Gentoo rc scripts [LWN.net]

Gentoo rc scripts

Posted Dec 3, 2003 16:16 UTC (Wed) by stalione (guest, #17457)
Parent article: The Success of Gentoo

The article didn't mention that awesome job Gentoo developers did with the rc scripts. In Gentoo by default there are three run levels, boot, nonetwork and default and it also gives you the flexibility to create your own run levels (see Gentoo Linux 1.0 Init System). The other nice thing about their rc script system is the use of keywords like need, depend, use that lets you specify dependencies. No longer do you have to worry about assigning rc-scripts a particular number to make sure it starts after/before some other script. Simply specify something like "need net" to make sure the script only starts if network is present.

I have been using Linux for a very long time and I have never come across a more polite and helpful community than the Gentoo user community. What good is it to a newbie if you answer their questions with "RTFM"?

Also this article did not mention that there are binary packages available to use by specifying the -k when emerging (only valid if the binary package exists).

"--usepkg (-k) Tells emerge to use binary packages (from $PKGDIR) if they are available, thus possibly avoiding some time-consum-ing compiles. This option is useful for CD installs; you can export PKGDIR=/mnt/cdrom/packages and then use thisoption to have emerge "pull" binary packages from the CD in order to satisfy dependencies."

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Gentoo rc scripts

Posted Dec 6, 2003 18:23 UTC (Sat) by irf (guest, #17606) [Link]

stalione, what good is emerge -k when envtually, one has to do it the
gentoo way, that is compile from source? GRP install may be a swift way
to get going, but, at the end of the day, the gentoo way rules. and this is the
strength of gentoo linux

Gentoo rc scripts

Posted Dec 7, 2003 0:51 UTC (Sun) by Rroet (guest, #17618) [Link]

Well, actually the use of emerge -k is quite broad. Mind you when people are developing modules ontop of xfree. They'd be damn stupid if they hadden't build a binary package of xfree. Once they screw things up it's nice to reinstall their latest binary build instead of compiling for over an hour ;)