Sam <sam@email-scan.com> wrote:
> Rich writes:
>
>> It might also need a starting [main] (or some other name) to make it
>> fully valid, I've not tried running it through an ini parser. And,
>> ini
>
> There are other practical considerations. Yes, there are a couple of
> ini parsing libraries out there. Slackware has one, inih.
>
> But it's parse only.
>
> libyaml can read and create YAML files. That's important, since I
> need to autogenerate the configuration files for containers of all
> the imported initscripts. I don't write them out myself. I use
> libyaml to do it, so the formatting is guaranteed to be correct, and
> there's no uncertainty that libyaml won't be able to read it back.
> The example I gave was written via libyaml.

Ah, that does change the decision process of what to choose quite a
bit.

Rich writes:

> Sam <sam@email-scan.com> wrote:
> > Rich writes:
> >
> >> Sam <sam@email-scan.com> wrote:
> >> > I distinctly recall this being one of the original sales pitches for
> >> > systemd: finally you can stop services reliably, and no more
> >> > headaches with rogue processes still churning and creating havoc.
> >>
> >> One of the earliest 'sales pitches' for systemd was "faster bootups"
> >> with the 'dependency based startup" systemd brought along.
> >
> > I do recall that too.
> >
> >> I seem to recall the "clean shutdown of services/daemons" part being
> >> tacked on later when "faster bootups" didn't gain the requisite
> >> traction.
> >
> > Then, I suppose, my identical sales pitch won't gain much traction either.
> > Especially since the imported initscripts' containers' serial sequencing
> > gets diligently replicated.
>
> Well, you are not starting with "faster booting" and then pivoting when
> it turns out that "faster booting" is not a big enough incentive to
> jump to your new system.

Given that it takes me seven seconds to boot Slackware 15, as is, I doubt
that there's a lot to be squeezed from that lemon. But it's there.

> But you are also fighting against the huge installed base of current
> systemd, and that will be difficult to dislodge (just as classic init
> took some time for systemd to dislodge) because for most, if what they
> have now works, they don't see a reason to switch.

I have no big illusions in that regard. And this is precisely why I picked
Slackware. It is quite feasible to take Slackware, and easily swap out init
without much of an effort. Either clone https://github.com/svarshavchik/vera
and build from source or download the precompiled slackware64 package and
use installpkg. Execute one command. Reboot. To go back to sysvinit execute
one command, reboot, execute a 2nd command. Now things are what they were
before, nothing has changed. I haven't verified every preinstalled service
in Slackware or in an additional package, but

This would be much harder with other systemd based distributions.

> Now, maybe you have an angle with Slackware, but for that you'd need to
> be conversing wth Patrick rather than us.

Maybe at some point I'll try. But that conversation would probably be much
more productive once I have a larger track record to point to.