[MacPorts] #62001: opensmtpd sets startupitem.autostart yes

[Ryan Kavanagh]

On Wed, Jan 06, 2021 at 03:57:14PM -0000, MacPorts wrote:
> Why does opensmtpd autostart its launchd plist?
> {{{
> startupitem.autostart   yes
> }}}

Because OpenSMTPD is a system daemon, and the port provides zero
functionality unless the daemon is running. By default, the daemon
listens on localhost as an unprivileged user, so this should create no
security concerns.

That said, looking at a few other ports (apache2, nginx, exim, dovecot)
that provide system daemons, it appears that none of them automatically
load their launchd plist. So feel free to change the default autostart
behaviour to "no". Alternatively, I can prepare a PR doing so.

> Most ports that install launchd plists should not automatically load
> them.

FWIW, it would be helpful to new contributors to document the
circumstances under which plists should and should not be automatically
loaded, perhaps here [0]. In the Debian world, users typically expect
system daemons to be automatically started after installation, while
OpenBSD users need to manually enable them. As a newcomer, I don't know
what MacPorts users generally expect.

—RAK

[0] https://guide.macports.org/chunked/reference.startupitems.html

-- 
|)|/  Ryan Kavanagh      | GPG: 4E46 9519 ED67 7734 268F
|\|\  https://rak.ac     |      BD95 8F7B F8FC 4A11 C97A
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