rc scripts and stderr

[Tom Van Looy]

Hi

$ sudo service --status-all 2>/dev/null | grep -i usage
Usage: /etc/init.d/console-setup {start|reload|restart|force-reload|stop}
  * Usage: hwclock.sh {start|stop|reload|force-reload|show}
  * Usage: hwclock.sh {start|stop|reload|force-reload|show}
Usage: /etc/init.d/keyboard-setup {start|reload|restart|force-reload|stop}
Usage: /etc/init.d/linux-restricted-modules-common {start}
Usage: /etc/init.d/loopback {start|stop|restart|force-reload}
Usage: /etc/init.d/networking {start|stop|restart|force-reload}
Usage: /etc/init.d/openbsd-inetd {start|stop|reload|force-reload|restart}
Usage: /etc/init.d/readahead {start|stop|restart|force-reload}
Usage: /etc/init.d/readahead {start|stop|restart|force-reload}
Usage: /etc/init.d/udev {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}
Usage: /etc/init.d/udev {start|stop|restart|reload|force-reload}

Some tools print their "usage" to stderr, some tools print to stdout. I 
don't like to see "Usage" prints on stdout. Because, that kinda screws 
up the --status-all output. Isn't there some kind of standard (like LSB) 
that, ideally, should be followed?

I'm just digging into Ubuntu so I'm pretty new at how things are rolled 
in Linux land. But this seems not right ... Is someone thinking about 
solving this? It seems the work is in changing all the rc scripts in 
packages so that they act in a uniform way (maybe add a "status" option 
to all of them too). I know bash so I could submit some patches :-)

And now that I'm asking. What are the prefered CLI tools (that come with 
the base system) to manage the rc scripts? Or am I supposed to just edit 
the files.

Kind regards,

Tom