Gentoo Archives: gentoo-dev

From: William Hubbs <williamh@g.o>
To: gentoo-dev@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: locations of binaries and separate /usr
Date: Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:00:49
Message-Id: 20120101165614.GA11860@linux1
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-dev] rfc: locations of binaries and separate /usr by "Olivier CrĂȘte"
1 On Sun, Jan 01, 2012 at 02:12:22AM -0500, Olivier CrĂȘte wrote:
2 > > 1) Start migrating packages along with upstream and have everyone who
3 > > has a separate /usr (including me by the way) start using an initramfs
4 > > of some kind, either dracut or one that we generate specifically for
5 > > gentoo. The reason I suggest the initramfs, is, unfortunately if we
6 > > migrate everything, nothing else would work.
7 >
8 > I also don't see a good reason to not adopt dracut, re-implementing
9 > something that already works and is maintained by a competent upstream
10 > seems wasteful to me. I really don't see why people resist using an
11 > initramfs so much.
12 >
13 > The udev/kmod/systemd/dracut effort to standardise the base userspace of
14 > Linux is probably scary for quite a few Gentoo-ers as it means that the
15 > end result of an installed Gentoo system will be less differentiated
16 > than it was before. But it still is a step in the right direction as
17 > most of these standardized pieces are much better than what we currently
18 > have. The OpenRC/baselayout-2 fiasco, not much better than baselayout-1
19 > and unmaintained upstream shows that even a relatively large
20 > distribution like us can't maintain a competitive base system solution,
21 > adopting the udev/kmod/systemd way will allow us to use all the work
22 > that they are doing and instead concentrate on making a better system.
23
24 The problem you are missing here is that gentoo isn't just for linux. We
25 are cross-platform, so we have to have a cross-platform init system as
26 the default. Unless they port systemd to *bsd, we may have to keep
27 openrc as the default init system for some time afaik.
28
29 Also, your statement about openrc not being maintained upstream is not
30 correct. It is correct that Roy doesn't work on it any more, but there
31 is a team that does maintain it.
32
33 William