upstart

init(8) manpage vague.

Bug #147263 reported by Alan Mackenzie
This bug report is a duplicate of:  Bug #60429: doc: Upstart lacks documentation. Edit Remove
2
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
upstart
Triaged
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

The init program is not what it once was. It is no longer configured by /etc/inittab.
I want to configure more virtual terminals on my system.

It is unclear from the manpage which file(s) I need to edit for this change. There is merely the vague sentence:

    "On startup init _reads_ the /etc/event.d directory, each file _describes_ a job that should be _managed_".

On looking at /etc/event.d, I see files like /etc/event.d/tty1. I need to guess what the lines in this file mean. I need to guess that their format is in "man initctl".

I think this manpage should state that init _starts_ a job for each file in event.d, not merely that it "reads" the directory. It should say explicitly where the
format of these event.d files is described.

Sincerely,
--
Alan Mackenzie (Ittersbach, Germany)

Revision history for this message
Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott) wrote :

The missing documentation is somewhat deliberate, since we don't want people relying on file formats or paths that are likely to change. It will be present eventually

Changed in upstart:
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Confirmed
Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott)
Changed in upstart:
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Alan Mackenzie (acm-muc) wrote : Re: [Bug 147263] Re: init(8) manpage vague.

Hi, Scott,

thanks for the reply.

On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 12:55:13PM -0000, Scott James Remnant wrote:
> The missing documentation is somewhat deliberate, since we don't want
> people relying on file formats or paths that are likely to change. It
> will be present eventually

Er, we are talking about _free_ software, aren't we? ;-)

I suppose I'll just have to read the fine source code. It would be nice
to be able to see what this new "init" offers that the "traditional one"
(whatever that means) doesn't. It looks like the syntax of the
configuration file(s) is easier, but at the cost of the config being
fragmented into many files. It looks like some of the config filenames
are reserved for special purposes.

What I actually want to do is to get more virtual terminals running. I
suppose I can just follow the pattern of the existing ones. But it would
be nice not to have to guess.

I look forward indeed to the appearance of the documentation.

Thanks again,

--
Alan Mackenzie (Ittersbach, Germany).

Revision history for this message
Scott James Remnant (Canonical) (canonical-scott) wrote :

On Sat, 2007-10-13 at 09:39 +0000, Alan Mackenzie wrote:

> On Mon, Oct 08, 2007 at 12:55:13PM -0000, Scott James Remnant wrote:
> > The missing documentation is somewhat deliberate, since we don't want
> > people relying on file formats or paths that are likely to change. It
> > will be present eventually
>
> Er, we are talking about _free_ software, aren't we? ;-)
>
Yes, anybody is free to write documentation for me <g>

Though we're also talking about _in_development_ software; aspects of
the things being documented are still likely to change, often quite
radically -- until Upstart's design (not to mention file formats) are
stable, I don't want to document them because I don't want people
relying on it and complaining when it breaks.

> I suppose I'll just have to read the fine source code. It would be nice
> to be able to see what this new "init" offers that the "traditional one"
> (whatever that means) doesn't. It looks like the syntax of the
> configuration file(s) is easier, but at the cost of the config being
> fragmented into many files.
>
Principally, no more runlevels and instead defining when each job is
started individually.

> It looks like some of the config filenames are reserved for special purposes.
>
No, there's no reserved names.

> What I actually want to do is to get more virtual terminals running. I
> suppose I can just follow the pattern of the existing ones. But it would
> be nice not to have to guess.
>
See /usr/share/doc/upstart/README.Debian if you're using Ubuntu.

Scott
--
Scott James Remnant
<email address hidden>

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