The default install of up2date runs rhnsd unconditionally. Given that some people have privacy worries about the disappearance of non-anon up2date, it would be wise to change this. Since the RHN registratration process runs as root, it should suffice to "chkconfig rhnsd on" (and maybe "service rhnsd start") when first configured. This would have saved the 7.0 fd leak embarrasment too, since signups would have got the update before rhnsd had had a chance to run for too long.
We agree. rhnsd's init script will check for the existence of /etc/sysconfig/rhn/systemid before starting, and rhn_register will attempt to start rhnsd if it is not already running after successful registration.
Heh, how opinions can change... :-> See Bug #17934
yes, opinions can change. Changed in rawhide (2.4.6 and later).