Re: [RFC] Cleaning up service handling in OE

[Tom Walsh <tom@openhardware.net>]

Paul Sokolovsky wrote:
> Hello openembedded-devel,
>
>   By service, I mean /etc/init.d/* scripts, which all follow
> start/stop command convention, etc. They also can autostart on boot or
> not. This is actually the topic of this RFC - to call for discussion
> of guidelines the packages should follow in their wish to install
> their services for autostart on boot.
>
>   A specific case which makes me raise this question is irda-utils
> packages which includes irattach service, which it bothers to install
> for autostart. The result of this is that IrDA is being activated
> unconditionally on boot, eating power, and disallowing other processes
> to control IrDA port on their own. The only reason it doesn't hit many
> users is that service script itself broken and fails to detect IrDA
> port on most of machines.
>
>   I checked that 2 major GUI frameworks, GPE and OPIE, use own means
> to control IrDA nd do not depend on irattach service. So, I'd like to
> proceed with following:
>
> 1. Fix port detection for irattach service so it would apply to most
> PXA devices to start with.
> 2. But leave it out of autostart, leaving this matter to user.
>
>
>   I hope that for this case, proposed steps are unambiguous, but
> again, I'd like to extend scope of this RFC to discuss generic
> guidelines for all services. Another possible usecase: user install
> mysql server. This is reasonably heavy package for embedded system.
> So, should package make it autostart or no?
>
>   I'd guess, this largely depends on the answer to question "How hard
> for end user to control service's autostart setting?". OE uses update-rc.d
> script for this, and arguably, it's not very userfriendly - while
> removal from autostart takes just remove command and service name, for
> adding to autostart, user needs to specify priorities explicitly, and
> that's easy to get that wrong.
>
>   I'm not sure how Debian solves this issue, but RedHat systems has
> chkconfig utils, which, while having confusing name, has nice feature
> of using defaults provided in service script itself, for example:
>
> -- avahi-daemon --
> #! /bin/sh
> #
> # avahi-daemon:       Starts the Avahi Daemon
> #
> # chkconfig: 345 98 02
> []
> ------------------
>
>   Would it be reasonable to add such feature to update-rc.d script?
>
>   
As a heavy Mandriva user, I prefer the chkconfig way of doing things.  
For three reasons:

1. It is a "standard" method of managing init scripts already in use.

2. You can change the order of services quickly without deleting / 
adding symlinks manually.

3. My eyes glazed over when I read the update-rc.d script.

Regards,

TomW




-- 
Tom Walsh - WN3L - Embedded Systems Consultant
http://openhardware.net http://cyberiansoftware.com http://openzipit.org
"Windows? No thanks, I have work to do..."
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