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

[Martin Schlemmer]

On Mon, 2002-03-11 at 20:54, Matt Beland wrote:
> 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

Just note that as of baselayout-1.7.3 i think, no more rc-scripts have
variables that you set inside the script itself ... they all are in
/etc/conf.d/ .

> 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
-- 

Martin Schlemmer
Gentoo Linux Developer, Desktop Team Developer
Cape Town, South Africa