[Fedora-packaging] Packaging:SysVInitScript questions

[Todd Zullinger]

I was reading over Packaging:SysVInitScript to bring some packages
into line with the current guidelines.  The template and the text
differ a bit on the reload function, or at least aren't very clear.
The template includes:

    reload() {
        restart
    }

    [...]

    case "$1" in
    [...]
        reload)
            rh_status_q || exit 7
            $1
            ;;

Later, in the 'Required Actions' section, reload is described:

    reload: reload the configuration of the service without actually
    stopping and restarting the service (if the service does not
    support this, do nothing)

So, which is preferred?  If I have a daemon that doesn't have any way
to reload its configuration short of restarting, should we do as the
template shows and call restart or should reload() be a no-op?

In many current packages, reload() does a restart if there's no other
way to reload the config.  For the puppet init scripts I was looking
at updating, I think keeping reload() as restart would cause the least
amount of surprise, as that's what it does currently.  But I'm curious
what the prevailing wisdom is.

On another subject, the 'Initialization of Environment Variables'
section mentions that init scripts may be run by admins with
non-standard environment variables, like PATH, and that the init
script should set these to known/default values if needed.

Would it be worth noting that PATH is explicitly set and exported in
/etc/init.d/functions, so init scripts which source that don't need to
worry about PATH, unless they need to extend the default PATH set in
the function library (which is "/sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin")?

Lastly, does anyone know what tools use (or used) the processname: and
config: tags?  The current puppet init script contains these, just
under description: and I'm wondering whether they are so old that we
don't have to bother keeping them any longer.  They've been listed as
optional tags in /usr/share/doc/initscripts-*/sysvinitfiles for ages.
I just don't know of anything that uses them.

-- 
Todd        OpenPGP -> KeyID: 0xBEAF0CE3 | URL: www.pobox.com/~tmz/pgp
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is no sweeter sound than the crumbling of your fellow man.
    -- Groucho Marx

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