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- README for sysv-rc
- ------------------
-
- Policy requires that maintainer scripts use update-rc.d to register and
- deregister initscripts. An unfortunate result of this policy, combined
- with shortcomings in current update-rc.d implementations, is that there
- is no way for maintainer scripts to change the sequence number of an
- initscript that has already been registered if and only if its sequence
- number has not been changed by the administrator. update-rc.d *never*
- changes the sequence number of an already registered initscript, even
- if its sequence number has not been changed by the administrator.
- There are no plans to fix this problem. Therefore, if it is necessary
- to change the sequence number of an initscript in order to fix a bug
- then the maintainer script should go ahead and do:
-
- update-rc.d -f <scriptname> remove
-
- before the new update-rc.d call, even though this overrides out any
- administrator changes.
-
- Migrating to dependency-based boot sequencing
- ---------------------------------------------
-
- Migrating to the dependency-based system of boot sequencing (using LSB
- headers) is non-reversible, and renders obsolete the legacy system of
- static sequence numbers. Please note that any boot sequence changes
- made locally will be lost in the migration, and must be reimplemented
- in terms of dependencies. However, the new system is recommended for
- several reasons.
-
- * initscripts can be made to run more efficiently via parallelized
- execution strategies (see $POINTER_TO_ENTICING_BOOTCHARTS);
- * boot and shutdown ordering is calculated on the basis of the
- dependency information declared within each init.d script, ensuring
- that the sequence is optimized for the set of packages installed;
- * problems introduced by new or upgraded packages can be detected and
- averted - the boot sequence is only modified if it is safe to do
- so.
-
- It can also bring benefits for Debian package development, and for
- admins maintaining local software, since it eliminates the difficulty
- of fitting an initscript into the boot sequence between existing
- services with adjacent sequence numbers.
-
- It is also a step in the direction of boot systems better suited to
- the asynchronous nature of the Linux-2.6 kernel boot process.
-