Bug#727708: requirement of non-forking startup protocol

[Ian Jackson <ijackson@chiark.greenend.org.uk>]

Russ Allbery writes ("Bug#727708: requirement of non-forking startup protocol"):
> Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek <zbyszek@in.waw.pl> writes:
> > I think this should be changed to:
> > | 8. Policy rules for support for init systems must:
> > | 
> > |    (a) Encourage the use of a non-forking startup protocol (for
> > |        upstart and systemd),
> 
> Yeah, this is a good point.  Since systemd uses the daemon-written PID
> file for tracking forking daemons, it doesn't have the same issues as the
> upstart expect fork or expect daemon protocols.  Obviously, an external
> PID file is not ideal, but it will work fine with systemd.  (Now, daemons
> that don't support a daemon-written PID file either will require
> modifications, but even there, patching the daemon to write a PID file may
> be less intrusive than patching it to change the startup behavior.)

I would have expected protocols involving pid files to be racy.

Ian.