From owner-freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jun 8 16:38:43 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92D6437B401 for ; Sun, 8 Jun 2003 16:38:43 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rwcrmhc11.attbi.com (rwcrmhc11.attbi.com [204.127.198.35]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 15D0D43FE5 for ; Sun, 8 Jun 2003 16:38:43 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from DougB@freebsd.org) Received: from master.dougb.net (12-234-22-23.client.attbi.com[12.234.22.23](untrusted sender)) by attbi.com (rwcrmhc11) with SMTP id <2003060823383701300alufqe>; Sun, 8 Jun 2003 23:38:37 +0000 Date: Sun, 8 Jun 2003 16:38:36 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug Barton To: Terry Lambert In-Reply-To: <3EDD7CFA.4795FB99@mindspring.com> Message-ID: <20030608160735.I5603@znfgre.qbhto.arg> References: <20030602171942.GA87863@roark.gnf.org> <3EDD7CFA.4795FB99@mindspring.com> Organization: http://www.FreeBSD.org/ X-message-flag: Outlook -- Not just for spreading viruses anymore! MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: arch@freebsd.org cc: Matthew Dillon Subject: Parallelizing rc (Was: Re: Making a dynamically-linked root) X-BeenThere: freebsd-arch@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion related to FreeBSD architecture List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 08 Jun 2003 23:38:43 -0000 On Tue, 3 Jun 2003, Terry Lambert wrote: > People try to pretend that the dependencies that exist are > between programs, but they're actually between service > providers and service consumers, and largely independent of > the programs providing the services. On top of that, the > dependencies tend to be both hard and soft, e.g. it's possible > to continue to offer a degraded service, rather than failing > outright, if some dependent services aren't there (e.g. you > can log by IP address if DNS isn't up to provide reverse > name mappings to look pretty in your logs, etc.). A lot of people have suggested that parallelizing rc ought to be an easy thing to do, especially with the new rc system in place. However, we've actually looked at doing that, and in practice it turns out to be much more difficult than it sounds. Terry's point here is well taken, and shouldn't be trivialized. The rc team has regular conversations about improving the dependency ordering, and they generally go 'round in circles and land in the same location, since what we have now works, and historically changes have led to the dreaded "unpredictable results" for edge cases. All that said however, if someone really wants to take up this banner, please feel free. I'd appreciate it if you'd coordinate with the folks at freebsd-rc@yahoogroups.com, but it's not a requirement. Before committing to the tree however, please post your work for review, and make sure it gets lots of testing with lots of different situations. Doug -- This .signature sanitized for your protection