openssh-server init script contains irrelevant --pidfile argument to start-stop-daemon

[Chris Jones]

openssh-server's init script passes the --pidfile argument to start-stop-daemon when starting sshd, but this appears to be irrelevant.

On an Intrepid machine I changed the argument to a non-default value and still the default /var/run/sshd.pid was created. This appears to be because sshd creates the file itself (controlled by the PidFile config option which defaults to to /var/run/sshd.pid).

I suggest removing this from at least the "start" stanza as it gives the impression that it will be honoured when it will not.

[Thierry Carrez (ttx)]

My understanding is that start-stop-daemon "--pidfile" option is used to match an existing process (and not start anything is it already exists), not to create a pidfile.

So it should be present AND match whatever is in PidFile ?

[Chris Jones (cmsj)]

Hmm, that's a good point, the manpage says:

       -p, --pidfile pid-file
              Check whether a process has created the file pid-file.

and since I was actually cloning things to have two sshd processes running on different ports, presumably start-stop-daemon was seeing the :22 one and not complaining.

I guess that means this is Invalid.