On Wed, Mar 17, 1999 at 09:38:58AM -0800, Jonathan Stone wrote:
> Some of the  issues that've come up before are:
> 	* how are the  dependencies between `modules' encoded?
> 	* Is the dependency acutally used at boot time read from a file,
> 	  is it directory-entry lexographical order,  or is it computed
> 	  (say from #require and #provide header lines) by some tool?

Would a set of Makefiles be sufficient to build a start script?

That'd be modular to work with yet flat for the people who prefer reading
a flat start script.
 
>           iianm, a number  of developers have expressed very strong
> 	  reservations about the last idea. (the principal one being,
> 	  what if the tool dies halfway through and leaves  things
> 	  in an inconsistent state? What if the tool  isn't re-run
> 	  when it should be? Or if it runs on every reboot, what're
> 	  the  time impacts on older systems (think: vax-11/750)

If it's not run often enough then something will get started or not
started when it should have been otherwise.

Couldn't stuff in a shell script be run in subshells to avoid errors
causing the entire thing to abort?

Wouldn't it be useful if failures in, say, the beginning of the script
caused the system to drop back down to single-user mode? Past some point
the system will just go ahead to multi-user mode, even with errors.
-- 
Kevin P. Neal                                http://www.pobox.com/~kpn/

"You know, I think I can hear the machine screaming from here...  \
'help me! hellpp meeee!'"  - Heather Flanagan, 14:52:23 Wed Jun 10 1998