So here I am, minding my own business, and upgrading software in Debian. Ooo, installing a new version of sane-utils. I tell the configuration program "nope, I don't need stand-alone saned, thank you for asking." This will make saned to run through inetd, disabled completely by default.

And then the installer freezes because the configuration is confused - I'm not sure if it's about this issue, but this is the only bit of diagnostic dpkg prints out.

Like a true nitpicking bureaucrat, it prints the following in triplicate (I'm not kidding):

--------- IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR XINETD USERS ----------
The following line will be added to your /etc/inetd.conf file:

#<off># sane-port\tstream\ttcp\tnowait\tsaned:saned\t/usr/sbin/saned saned

If you are indeed using xinetd, you will have to convert the
above into /etc/xinetd.conf format, and add it manually. See
/usr/share/doc/xinetd/README.Debian for more information.
Suggested entry (automatically converted using itox):

-----------------------------------------------------------

Translation: "You have specified that you want to do "nothing", and for the sake of clarity, we have marked this in our usual records. However, you have requested an alternate procedure which we actually do support. Our experts have deduced that, for your preferred method of doing things, "nothing" is same as "nothing indeed". However, we are a little bit confused about the true nature of this "nothing" thing, and we will require that you add this "nothing indeed" thing to your configuration files manually. Due to unforeseen problems reported by our survey team, the operation has been cancelled until further notice. Please call us soon so that we can check that you have added "nothing indeed" to your configuration file. Be warned that the inspection shall be thorough and details are not disclosed beforehand."

WTF?

lanzz:

you take these things a bit too personal :)

Not really, just found this a tiny little bit odd. And amusing. =)

Spectre:

The Real WTF is that there exist Linux utilities that are sane.

Linux has been sane for quite a long now, it has just had some problems accepting some very very new ideas (and devices). =)