Fw: different init-systems

[Auke Kok]

On 04/05/2011 04:10 AM, Dennis Veatch wrote:
> On Tuesday, April 05, 2011 08:57:13 AM you wrote:
>> Begin forwarded message:
>>
>> Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2011 23:06:31 +0200
>> From: Jean-Michel Bruenn<jean.bruenn at ip-minds.de>
>> To: lunar-dev at lunar-linux.org
>> Subject: different init-systems
>>
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> i'd like to see how other developers think about the various available
>> sysvinit-replacements and whats the overall opinion. There's sysvinit,
>> runit, upstart and systemd - Currently our init scripts are difficult
>> to maintain and most of them would need a rewrite (e.g. the mount script
>> mixed with 2.4 kernel stuff, udev and lvm, the nfs script, one init
>> script starting 4-5 apps related to nfs) - So some questions for the
>> future of Lunar:
>>
>> Do we want to switch from sysvinit to another init-system? Some people
>> suggested systemd, i'd personally prefer runit and last but not least
>> there'd be also upstart.
>
> I don't really know enough about the the different init methods to say anything
> intelligent.
>
>>
>> Do we want to provide support for more than one init-system (which
>> might result in a mess to maintain) like having all 4 init-systems in
>> moonbase?
>
> I'm neither for or against maintaining 4 init systems, just wondering why we
> should; aside from user choice type reasons.
>
> I do think if we had a larger developer pool it would be a reasonable thing to
> do for the user. Personally I don't think I would want to dicker with all
> four.
>
>>
>> Should we compare the different init systems (i'd do if its
>> worth the work, if everyone says "no we dont want to change" no need to
>> do such work)?


choices currently are limited:

- sysvinit is as is, it's not going anywhere
- systemd is the only actively maintained and developed replacement

the alternatives:

- upstart
- init-ng
- runit

all seem to be 'niche' replacements that do not come close to what 
systemd brings to the table as far as really changing the way things 
work, stability, prospect, documentation etc.

given the fact that major distro's are switching over to systemd... it's 
the definite favorite right now by far. even debian is looking at systemd.

I'd personally like to see all alternatives gone from lunar and replaced 
with systemd - the opportunity to make systemd the best is all there - 
the developers are really keen on making sure all distros are served 
well by systemd. Just this afternoon I was chatting to the systemd 
developers on irc together with the sourcemage developer working on 
integrating systemd in their tree.

Auke