LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: David de Groot <david@viking.org.au>
  To  : linuxsa list <linuxsa@linuxsa.org.au>
  Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2003 11:56:17 +1000

Re: /etc/inittab and processes located within and the pros and cons o f using

Matthew Moyle-Croft wrote:

>>Well I would consider this to be a familiarity thing rather than a pro or
>>con about operational ability.  I do realize that this is a standard place
>>for linux (but limited to) and it's process startup scripts.  If I remember
>>correctly there is a FS standard out there that although I've lost the link
>>to it specifies that programs' init scripts should be kept in these
>>directories.
>>    
>>
>
>Well, for the same reason you seem to like a non-standard dns server which
>abstracts things away from you because it's "easier" (not having a go, just
>pointing it out).  Look at the kind of tasks usually in inittab -> they're
>all fairly "quiet" and static tasks -> very little change happens.
>
>FWIW - I've used inittab to control tasks that don't zoom off to be a daemon 
>before - however, on the whole I've found it better to manage things 
>separately as it seems to lead to better control and management when things 
>go wrong (eg. config files are misedited).  It maybe just my experience, but 
>it is a substaintial amount of experience (9+ years, a large chunk of that 
>running an ISP and managing BIND on a fairly large scale!)
>
>  
>
I agree. inittab is useful for things like getty processess, and "system 
critical" functions, but the proper place for daemons and other 
quasi-system/user functions is in the rc scripts, where runaway 
processes and typos are likely to cause less harm.  Each variant of unix 
is slightly different but most adhere to either a Sys V or BSD rc setup, 
so shouldn't be too hard to work out.

The appropriate system runlevels are frequently documented in man pages 
(eg `man init`   in Solaris will show you what each run level is for), 
and the Sys V startup script structure is very easy to make changes to 
without editting a fairly important system file (a couple of wrong 
keypresses in vi and you'll lock yourself out of your console after 
reloading init).

Dave

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