[pkg-ntp-maintainers] Bug#481049: Bug#481049: ntpdate-debian not handled consistently at if-up

[Drew Parsons]

On Mon, 2008-06-02 at 10:27 +0200, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> Drew Parsons wrote:
> > On Mon, 2008-06-02 at 07:35 +0200, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> > > > What I want is for the message
> > > > "/usr/sbin/ntpdate-debian did not appear before the timeout!"
> > > > to never appear when I bring up an interface, after ntpdate has been
> > > > removed.
> > >
> > > You did not mention that.  How do you imagine that should work?
> >
> > The message appears 2 minutes after running a "/etc/init.d/networking
> > restart" (with ntpdate removed but not purged).
> >
> > Does your system not reproduce it?
> 
> I can reproduce it.  What is the problem?  Does the message bother you?  I'm 
> not sure what you are getting at.

Yes, it's the message which is the problem.  It makes it look as though
the system is broken when it is not.

The behaviour I would expect is for /etc/network/if-up.d/ntpdate to exit
silently if ntpdate-debian does not exist (i.e. if ntpdate is no longer
installed).  This is the case for the init scripts (Policy section
9.3.2):
"These scripts should not fail obscurely when the configuration files
remain but the package has been removed.... Therefore, you should
include a test statement at the top of the script, like this:

test -f program-executed-later-in-script || exit 0"

It is sensible for other config scripts (such as the if-up scripts) to
follow the same policy.