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Date:      Mon, 14 May 2012 08:52:44 -0600
From:      Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
To:        Warner Losh <imp@bsdimp.com>
Cc:        Doug Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org>, Jilles Tjoelker <jilles@stack.nl>, freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: [patch] halt/reboot/shutdown cleanup
Message-ID:  <88BE52F2-E8CC-455D-B7AF-CB1F876D48B7@bsdimp.com>
In-Reply-To: <3D895644-0BA5-44F7-AC8F-07323729C1AA@bsdimp.com>
References:  <20120513220646.GA12826@stack.nl> <CA766F13-E02E-4815-9AEE-984BC14F2CB9@bsdimp.com> <4FB0CF88.5010309@FreeBSD.org> <3D895644-0BA5-44F7-AC8F-07323729C1AA@bsdimp.com>

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On May 14, 2012, at 8:36 AM, Warner Losh wrote:

>=20
> On May 14, 2012, at 3:25 AM, Doug Barton wrote:
>=20
>> On 5/13/2012 3:42 PM, Warner Losh wrote:
>>>=20
>>> On May 13, 2012, at 4:06 PM, Jilles Tjoelker wrote:
>>>> Also, the normal forms of halt and reboot will now call shutdown
>>>> so users get a clear message of the event.
>>>=20
>>> I hate these messages, which is why I always use halt or reboot to
>>> avoid them.=20
>>=20
>> You hate messages? Seriously?
>=20
> Seriously.  And I'd appreciate it if you didn't mock me on this.  It =
is rude and insulting and not constructive to a dialog.
>=20
>>> I find the additional delays from doing a shutdown -r to
>>> also be annoying, which is why I never use them.
>>=20
>> If things are working as they should be, running rc.shutdown won't =
cause
>> any delays at all vs. the brute force method used by 'shutdown'. The
>> only time you'll see a delay is if something that's being killed
>> actually needs it to cleanly shut down.
>=20
> halt and reboot are low level interfaces.  shutdown is the higher =
level interface that people should use.
>=20
>>>> Halt and reboot still support the -q option to invoke reboot(2)
>>>> without anything else. The -d and -n options now require -q
>>>> (because init is signaled if -q is not used, and init will not do
>>>> dump or nosync).
>>>>=20
>>>> The -l option of halt and reboot now not only suppresses logging,
>>>> but also user notification. It does this by signaling init directly
>>>> and not going through shutdown.
>>>>=20
>>>> The -o option of shutdown goes away because there does not seem
>>>> any point in executing halt or reboot if they are going to send the
>>>> same signal to init anyway.
>>>=20
>>> Generally, I think this is a really bad idea, just like the last =
time
>>> it was proposed.
>>=20
>> This topic comes up very often as users are confused by the fact that =
we
>> have 2 different methods for shutdown/reboot, and the ones that seem =
the
>> most obvious (halt and reboot) are the most pathological.
>>=20
>> IMO we should maintain the old behavior as binaries with scary names
>> that the anachronists can use in local aliases, and we should modify
>> halt and reboot in a manner similar to what Jilles is suggesting.
>=20
> See my other post for a way forward, sans bogusly scary names.

This may also be a cultural divide between the embedded world, where =
halt means halt right now and reboot where reboot means reboot right now =
and the server world where users need to be told of things and a more =
generic infrastructure needs to be in place.  In embedded, when you =
decide to reboot, you know everybody else has cleaned up and you want to =
give the best experience to the user by doing it as fast as possible.  =
In the server space, people that are logged in need to be told, there's =
a richer framework that needs to run, etc and time to get back to =
passing WiFi packets isn't as important.

The distaste for extra, useless messages, I'll admit, is a personality =
quirk that I share with many people.

Warner=



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