Arch Linux

Solid1986Snake

Member

Registered: 2007-06-18

Posts: 258

"Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

Hi,

just found on identi.ca: http://code.google.com/p/faster/

Seems to be a real KISS concept... could this work?

And what the author says, it is all abaout good daemon managers... are there some or what is it...

What do you think to this nifty little program? COuld be interesting for arch...

*** URL fixed by skottish ***

Duologic

Member

From: Belgium

Registered: 2007-11-11

Posts: 249

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

Have you tried it out?

ngoonee

Forum Fellow

From: Between Thailand and Singapore

Registered: 2009-03-17

Posts: 7,358

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

The quote at the end is interesting:-

I have tested this with D.J. Bernstein daemon tools in about 5 computers of mine (Source Mage GNU/Linux, openSUSE, Arch Linux) with excellent results. Thus it is very probably distribution agnostic. An additional configuration file was added at some point to permit easy deployment in different rigs with very little effort.

Where's the dev?

---

Allan-Volunteer on the (topic being discussed) mailn lists. You never get the people who matters attention on the forums.
jasonwryan-Installing Arch is a measure of your literacy. Maintaining Arch is a measure of your diligence. Contributing to Arch is a measure of your competence.
Griemak-Bleeding edge, not bleeding flat. Edge denotes falls will occur from time to time. Bring your own parachute.

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

This is intriguing. I read over the readme and other accompanying docs. It seems straightforward enough, but, as a wannabe geek and not a real geek, I'm still a little nervous about getting everything back to its original state after I've messed around with faster.

I'd appreciate reading some feedback from someone who's played around with this on an Arch system, as well as a quick how-to for returning things to original state.

Thanks.

---

Donate to Arch!

Tired? There's a nap for that. --anonymous

flamelab

Member

From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)

Registered: 2007-12-26

Posts: 2,160

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

I'll try to make a pkgbuild for it, but I think it might be hard to make it work (I guess)

flamelab

Member

From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)

Registered: 2007-12-26

Posts: 2,160

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

Here it is

http://aur.archlinux.org/packages.php?ID=31594

can someone try it ?

---

Tried here, error (with mounting or something). If someone has an arch system in virtual machine, ca he/she try it ?

Last edited by flamelab (2009-10-30 01:57:35)

sand_man

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 2,164

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

I have a VM here I'll try it in.

Installed daemontools but it seemed to hang on "Misc Phase & Daemons"

My guess is that I didn't add a getty to daemontools but I'm not sure how to

Last edited by sand_man (2009-10-30 03:29:23)

---

flamelab

Member

From: Athens, Hellas (Greece)

Registered: 2007-12-26

Posts: 2,160

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

I guess that happened because daemontools adds a new line on /etc/inittab, but inittab isn't read by faster, so, that line isn't used.

sand_man

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 2,164

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

On FreeBSD, daemontools runs scripts symlinked to /var/service/
But on Arch, I don't know. I haven't had time today to look into it.

---

Solid1986Snake

Member

Registered: 2007-06-18

Posts: 258

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

Maybe we chould use freedt as a daemon manager, its the GNU compliant one

Okay, the author of freedt itself says that we should use daemontools ....

Forget about my post

Last edited by Solid1986Snake (2009-10-30 07:04:30)

olovram

Member

Registered: 2008-10-10

Posts: 110

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

Does anybody know how to configure daemontools?

sand_man

Member

From: Australia

Registered: 2008-06-10

Posts: 2,164

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

I lost interest

---

olovram

Member

Registered: 2008-10-10

Posts: 110

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

Actually,
he has got a point, I think.

code933k

Member

From: Bogotá, Colombia

Registered: 2009-09-04

Posts: 5

Website

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

Where's the dev?

Hi there!!

If you have any questions or feel in need of help for installing and deploying Faster, please let me know.

The big problem for people new to daemon managers, I think, will be setting up daemontools. It is great but not auto-magical and the Arch installation defaults doesn't seem right -At all.

I'll try to answer some questions in a rush:

1.) If Faster seemed to hang on Misc & daemons phase for [user]sand_man[/user], that is, executing the daemon manager, it is because an empty daemontools configuration wont do anything... Just like any other program of this sort.  Indeed, it means Faster initialized the system successfully and gave control to daemontools.

2.) Yes, it works, I am using Faster in Arch Linux right now. It has been coexisting happily with Arch about 2 months (installing different things, updating base system, etc. without messing the system but conversely squeezing more juice out of it).

3.) There are many daemon managers. One of them is called "God" by some people because it can do almost anything: Monit. Another one is Apple's launchd (supposedly open source but, who can tell?).

4.) Configuring a getty in daemontools is piece of cake once you get accustomed to.  Though, it follows strictly the *nix philosophy to the point there is not a configuration file but files are its configuration.  Bear with me:

a-) Create a base directory wherever you want to fiddle with daemontools configuration.  Mine is: /var/lib/svscan
b-) Create a directory inside it with the name you want for your monitored service, say: /var/lib/svscan/getty1
c-) Inside the new getty1 service directory, write a file named run (this name is mandatory) So you have /var/lib/svscan/getty1/run
Now, the contents of run are:

#!/bin/sh
clear
exec /sbin/agetty -8 -f /etc/issue -L 38400 tty1 linux

d-) chmod +x /var/lib/svscan/getty1/run
e-) Then create a symlink so that daemontools gets aware of the new service:

cd /service
ln -s /var/lib/svscan/getty1

I did this once more to ensure that another getty is available (/var/lib/svscan/getty2/run)

Repeat and rinse...

The full contents inside my /service directory are:
cron  cups dbus  ddclient  dhcp  getty1  getty2  hal  halt  privoxy  reboot  setup  suspend  wifi  x11

That's it.

---

if (default_browser_sucks() == 0)
    system("format C:\\");

elliottcable

Member

From: Anchorage, Alaska

Registered: 2009-05-02

Posts: 8

Website

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

3.) There are many daemon managers. One of them is called "God" by some people because it can do almost anything: Monit.

No, no it isn't. Monit is one daemon manager. God is another. They are extremely, incomparably different.

Another one is Apple's launchd (supposedly open source but, who can tell?).

Not "supposedly" open source, it is open‐source—as anyone can tell.

Last edited by elliottcable (2009-12-03 14:48:19)

Daenyth

Forum Fellow

From: Boston, MA

Registered: 2008-02-24

Posts: 1,244

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

d-) chmod +x /var/lib/svscan/getty1/run

And for people who have /var mounted noexec? Please read this.

---

[git] | [AURpkgs] | [arch-games]

code933k

Member

From: Bogotá, Colombia

Registered: 2009-09-04

Posts: 5

Website

Re: "Faster" Init, could it work? Are there "Daemon Managers"?

a-) Create a base directory wherever you want to fiddle with daemontools configuration.  Mine is: /var/lib/svscan

---

if (default_browser_sucks() == 0)
    system("format C:\\");