Replacing rc(8) (Was: FreeBSD Boot Times)

[David Brodbeck]

On Wed, Jun 20, 2012 at 8:51 AM, Wojciech Puchar
<wojtek at wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> wrote:
> Some time ago i had to use linux (fortunately no longer needed). As i don't
> use it normally i just took debian installer that i remembered it WAS
> usable.
>
> After seeing the incredible complexity of /etc structure, not just rc
> scripts, i deleted most of it and put startup sequence in single file.
>
> It was plain horror.

You would weep if you saw Solaris's SMF, then.  Everything is
controlled by XML files, which you have to install and uninstall via
the black-box 'svcadm' and 'svcs' commands.  It's the most opaque init
system I've ever seen.  Lots of neat features, but I never feel
confident I'm dealing with it right, especially when trying to
implement a new service.

rc.d-style init scripts aren't *that* bad, but some of the new
parallel init systems are quite confusing.  I recently spent most of a
day trying to figure out why Ubuntu wouldn't launch a new rc script
I'd installed before realizing that the parallel init system it uses
simply silently ignores scripts that don't indicate their dependencies
in a way it understands.

-- 
David Brodbeck
System Administrator, Linguistics
University of Washington