Re: /var/run/

On Fri, Jan 05, 2007 at 11:22:51AM -0600, Scott Walde wrote:
> >>> http://upstart.ubuntu.com/
> >
> >The version that
> >will be in Feisty when its released will also replace "cron, atd,
> >anacron and inetd". It will be interesting to see what other distros
> >eventually adopt upstart; that should be a good indicator of its
> >merits.
>
> What's wrong with init? What doesn't it do well?

Can you easily add or remove services to init without modifying a single
config file? Can you tell init to start, stop, or restart a single
service? Relying on PID files doesn't count because they have race
conditions, not to mention questions about determining their accuracy
and validity if the program exits, etc.

This is independant of the structure of init.d scripts, which have their
own problems. For example, the environment is different if init.d
scripts are run automatically at boot or manually by root, which has
caused problems. They also tend to rely on each daemon containing the
necessary code to background itself, something that actually makes it
harder to manage such a program.

> It seems to me that Upstart is running contrary to the basic philosophy
> of Unix:
>
> (i) Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job, build afresh
> rather than complicate old programs by adding new features.
> - Doug McIlroy (/The Bell System Technical Journal)

That much I'll agree with. Having a single good and simple system to
manage jobs from boot would be a good thing. Adding cron/at or inetd to
the mix just doesn't make any sense.

-- 
Bruce Guenter <bruce_at_untroubled.org>                http://untroubled.org/