chkconfig/insserv fail to solve dependencies of services

This document (7014502) is provided subject to the disclaimer at the end of this document.

Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11

Situation

chkconfig and insserv can't resolve dependencies correctly between services and facilities.
Example: services blah and blob have to run after mailservice has started.

Both are configured via Should-Start:

# grep Should-Start blah blob
blah:# Should-Start: $time ypbind smtp
blob:# Should-Start: $time ypbind smtp

Yet the outcome is not what is expected:

rc3.d/S14blah -> ../blah*
rc3.d/S14postfix -> ../postfix*
rc3.d/S16blob -> ../blob*

Resolution

Make sure to use single spaces between the services.
In the example above, service blah got two spaces between smtp and ypbind.
Correcting this gives the expected result:

# grep Should-Start blah blob
blah:# Should-Start: $time ypbind smtp
blob:# Should-Start: $time ypbind smtp

rc3.d/S14postfix -> ../postfix*
rc3.d/S16blah -> ../blah*
rc3.d/S16blob -> ../blob*

Cause

insserv and chkconfig stop reading lines after the second space in a row.

Additional Information

The LSB standard does not define how many spaces are allowed between services.
However the LSB examples do suggest to use a single one, so we stick with the suggestion.
Whenever writing LSB startscripts, make sure to use single spaces.
For the sake of readability extra spaces are tolerated between "Should-Start:" and the facility list:

Should-Start:          boot_facility_1 [boot_facility_2...]

Disclaimer

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