Re: new rc system

Doug Barton wrote:
> ntpd[ate] is a very difficult thing to order, because a lot of things
> need/want accurate time before they start, and yet by definition, ntp is
> a network protocol so it has a lot of other dependencies before it can
> even start. A lot of the things that ntp depends on (like network) want
> logging before they start, but syslog wants accurate time before IT
> starts...  and we spiral back in time infinitely.

Technically, syslog only has a soft dependency on the current time,
since the time is looked up each event, rather than being cached.
So it has a dependency, but it's not one that prevent syslog from
running or providing some minimal/degraded service level.


> > This is a known shortcoming in the new rc system.  Luke Mewburn
> > commented on it in a talk recently but does not yet have a
> > satisfactory solution.
> 
> Can you describe in more detail what you mean by "this is a known
> shortcoming?"

I believe he means the distinction between "soft" ("would like")
vs. "hard" ("absolutely cannot run if not present") dependencies.

The new rc system fails to make such distinctions: it doesn't
have a high enough granularity to its dependency classification.


-- Terry