[lug] DNS and init

[D. Stimits]

rm at fabula.de wrote:
> 
> On Tue, Feb 05, 2002 at 02:47:39PM -0500, Hugh Brown wrote:
> > I think I remember that this was just the difference between the System
> > V derivates and the BSD derivates.
> >
> > In AIX for instance, /etc/inittab is flush with entries for starting all
> > sorts of daemons.  In Linux, it's mostly in the runlevels.
> 
> Sorry for jumping in so late. I think "runlevel" is the key word here.
> Quite a lot of services/daemons depend on other services to run at all.
> To have a working DNS or firewall the network has to be up and running.
> The runlevel style of startup gives you just this -- control over what
> runs when.
> As a side note: i think it's time for a better init system. Something
> that can do backtracking and try several alternative ways to start up
> a system (Prolog? LISP?).

I think at the moment the problem isn't that the init scripts hand off
the way they do, but that they have so much stupidity in the case of
errors and exceptions. The current init system would work great even in
bad circumstances if the scripts themselves had some sort of
intelligence. The bash scripts themselves could be made to do more if
someone really wanted to; then there are the programs that the bash
scripts run, intelligent/advanced wrappers could be built to do what you
are suggesting (it would be a good idea, but considering most people
believe in setting things up correctly the effort of figuring out how to
handle strange cases and failures isn't high on the priority list).

D. Stimits, stimits at idcomm.com

> 
>     Ralf
> 
> >
> > I remember reading this in Essential Unix System Administration by
> > Frisch.
> >
> > One thing I did notice is that in Linux the labels in /etc/inittab is
> > limited to four characters.
> >
> > Hugh
> >
> >
> > On Sun, 2002-02-03 at 23:34, Chip Atkinson wrote:
> > > Greetings,
> > >
> > > Is there a good reason to not put named and some other daemons into
> > > /etc/inittab?  It seems like a good idea on the surface but I haven't seen
> > > it done much.  It seems to be a pretty obvious idea so there must be some
> > > reason for it not being done.  Can anyone shed some light on this?
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > > Chip
> > >
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> > hugh at vecna.com
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