[Initng] IRC meeting

[Rob Ubuntu Linux]

On Nov 30, 2007 9:59 PM, Eric MSP Veith <eveith at wwweb-library.net> wrote:

> This is exactly why DJB chose to monitor the logging part separately. Please
> see http://cr.yp.to/daemontools/faq/create.html#run. Quote from the most
> important part:
>
>> To fix this problem, use a separate log.

Interesting to see the "daemontools" take on services.  Do you know
why DJB's daemons, didn't "simply" use syslog(3) (via a restrictive
wrapper in his program if needs be)?  Wietse Venama's security
features, like the tcp_wrappers (hosts.{allow,deny}) package for
inetd(8) fitted in with the system, for kernel & general logging, so
always seemed more tasteful to me as they avoided adding yet another
critical daemon to watch.  Postfix became main SMTP daemon in a few
distros, and is still the default in OpenSuSE.

There's a recent paper by DJB on security and design decisons of
qmail, in part of it, he suggests he should have "fixed" the file
system, rather than program to avoid having zillions of small files,
which to me suggests "ivory tower" tendency, rather than practical in
the trenches compromises.  Filesystems take years to get right.