From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Feb 18 20:48:30 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7438A16A4CE for ; Fri, 18 Feb 2005 20:48:30 +0000 (GMT) Received: from cyrus.watson.org (cyrus.watson.org [204.156.12.53]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1CA5A43D39 for ; Fri, 18 Feb 2005 20:48:30 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from robert@fledge.watson.org) Received: from fledge.watson.org (fledge.watson.org [204.156.12.50]) by cyrus.watson.org (Postfix) with SMTP id C631946B28; Fri, 18 Feb 2005 15:48:29 -0500 (EST) Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 20:47:01 +0000 (GMT) From: Robert Watson X-Sender: robert@fledge.watson.org To: Warner Losh In-Reply-To: <20050218.132523.112577260.imp@bsdimp.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: gurney_j@resnet.uoregon.edu cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org cc: alexjeffburke@gmail.com Subject: Re: single user v multiuser boot X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2005 20:48:30 -0000 On Fri, 18 Feb 2005, Warner Losh wrote: > One can get to single user mode without a fully working vm system. One > can get to single user mode without having process termination working > or image rundown working. Multiuser also requires that the various > synchronization primitives be fully functional. So things like > fork/exec don't have to work completely. Back when /sbin/init and > /bin/sh were statically linked, getting to single user didn't even > require mmap to work correctly. I think the defintions so far have been pretty developer-centric. From a user perspective, the benefit of single user mode is that, other than /sbin/init, /bin/sh, and some /dev entries necessary to launch a process, there are few dependencies to get into a maintenance mode that can be used to partially start the system, perform recovery, etc. I frequently use networking, swap, etc, from single-user, but with single-user you get the choice to say "don't depend on , because it's broke". Robert N M Watson