Re: Proposal for Debian Startup Message Standard

[Christian Schwarz <schwarz@monet.m.isar.de>]

On Mon, 11 Nov 1996, Bruce Perens wrote:

> Please draft a standard, take argument on it, and edit it into the policy
> manual when you get a consensus. I bet many people don't feel strongly
> about this. Still, it's a bit too late for 1.2 - three weeks!?!?!
OK, I will work on this issue.

Here is a new, more complete version. I changed a few things--please have
a look.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

This standard describes different formats for messages written to standard
output by the /etc/init.d packages. The intention was to get a more unique
look for the startup messages upon boot up.

The following formats can be used:

a. Daemons get started.

   You will use this format if your script starts one or more daemons.
   The output should look like this (a single line, no leading spaces):

     Starting <description>: <daemon-1> <daemon-2> <...> <daemon-n>

   The <description> should describe the daemon's job or the system the
   daemon is useful for, while <daemon-1> up to <daemon-n> denote the
   daemons names (this should be the name of the program that appears
   in the `ps' output).

   For example, the output of /etc/init.d/lpd would be:

     Starting printer spooler: lpd

   This can be achieved by simply saying

     echo 'Starting printer spooler: lpd'

   in the script. If you have more than one daemon to start, you should
   do the following:

     echo -n "Starting remote filesystem services: "
     echo -n "nfsd "; start-stop-daemon --start nfsd
     echo -n "mountd "; start-stop-daemon --start mountd
     echo -n "ugidd "; start-stop-daemon --start ugidd
     echo

   This makes it possible for the user to see what takes so long.

b. Something is configured.

   If you have to set up different parameters of the system upon boot up,
   you can use this format:

     Setting <parameter> to `<value>'

   You can use the following echo statement to get the quotes right:

     echo "Setting DNS domainname to \`"value"'"

   Note that the left quotation mark (`) is different from the right (').

c. Another format not covered here.

   If you have to print a message that doesn't fit into the styles described
   above, you can use something appropriate, but please try to conform to the
   messages above.

   Your message should start with a capital letter.

------------------------------------------------------------------------


Please note that this standard is far from being complete nor is it
perfect. Feel free to send me your notes on this. I will include this in
the Debian Policy Manual when we have a consensus about it.


Thanks,

Chris

--          _,,     Christian Schwarz
           / o \__   schwarz@monet.m.isar.de, schwarz@debian.org,
           !   ___;   schwarz@mathematik.tu-muenchen.de, bm955877@muenchen.org
           \  /        
  \\\______/  !        PGP-fp: 8F 61 EB 6D CF 23 CA D7  34 05 14 5C C8 DC 22 BA
   \          /         http://fatman.mathematik.tu-muenchen.de/~schwarz/
-.-.,---,-,-..---,-,-.,----.-.-
  "DIE ENTE BLEIBT DRAUSSEN!"

--
TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THIS MAILING LIST: e-mail the word "unsubscribe" to
debian-devel-REQUEST@lists.debian.org . Trouble? e-mail to Bruce@Pixar.com