Re: libinit idea

On 23 Feb 2014, at 18:31, Freddie Cash <fjwcash_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> The main developer for systemd is very anti-portability and anti-!Linux. He
> had actively rejected patches that made his projects work on non-Linux
> systems. In order to port systemd to a non-Linux system, he wants you to
> first implement every Linux feature that systemd uses.
> 
> systemd is a non-starter, and not with considering.

I don't think that's a relevant discussion.  The license would likely preclude systemd from making it into the base system anyway.  Please let's not be too negative about the author of systemd: he's responsible for more people switching from Linux to FreeBSD than any other single individual I can think of and I would strongly encourage him to continue.

The relevant question is whether it does anything in a way that is sufficiently sensible to merit a FreeBSD service management infrastructure doing it in the same (or a similar) way.

Oh, two things missing from my original list:

- Service jails should be able to run without an init process, with just the required libraries installed and the host machine's init system starting the jail and the service process(es) inside it.

- The init system should use process descriptors, not pids, for tracking processes, preventing issues with pid reuse and so on (and removing the need to write pid files).  If process descriptors do not provide the required functionality (e.g. the ability to trace forked children) then this should be added.

David