system 
admin, it is not needed to have any sort of auto discovery or even "plug and 
play" functionallity.  That was the case at the library.  All I know for sure 
was when I set things up (and it was 6 years ago, when 14.04 was fresh), Avahi 
created problems.  Maybe it is better behaved now.  The machines are now 
running 18.04 and have been for the past year or so.

This idea of having to have a kitchen sink in every room of the house is 
silly, but there seems to be some sort of mentality that one needs all of 
these "extra" services, even when they are not really needed.  

> 

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