Needed or ueseless: avahi daemon ?

[jsfarinet]

When i asked for the need of avahidaemon gapan answered:

.... USB sticks certainly not. Networked printers/scanners, potentially yes, but it's not a requiremeint. Avahi is a service that helps using those without having to deal with local network IPs. But if you already have set them up using IPs, then there's no need.

So, if i'm on a laptop which i'm bringing in several different offices with respectively different lans there would be a pratical use for avahi daemon; or are there other easy ways to configure, in some way, on the fly access to lans? The normal procedure in any case is, when you wish to get access to a lan which is not your own, you have to ask the admin for access rights and basic configuration anyway . . . and then to edit the network utility you're using consequentely.

The only case i think in this moment, where avahi might be the only way to go is, when another user in the net has published a device (s)he is using locally, e.g. a printer attached by usb, to the net for public use. But, may be there are even other tools to do that?

And then, from what i found and read regarding avahi, there was said, it is needed to discover sound servers? Is that correct? Or are there viable (for an average user ) alternative solutions?

TIA for your patience.

[gapan]

So, if i'm on a laptop which i'm bringing in several different offices with respectively different lans there would be a pratical use for avahi daemon;

If there are any avahi/bonjour/zeroconf services running in that network, yes.

or are there other easy ways to configure, in some way, on the fly access to lans?

You've misunderstood. Avahi is not for getting access to the LAN itself. If you are already connected to the LAN, it's for discovering services available in it.

The only case i think in this moment, where avahi might be the only way to go is, when another user in the net has published a device (s)he is using locally, e.g. a printer attached by usb, to the net for public use. But, may be there are even other tools to do that?

There are. The same task can be accomplished with cups alone, no additional software needed.

And then, from what i found and read regarding avahi, there was said, it is needed to discover sound servers? Is that correct? Or are there viable (for an average user ) alternative solutions?

It is not needed. It is a way to discover sound servers among other things.

You can find more info in the avahi, bonjour and zeroconf wikipedia pages:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avahi_%28software%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_%28software%29
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-conf ... networking

For my personal use, I find avahi completely useless. That is not to say that it should be useless for anybody else.

[jsfarinet]

...
For my personal use, I find avahi completely useless. That is not to say that it should be useless for anybody else.

Thanks for your patient explanations. Your conclusion is my guess as well - but i'm far from your knowledge ...

Cheers.

PS. I tried to remove avahi but doing so i see it's unistalling vlc as well. So, is avahi a needed dependency for vlc? Frankly, i do not see why ...

[westms]

So, if i'm on a laptop which i'm bringing in several different offices with respectively different lans there would be a pratical [...]

If you want to change with your laptop between different LANs the network connection manager Wicd will support you. The Wicd manpage and https://launchpad.net/wicd are helpful

[gapan]

I tried to remove avahi but doing so i see it's unistalling vlc as well. So, is avahi a needed dependency for vlc? Frankly, i do not see why ...

That is because vlc is built with avahi support, so yes, it is a dependency. You need to keep avahi installed, but you can disable the service. Otherwise, you can rebuild vlc without avahi and you would no longer need the package.

[jsfarinet]

I tried to remove avahi but doing so i see it's unistalling vlc as well. So, is avahi a needed dependency for vlc? Frankly, i do not see why ...

That is because vlc is built with avahi support, so yes, it is a dependency. You need to keep avahi installed, but you can disable the service. Otherwise, you can rebuild vlc without avahi and you would no longer need the package.

And how would i rebuild vlc without avahi? At a first glance i don't see that option (?)

[jsfarinet]

Found the solution: Package from slackbuild.org (which is even newer, 2.1.5 vs 2.1.2) and then

Code: Select all

--disable-bonjour \