Only start atd when needed?

[Chris Jones]

I may be unrepresentative, but I have never used at(1), nor have I ever seen
anyone recommend using it, talk of using it or seen a system script take
advantage of it.
My question therefore is, why is atd still installed by default on almost every
llinux box I use? Why is it always running?

It's a trifling little thing, but not running it by default is one less binary
running, a bit less RAM used, one less init script and so on. Would that be
reasonable?

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

It is a traditional UNIX tool (I use it quite often), and is also required by
LSB. That is why it is installed by default.

It should be possible to have atd start up only when needed, rather than at
every boot, so while a patch would be gratefully received, there are higher
priority goals at the moment.

[trollord (trollenlord)]

Would modifying /etc/init.d/atd be good enough solution? Check if the spool directories are empty and if they are then do not start the daemon? Or is a more heavy duty solution desired?

This really doesn't sound to me like it should be very complex fix to catch most of the situations where it can generate some benefits... But useful nevertheless.

[trollord (trollenlord)]

To answer myself to prevent someone else from doing that: no, it's really not enough. When you issue at command it should be checked then as well. Which means that best would be to have something usable at both times (init process, issuing at commands). But is it still aok to script it or is that better as modifying at+atd itself? Would those features have any chances getting to upstream?