Do I need avahi?

[lee]

Tim <ignored_mailbox at yahoo.com.au> writes:

> Allegedly, on or about 28 July 2013, lee sent:
>> There are 224 packages depending on the avahi package --- that's
>> insane for something that isn't needed.
>> 
>> Why are there so many packages depending on it? 
>
> They might not *actually* need it.  i.e. They *may* make use of it for
> some features, that you *might* use, so they require it for those
> purposes.  But if you don't use those features, it doesn't need to be
> running.

Then why don't packages that don't depend on others but might use them
simply suggest those packages rather than require them?

> Want an analogy?  CUPS might be forcefully installed as a requirement,
> yet I might have no printer.  Removing it would also remove a lot of
> things that I actually want to keep.  But I can simply stop the service,
> because it doesn't actually get used.

Yes, I don't have a printer, and I don't want to have cups installed.  I
can remove it, but then I'd also remove cups-libs and that would take
214 packages some of which I need.

> Stop the Avahi service.  The way Fedora is currently set up, if you
> disable something, it'll start it when it needs it.  (Annoying, I know.)
> You need to do something else (mask it, instead of disable it), to
> prevent it being started.  Think of "disabled" services as not running
> *now*.

Well, I consider these as bugs.  When a package is not required by
another one, the other package should merely suggest it and have in its
description why it makes this suggestion.  When a service is disabled,
the service should be *disabled* in the sense that it is turned off
because that's what it usually means.

However, when I look at online dictionaries, they say that "disabled"
refers to people the abilities of which are somehow limited, so that
word won't be applicable here at all.  Services are not people, and it
is a bad idea to use misleading terms like this.

So why don't they use "limit" instead of "disable" and "switch-off"
instead of "mask" so it would be much easier to know what's going on?


Having hundreds or thousands of packages installed that aren't needed is
not only annoying and a big waste of resources --- everyone needs the
disk space for them, and it will take bandwidth and time when the
packages are updated and downloaded by everyone --- it's also a security
risk.


-- 
Fedora release 19 (Schrödinger’s Cat)