# suppressing autostart with debian packages **URL:** \ **Category:** Ansible Project\ **Created:** [August 13, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/suppressing-autostart-with-debian-packages/13293 "2013-08-13T19:02:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Abhijit\_Menon-Sen2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Abhijit\_Menon-Sen2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Abhijit_Menon-Sen2)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/suppressing-autostart-with-debian-packages/13293/1 "2013-08-13T19:02:08Z")
Hi. My playbook uses an apt: action to install a bunch of Debian packages. Some of these packages start the daemon automatically with the default configuration. For my purposes, I want to avoid this. One way to do this reliably is to install a /usr/sbin/policy-rc.d file that does "exit 101". So I can do something like this:     - name: Install policy-rc.d       copy: src=policy-rc.d dest=/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d mode=0755     - name: Install packages       apt: pkg=$item state=installed       with\_items: [git, vim, …]     - name: Remove policy-rc.d       file: path=/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d state=absent Now, this works, but it's a very big hammer indeed. It would be nice if I could avoid installing and removing policy-rc.d unless it's required, i.e. unless I'm actually going to install some package. It's easy to do the removal conditionally: just turn it into a handler and notify it. But I couldn't find any easy way to make the policy-rc.d installation conditional. Hence my "apt\_wouldinstall" proposal below:     [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/3820](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/3820) With my proposed module, one could do something like this:     - name: Do we need to install anything?       apt\_wouldinstall: pkg=$item       with\_items: packages\_needed       register: pkglist     - name: Install policy-rc.d if needed       copy: …       when: pkglist.changed     - apt: …       notify:         - remove policy-rc.d Note that it's vastly easier to check if a given list of packages is installed using python-apt's cache[pkgname].is\_installed in a loop, compared to any shell-based way I've found to do it. (There was a suggestion to use --check, but I think this was because I didn't explain my use case sufficiently well—I want to make the decision in the code, not interactively.) I welcome any comments about this situation, including alternative solutions for the problem (maybe a way to trigger handlers before an action would be nicer?, or suggestions to improve the code. Thank you. -- ams ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/da6949/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan2)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/suppressing-autostart-with-debian-packages/13293/2 "2013-08-14T00:33:12Z")
Yeah so I remember the pull request but didn’t get your context for it. So for most users there’s no need of a “wouldinstall” module because you can run Ansible in check mode. However, there’s no way to run just _one_ task in check mode, so it seems this is a feature request for check at task level. apt: … check\_mode: True It is much better to implement the above rather than implement a “would” type for every module. ---
**Author:** ![Abhijit\_Menon-Sen2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Abhijit\_Menon-Sen2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Abhijit_Menon-Sen2)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 2:48am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/suppressing-autostart-with-debian-packages/13293/3 "2013-08-14T02:48:08Z")
Yes, that sounds much better. Thanks for the suggestion. I'll implement this and send an new pull request. -- ams ---
**Author:** ![Abhijit\_Menon-Sen2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Abhijit\_Menon-Sen2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Abhijit_Menon-Sen2)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 5:25pm UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/suppressing-autostart-with-debian-packages/13293/4 "2014-05-17T17:25:54Z")
Hi. I'm sorry it's taken so long, but here's a pull request that allows individual tasks to be run in check mode:     [https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/7439](https://github.com/ansible/ansible/pull/7439) The patch was written by my colleague Carlos Chapi (Cc:ed) and tested by me (the original motivation for this feature was to find out if the apt module would install certain packages, so as to take some extra actions before and afterwards only if something's going to be installed). For example (since the original context was so long ago):     - name: Check if Postgres needs to be installed       apt: name=postgresql-9.3 state=installed       check\_mode: True       register: wouldinstall     - name: Suppress autostart with policy-rc.d       copy:         content="#!/bin/bash\nexit 101\n"         dest=/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d mode=0755       when: wouldinstall.changed     - name: Install Postgres       apt: name=postgresql-9.3 state=installed       when: wouldinstall.changed       register: install     - name: Remove policy-rc.d       file: path=/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d state=absent       when: install.changed (My original proposal involved an "apt-wouldinstall" module, but Michael suggested the much more sensible per-task check\_mode setting.) I can imagine many other "do x if y would happen" use-cases for this. Thanks. -- ams ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_DeHaan1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Michael\_DeHaan1](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Michael_DeHaan1)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/suppressing-autostart-with-debian-packages/13293/5 "2014-05-19T02:57:31Z")
I’m not finding too many use cases for this. Maybe help me understand, but I’m wanting to reduce language clutter here and this does not seem like it would be widely utilized. ---
**Author:** ![Abhijit\_Menon-Sen2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea5d25/32.png) [@Abhijit\_Menon-Sen2](https://forum.ansible.com/u/Abhijit_Menon-Sen2)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2014, 4:23am UTC](https://forum.ansible.com/t/suppressing-autostart-with-debian-packages/13293/6 "2014-05-19T04:23:28Z")
Thanks for having a look. I'll drop the proposal, and bring it up again only if I find a compelling, different use-case in future. -- ams