Re: [gentoo-dev] /etc/init.d

[Matt Beland]

On Mon, Mar 11, 2002 at 01:16:45PM -0500, Yannick Koehler wrote:
> Craig M. Reece wrote:
> >On Mon, Mar 11, 2002 at 12:48:08PM -0500, Yannick Koehler spoke thusly:
> >
> >>Guys,
> >>
> >>	not sure for anyone else but is init.d really need to be protected?
> >>	I mean does someone really change files in that directory (other
> >>	than adding or removing)?
> >>
> >>	That dir should always get merged.  It would also get really nice of
> >>	the portage could detect that no changes has been made to the file
> >>	since its installation and therefore merge it without any issues.
> >>
> >>	Like if the protected config file's time were saved in a temp files
> >>	that portage would look into before merging to see if the date has
> >>	or not change since the last install.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >Yes it needs to be protected. I, for instance, have my own version of
> >pcmcia in there that I don't want stepped on. Also, I have a couple of
> >other custom scripts for things not in portage yet; and when they are in
> >portage, I want to be able to compare the differences before using one
> >or the other.
>
> The reasoning I have is that those are scripts, and not config files.
> If ... instead of modifying pcmcia script for example like you
> mentionned you were to cp pcmcia pcmcia.modif and rc-update add
> pcmcia.modif default / rc-update del pcmcia default the system would
> work and you'll never get concerned about the new pcmcia scripts.

They are sometimes both scripts and config files. Personally, I like the 
layout of the Gentoo initscripts, particularly with regard to the "local"
script and the ability to start "simple" daemons and scripts with a config
file. However, many of the scripts we add to the init.d directory are not
custom-written for Gentoo, they're written for Linux in general. They 
include the necessary config settings in the init file itself. And those
should not be clobbered.
 
> If you changes those scripts maybe it's even better to tell people about
> your changes as they may get implemented such that the script itself
> read a config files (like net.eth0) so that other people can re-use your
> modifications.

That's fine for things like the tweaked pcmcia script - but what if the 
tweaks are in order to permit a specific driver to work properly? Those 
changes should not be in the default initscript, they should at most be
provided as a commented-out section - which, again, would require user 
intervention to create the required "tweaked" script.

It wouldn't solve the problem for custom scripts. Suppose (as an example)
that I have installed OpenSSH by compiling it from source, then later
I emerge the ssh ebuild. I would have installed an initscript already,
I would call it 'sshd' by default. Before I blindly replace it with the 
Gentoo initscript, I would want to examine it and see how it did things.

> And maybe a user's scripts directory should exists, something like
> /etc/user.d where people can move their custom scripts and the stuff
> behind rc-update would got here first and if it doesn't found the script
> then to /etc/init.d.

While I don't agree with everything that "the standard linux" build does, 
particularly as defined in the LSB project, I don't think we should be 
creating new directories within /etc/ just to make things a little more 
convenient. Especiually when that convenience comes with a price in the 
form of an increased risk of system breakage.

-- 
Matt Beland
matt@××××××××××××××.org
http://www.rearviewmirror.org