IRC meeting

[Rob Ubuntu Linux]

On Nov 25, 2007 8:24 PM, Ismael Luceno <ismael.luceno at gmail.com> wrote:
> El Thu, 22 Nov 2007 04:08:31 -0200
> Ismael Luceno <ismael.luceno at gmail.com> escribió:

> Look at the following document:
> http://ismael.linuxdevel.net/init_issues.html

I notice something, as Upstart implements sysV init, it does really
support runlevels.  It is just that Ubuntu (and Debian) don't make use
of them in any way, but the admin can if they understand how to manage
the rc?.d hierarchy.  Think about it, how can you be sysv compatabile,
if you don't support runlevels?

Was interested to see some of docs for "Policy Kit" at
freedesktop.org, which uses XML to define fine grained privilege
escalation (kind of like a sudo, that can integrate with GUI as well
as command line).  The architecture of it appears to be of interest,
as has some analogy to Upstart issues with integration to GUI
managament programs as well as command line.

To me the real main problem, is not merely starting daemons, but
actually cleaning up the configuration, and the interactions between
packages which tend to attempt in scripts (to drive other packages) in
fragile ways. Without come underlying concept to deal with these messy
realities, SyS V scripts will most likely continue to be preferred by
application packagers, and Upstart will introduce yet another
alternative way of doing things for sys admins to learn.

Sometimes, daemons are started via SyS V init, but often the scripts
are actually configuring the system in some way, and in Ubuntu
especially, you end up chasing through lots of little programs, trying
to trace the interactions of the particular packages you installed.
Table based configuration is much clearer, as there's no ordering
dependencies.