Why does RHEL 5 ignore /etc/rc.local?

[Barry Brimer]

> I run uCARP [0] on a RHEL 5 machine (with recent updates) and it *did*
> run until recently, i.e. 'did run' means that it was started
> from /etc/rc.local when booting.
>
> (NB: I couldn't find a *functioning* package on the net, so I built it
> from src; however, I didn't have time yet to code some RC script for
> this... That's why I use /etc/rc.local.)
>
> When I pulled the updates on June 22nd it seems to have b0rked my
> machine -- it totally ignores /etc/rc.local (I tested this by touch(0)
> ing a file from inside /etc/rc.local -- the file wasn't created, no
> output/error message on console, though).

Usually '/etc/rc.local' is a symlink to '/etc/rc.d/rc.local'.  By any 
chance have these become separated and are separate files?  If so, I 
believe that '/etc/rc.d/rc.local' is what actually gets run, and not 
'/etc/rc.local'.  Also, although quite unlikely, is there an 'S' script 
for local in the runlevel you are booting into?  If not, running 
'chkconfig local on' will handle that.  Finally, what happens if you run 
'/etc/rc.d/rc.local' as root from the command line?

HTH,
Barry