reload rc.conf during boot process

[Markie]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Giorgos Keramidas" <keramida at ceid.upatras.gr>
To: "Markie" <mark.cullen at dsl.pipex.com>
Cc: <freebsd-questions at freebsd.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 21, 2004 2:24 PM
Subject: Re: reload rc.conf during boot process


| On 2004-09-21 14:18, Markie <mark.cullen at dsl.pipex.com> wrote:
| > "Giorgos Keramidas" <keramida at ceid.upatras.gr> wrote:
| > | > After running my program in the rc.d mount script I then did a
| > | >
| > | > . /etc/rc.conf
| > | >
| > | > but rc.conf doesn't get reloaded.
| > |
| > | The /etc/rc script is a ``driver script'' that loads rc.conf before
teh
| > | mount script has a chance to run.  Even if you reload rc.conf in the
| > | mountd script this cannot affect the parent process that runs
/etc/rc.
| >
| > Oh I think I see what you're saying, it's kind of like variable scope,
| > right? When I do . /etc/rc.conf in mountcritlocal that's loading the
file,
| > but only for that script? It's not actually replacing the variables at
all,
| > right?
|
| They're environment variables and that's how environment variables work
in
| UNIX.  Environment variables can be changed in a process and this will
affect
| all the processes spawned off by the one with the changed environment but
it
| won't affect processes higher up the hierarchy.
|
| The `/etc/rc' script starts `/etc/rc.d/mountd' after setting some of
these
| variables (by running . /etc/rc.conf as usual).  The mountd process
inherits
| the environment of /etc/rc and can make changes to its environment as
much as
| it wants.  The changes don't affect the parent process (the /etc/rc
| invocation).
|

That's basically what I was trying to say :-) I didn't know environment
variables worked like that though, thanks for the info!

| > I saw load_rc_config 'XXX' in early.sh or something, just a minute ago!
| > Does the XXX do anything?
|
| Not much.  It's just a placeholder to shuttup the checks near the
beginning of
| `load_rc_config'.  Passing an invalid `command name' to load_rc_config
lets us
| load /etc/rc.conf and any other config file listed in "$source_rc_confs"
| without having to re-invent load_rc_config every time.
|

Alright, fair play!

| > I don't actually have rc.conf.d either, as far as I can tell?
|
| This shouldn't be a problem.  Don't worry about it.
|
| > My idea was so I could try out FreeBSD on my laptop and keep it usable
on
| > the University network, [...]
|
| Yeah, I figured it was something of this sort :)
|

:-) it also gives me something to try and learn. It was good fun actually
hacking up my first, possibly semi-useful, small little program in C! Now I
know a little bit about how the RC scripts work too! It's pretty amazing
what shell script programming can do!

I was just looking at that diff you attached. I think I understand it near
enough, but just before the esac is that like a default: style part? So if
nothing matches, i.e if the script isn't called selectcf, then it'll just
run the script and not reload rc.conf? Wouldn't I need a run_rc_script
before the unset _rc_conf_loaded, to actually run my selectcf script? :-)

| - Giorgos
|

Thanks for the super quick reply!