29.06.2013 23:01

SysV init on Arch Linux

Arch Linux distributes systemd as its init daemon, and has finally deprecated SysV this June. I could always appreciate the elegance in Arch' simple design, and its packaging framework. Both of which make it trivial for any enthusiast to run his own init daemon, be it openrc, upstart or SysV. To my surprise this didn't seem to be the prevailing view, and many users converted their workstations to other distributions. This irrational behavior also led to censorship of users mailing lists. Which made it impossible to reach out to other UNIX enthusiasts interested in keeping SysV usable as a specialized (and unofficial) user group.

When rc.d scripts started disappearing from official packages, I rescued those I could and packaged them as rcdscripts-aic. There was no user group, just me, and in expectation of other rc.d providers I added my initials as the suffix to the package and made a decision not to monopolize /etc/rc.d/ or /usr/share/rcdscripts/ to avoid conflict. Apparently no other provider showed up, but I still use /usr/share/rcdscripts-aic/ without strict guidelines how to make use of the scripts in that directory (copy or symlink to /etc/rc.d/ and /etc/conf.d/?).

Later this month Arch Linux also deprecated directories /bin, /sbin and /usr/sbin in favor of /usr/bin. Since initscripts was at this point obsolete, unsupported and unmaintained piece of code SysV became unusable. Again with no other provider available to me I forked, and packaged initscripts-aic. At least sysvinit found a maintainer and I didn't have to take over that as well.

The goal is providing a framework around SysV init for hobbyists and UNIX enthusiasts to boot their SysV systems. Stable basic boot is the priority for me, new features are not. There is no systemd revolution, I do not wish to associate my self with any systemd trolling. I do not want my packages censored and deleted from the Arch User Repository.


Written by anrxc | Permalink | Filed under code