On 03/05/16 20:15, Joel Roth wrote:
> Steve Litt wrote:
>> On Mon, 2 May 2016 21:05:18 -0400
>> Hendrik Boom <hendrik@???> wrote:
>>
>>> Is there a summary of some sort explaining the various init systems,
>>> how they're put together, how they work, and especially the salient
>>> points on which they differ?
>>
>> I've tried. See
>> http://troubleshooters.com/linux/init/features_and_benefits.htm#init_system_feature_matrix
>>
>> Keep in mind these two things:
>>

>> 1) I'm an order of magnitude less knowledeable on init systems than the
>>    average person on the supervision@??? mailing list.
>>    Those guys found several mistakes in my matrix, and I'm not sure I
>>    corrected all of them.

>>

>> 2) Like everyone else, I have likes, dislikes and maybe an agenda. I'm
>>    a huge fan of daemontools-inspired inits, and I have a significant
>>    dislike of systemd.

>
> The problem with supporting multiple init systems is that
> there is an init script for each service that has to be
> ported or rewritten.

This can all be handled in each package with the package triggers
enabled easily with a debhelper script similar to dh-systemd which makes
it easy to deploy init scripts/unit files/runscripts etc in their own
namespace and /etc/<init-system> and only deploy them when the init
system is installed and removes them when it is removed. This shifts
the burden to package maintainers, but that is the right place for them
and we can make it easy to add additional init-scripts by filing bugs
with patches.
>
> Launching Devuan while maintaining the sysvinit status quo
> has already stressed the pool of volunteer manpower to the
> limit.

Only because of the prolific infestation of packages with systemd
dependencies. Other pure init systems suggested won't carry the same
problems once we have systemd eradicated.

>
> So the practical way forward is to leave the task of
> developing init scripts for the alternative init systems
> to the users of those systems.
>
Yeah, with a little help in places. For ascii we should have atleast 2
init systems possible and sysvinit also able to be properly cleansed too.

> If someone would volunteer to coordinate the infrastructure
> needed to collect, systematize, debug and distribute the the
> tens or hundreds of scripts involved (one for each service),
> multiplied by the number of init systems to be supported,
> I'm sure the Devuan project leads could consider in future
> ways to bring them into the Devuan package ecosystem.
>
> For those with time to invest, I would suggest the
> following:
>
> * determine a subset, those esssential services that, if supported,
> would allow a user to get a usable base system:
>
> * choose one or two best-of-breed init systems to work on,
> and provide infrastructure for collecting contributions
> for *all* init systems, even less popular ones.

* implement the debhelper script in the source package init-system-helpers.

Sounds like a reasonable plan.

Regards,    
    Daniel.
-- 
Daniel Reurich
Centurion Computer Technology (2005) Ltd.
021 797 722