Bug 785141

The RPM scripts do add the initscript:

# rpm -q uuidd
package uuidd is not installed
# yum install uuidd
...
Installed:
  uuidd.x86_64 0:1.39-23.el5   
# chkconfig --list uuidd
uuidd          	0:off	1:off	2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off

so it is enabled for those runlevels post-install.  However, it's not started automatically until the next reboot, and it will need to be started automatically, as you note.

This is normal behavior - services are never started automatically as a result of installation; same is true of sshd, httpd, et al.

Alexander, because this package does not behave any differently from other daemon packages in terms of requiring a manual start after installation, I don't consider this a bug.  It's more of a policy, actually, that package installation does not automatically trigger a service start.  Perhaps you can just add the service start to your provisioning scripts?

-Eric

Hello Eric,

thank you for your explanation. I have to admit that I mixed up the situation on RHEL 5 and RHEL 6 unfortunately. 
Since the installation of the package uuidd on RHEL 5 at least activates the service automatically after a reboot, I could live with the situation on RHEL 5.
But as no configuration of the service itself is needed at all, I can only see a disadvantage by not simply starting it automatically.
Would it be possible to change the policy in that case and trigger the service start after the package installation automatically? 

Thanks and Regards,
 Alexander.

Just to be clear, this bug is filed for RHEL5 - and, as far as I know, we do configure the initscripts to enable uuidd on both RHEL5 and RHEL6, have you seen otherwise?  If so that is a bug, but checking scripts just now it looks like "chkconfig add" is done on both OSes.

As for the auto-start - it's more than just a configuration issue; we don't start services automatically post-install for other reasons, including the fact that they may be installed in changeroots, in an installer context, or in other situations where we don't want the service autostarted.

How does uuidd wind up on your systems - something like a provisioning script post-install, or?  In most cases I think you could script the automatic start of the service as needed.

I realize that it's an extra step, but there are decent reasons for the "no auto start" policy, too.

Thanks,
-Eric

Eric, as you can see in https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=785142#c4 it looks like on RHEL6 the initscript for uuidd is disabled by default.

Ah, to be honest I had forgotten that it moved to the new package.

Ok, for RHEL5 though it is enabled by default:

[root@host ~]# chkconfig --list uuidd
error reading information on service uuidd: No such file or directory
[root@host ~]# yum install uuidd
...
Installed:
  uuidd.x86_64 0:1.39-23.el5                                                                                                            

Complete!
[root@host ~]# chkconfig --list uuidd
uuidd          	0:off	1:off	2:on	3:on	4:on	5:on	6:off

But it is not started for the policy reasons cited above, and in the RHEL6 bug.

I'm going to close this bug because we do install and enable the uuidd service, and it is against policy to activate it by default.  If further action is needed, please re-open with the further requirements.

Thanks,
-Eric