Proposed guideline for init script files

[Ralf Corsepius]

On Tue, 2007-03-06 at 11:56 +0100, Michael Schwendt wrote:
> On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 04:33:28 +0100, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 2007-03-05 at 13:18 -0600, Callum Lerwick wrote:
> > > On Wed, 2007-02-28 at 14:38 +0100, Ralf Corsepius wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 2007-02-28 at 07:59 -0500, Christopher Blizzard wrote:
> > > > > +1.  In general if you have to edit an init startup file, it's a bug.
> > > > 
> > > > Exactly ... and what can users do about it? Edit them.
> > > > 
> > > > With them not being marked %config users can only hope that RH/upstream
> > > > fixes it before the next update blows away their edits :(
> > > > 
> > > > > Configuration should be in /etc/sysconfig/foo.
> > > > But real bugs and missing features init scripts suffer from can't.
> > > > 
> > > > As I've said many times before, I consider not marking init scripts 
> > > > %config a regression, Fedora will regret.
> > > 
> > > cp -a /etc/init.d/foo /etc/init.d/foo-custom
> > > chkconfig foo off
> > > chkconfig foo-custom on
> > This is exactly the same, %config(noreplace) would do automatically.
> 
> Turning on a renamed service script will decouple any rpm scriptlets from
> the service name. You don't get a condrestart and things like that for the
> renamed service after package upgrades, for instance. Pray that the
> modified service still restarts after an unexpected reboot (power-outage).
How many times do I have to reiterate it?

In practice, this is not an issue!

> It's better to use the init-script that is provided in the packages
> and keep it customised with the help of a separate config file.
How many times do I have to reiterate this: This only helps if the init
script isn't broken itself.

If you want to test: Just insert a typo into an init script and imagine
Fedora doesn't fix it with the next upgrade.

> Suggesting that init-scripts are a place where to %config something
> is wrong already.
I could not disagree more. You guys are religious about something that
isn't an issue, but are gradually degrading usability towards NULL.

Ralf