On Sun, 21 Dec 1997, Not for internal consumption wrote:

> ..._like_ SVR4 run-levels but without the silly init
> hack and directory structure/script name kludge to handle them.

It occurs to me that one of the `nasty' things about the SVR4 system
is that, as well as having too many directories and throwing symlinks
all over the place without good reason, it overloads the names of
the files that start and stop services to include information on
the ordering of services.

Something I would be happy to see would be a set of scripts in a
subdirectory under /etc that accepted `start' and `stop' parameters,
and the a configuration file that specified which scripts got called
at which time, and in which order. So if you had a `run group'
called `web', you might have something in the /etc/rc.rungroups
file like:

	web	virtualinterfaces
	web	mysql
	web	httpd

Then you (or /etc/rc) could do a `rc.start web', which would call,
in turn:

    /etc/rc.start/virtualinterfaces start
    /etc/rc.start/mysql start
    /etc/rc.start/httpd start

And runing `rc.stop web' (which would happen automatically on
shutdown) would do the above in the opposite order, and substituting
`stop' for `start'.

cjs

Curt Sampson    cjs@portal.ca	   Info at http://www.portal.ca/
Internet Portal Services, Inc.	   Through infinite mist, software reverberates
Vancouver, BC  (604) 257-9400	   In code possess'd of invisible folly.