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Author: Alexandros Prekates
Date:  
To: dng
CC: Alexandros Prekates
Subject: Re: [DNG] (runit) Can emacs daemon become a user service ?

If Linux is multiuser why we tend to run services before even
users are logged in? How does that makes sense ? Do we assume that
the real user is the root ? That s(h)e can initiate daemons as s(h)e
wishes before even s(h)e (the root) logs in ? So the kernel calls
init which is in essence root-init which is in deeper essence a
certain user that has more control on the machine ? So the kernel
by defaults 'logins' a certain user and runs his-her init . So
is that multiuser or singleuser ? That root-init can make the
machine from a general purpose one to a doom game server.

So if init is userFoo's init then how Linux is multiuser ?
Dont other users are entitled to have their inits ?
Or do we have in mind restricted users or a certain category
of user lacking certain skill-sets. In which case we should
call Linux multi-word-editors or multi-image-editors system ?
Or should we assume that a mail server IS the machine?
But in that case is not multiuser. And why you would need a multiuser
system if you want to setup a computer as a certain server you like
excluding other users and their cases.
Could it be that semantics from differents origins and use cases
from other origins have been mixed up here blurring our thoughts
in these matters?

Or maybe userFoo should not use root-init for his(her) wishes
and root-init should belong to Atlas (1) Meaning the cyber-god-sysadm
entrusted with the job to hold the userland ! (2) . Which in deeper
meaning possible means Atlas-init should init and supevise daemons
that keep the machine+OS stable and running and ONLY those . And if
Atlas wanted to try to live in userland to fire up a webserver he
should setup his own sisyphos-init like every commoner .

Could it be that Corbato had not in mind (3) that in a multiuser system
a certain user could fire up his daemons first of all the others and
practically turn it into a single user system ?

Any why in 1979's Unix init is not envisioned as a general
service-daemons supervisor but:
    init is invoked as the last step of the
    boot procedure (see boot(8)). Generally its role is to create a pro-
    cess for each typewriter on which a user may log in.(4)


So could it be that by various twists of fate and circumstances (pc
dissimination) init was given a secondary role that wasnt never
indended to carry ? A role that broke its original semantics intentions
bestowed upon it by non-PC compu-techies ?

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_(mythology)
(2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nn-SGblUhi4   (2:00)
(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q07PhW5sCEk
(4) PDF and PostScript Renditions of Seventh Edition Manual
    https://plan9.io/7thEdMan/bswv7.html


Alexandros.