service libvirt-bin start does not set KRB5_KTNAME as required

Thomas, thank you for taking the time to file this bug report and help us make Ubuntu better!

The upstart job is, indeed, ignoring any settings that used to be set in /etc/default/libvirt-bin.

Seeing as there is no warning about this in the release notes or changelog, I think this is a regression, as it breaks on upgrade from lucid to maverick.

As a workaround, you can take all the settings from that file and manually add them to /etc/init/libvirt-bin.conf as

env KRB5_KTNAME=/etc/libvirt/krb5.keytab

There is no need for a special script to do that.

The fix should be to source /etc/default/libvirt-bin and respect the flags as they were before, at least until the release following the next LTS.

Marking Triaged ( as Ubuntu is upstream for the upstart job ) and setting Importance to Medium, as this is a regression on upgrade, but only affects users with non-default configurations.

Note this is not actually a regression from lucid. It only looks like it because the package has both the sysvinit and upstart jobs, and the sysvinit script sources /etc/default/libvirt-bin while the upstart one does not. But only the upstart job gets installed in lucid.

So this fix will have to be SRU'd back to.. everything.

Note that the upstart job says

# If you used to set $libvirtd_opts in /etc/default/libvirt-bin,
# change the 'exec' line here instead.

So I"m torn as to whether we should 'fix' the inclusion of /etc/default/libvirt-bin, or fix the documentation somehow.

If we do want to modify the upstart job, then three at lp:~serge-hallyn/ubuntu/natty/libvirt/upstart-include-default should have the fix.

I like Serge's solution to the problem.

However, I think we should probably bring this question, generically, to the ubuntu-server@ and ubuntu-devel@ mailing lists, and get a policy defined for this behavior. In my opinion, we should give server administrators a smooth mechanism for making minor tweaks to daemon start options (such as libvirt and ssh), either using /etc/default/* or something in that vein. I certainly think there should be a cleaner mechanism for doing this than editing the dpkg-managed conffile /etc/init/*.conf.

I simply followed the lead defined in /etc/init/ssh.conf, when I commented in libvirt's upstart job about editing the exec line.

Given Clint's comments on irc about upstream's plans, I think it would be best to merge this fix right now for natty, SRU it for maverick and lucid, and switch to the upstream solution when upstart override files become available. I'm going to propose my branch for merge, and let the fur fly :)

+1, Serge.

This bug was fixed in the package libvirt - 0.8.5-0ubuntu5

---------------
libvirt (0.8.5-0ubuntu5) natty; urgency=low

  * Have upstart job source /etc/default/libvirt-bin. This is only a
    temporary fix until upstart provides proper default override support
    through /etc/init/libvirt-bin.override (or any other mechanism).
    (LP: #708172)
 -- Serge Hallyn <email address hidden> Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:30:02 +0100

maverick has seen the end of its life and is no longer receiving any updates. Marking the maverick task for this ticket as "Won't Fix".