Re: Problems with init
Tony Godshall <togo@of.net> writes:
> Some laptop users use runlevels to designate a low-intensity mode
> for portable/battery use and a power-on network-on mode.
>
> Some even shut down X when going mobile. I shut down ntp,
> pcmcia(cardmgr), cron, etc. myself (tho I do it through
> a script since I also need to change network environment and
> timezone and put wwwoffle online or offline).
<Meaningless Off-Topic Opinion>
I run NetBSD on a laptop and have the apmd run scripts for me when I
go portable or plug in. I never considered that I might want something
like run levels for that -- I've used lots of systems with run levels
available and it has never occurred to me that "*this* is when I'd
like to have run levels".
One other problem I've always had with run levels is that, like the
numbers used in rc?.d scripts and other similar things, is that
they're meaningless. Named run levels might make sense -- "multiuser"
is meaningful, but what is "4"? Why six run levels and not an infinite
number? Like having line numbers instead of named labels in programs,
it all always struck me as a bad idea -- arbitrary magic that isn't
self documenting when you don't need arbitrary magic.
</Meaningless Off-Topic Opinion>
We can, however, pretty straightforwardly simulate most of this stuff
with scripts for purposes of Debian packages.
Perry
--
Perry E. Metzger perry@wasabisystems.com
--
NetBSD Development, Support & CDs. http://www.wasabisystems.com/
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