Subject: Re: take 2; which way should we go for /etc/rc...
To: Todd Vierling <>
From: Eduardo E. Horvath <>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 12/03/1999 08:20:11
[Todd Vierling suggests that the sysadmin maintain a single
`/etc/rcdeps' to encode dependencies of 3rd party start/stop scripts
that don't have PROVIDES/REQUIRES entries.]

The main issue with that idea is that it requires maintenance of a
single script encoding dependencies, precisely what the proposal was
attempting to solve.

An alternative solution is to that is to generate a set of stub
scripts that encode the PROVIDES/REQUIRES information and then call
the real vendor script in another directory.  In that vein we could
also support scripts that PROVIDES a particular level of service
(entirey based on what it REQUIRES) but does no real work.  That way
you can create a script called `/etc/init.d/multiuser' and execute it
to get to multiuser mode.  However, it will seem a bit strange to type
`/etc/init.d/singleuser stop' to go from multiuser mode to single user

Since these scripts should be extremely simple, having only
PROVIDES/REQUIRES and maybe a single command to run, they could be
generated mechinically by something that takes that information as
parameters or queries the user.

Eduardo Horvath