RHAT bug? /etc/init.d/functions:daemon()

[Ben Scott]

On 2/1/06, Bill McGonigle <bill at bfccomputing.com> wrote:
> [Perl is] easier to learn, more expressive, more powerful ...

  Those are rather subjective (well, probably not "powerful") , even
though I happen to agree with them all.  Not really worth arguing
about, since they all get wrapped up in my major objection (complexity
doesn't belong in initscripts).

> ... has a popular extension mechanism.
>
> I didn't say you wouldn't want to use any modules, I said you don't
> want every module known to man to be used.

  But then someone has to decide which modules are appropriate and
which are not.  I think the question of deciding which modules are
"considered useful" is subjective and not really possible to answer
correctly.  So now, in addition to having the "Does this platform
support Perl in initscripts" question, we have the "Which Perl modules
does this platform variant support in an initscript" question.

> The perl binary for a distribution would statically link in the modules ...

  Can you do that with Perl?  I thought modules were basically just
Perl include files.

> The power is that list is easily expanded/changed when warranted.

  So eventually I'll end up with an initscript that requires a working
installation of X, GNOME, a sound server, and Mozilla.  Oh joy.

  Hell, let's just symlink /sbin/init to emacs, and do everything in
Emacs LISP.  ;-)

  Like I said, I rather feel that if Perl would help that much, you're
not writing an initscript, you're writing a full-blown program. 
initscripts aren't supposed to be big, complicated things.  They're
supposed to start and stop services.

  "Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but
when there is
nothing left to remove." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  I think you've caught the Microsoft mentality.  Features, features,
features!  "Hey, let's embed an ANSI-compliant C compiler into our web
browser, a 3D video game into our spreadsheet, and a spell checker in
our backup software!"  (Extra points for knowing which one of those
actually happened.)

-- Ben "Definitely not perfect" Scott