Improving halt package interaction...

Thomas M Steenholdt tmus at tmus.dk
Fri Nov 16 00:55:36 UTC 2007


Thomas M Steenholdt wrote:
> Hi all...
> 
> I'd like to bring up a suggestion that would make it easier for 
> packagers to modify the halt process, without resorting to changing 
> files owned by other packages.
> 
> Currently /etc/init.d/halt provides a hook into the halt process via an 
> /sbin/halt.local file. If this file exists and is executable, it will be 
> run during the halt process. This makes it possible for system 
> administrators to write their own halt modifier (typically needed when 
> dealing with UPSes and possibly other types of packages).
> 
> I think it would be very valuable to extend this functionality of 
> /etc/init.d/halt to support a /etc/halt.d/ directory in addition to the 
> halt.local script (Why is halt.local currently not located in /etc along 
> with rc.local and such but in /sbin btw?). This would allow a package 
> (an UPS software package as an example) to drop a halt modifier script 
> in /etc/halt.d/ to take care of prepping the system for halt (rather 
> that poweroff) and initiate a delayed UPS poweroff, if a mains powerloss 
> condition was detected. Currently the package will have to hack either 
> /sbin/halt.local, which could be difficult, or /etc/init.d/halt which 
> would be just plain bad. Usually they will simply leave this out and the 
> system admin will have to set it up manually, for the UPS to work properly.
> 
> The current version of the /etc/init.d/halt script (from 
> initscripts-8.60-1) includes UPS handling code for the NUT UPS 
> software(i think). NUT could easily be made to use the new /etc/halt.d/ 
> infrastructure too, and /etc/init.d/halt could get rid of the 
> non-generic UPS handling code, which IMHO should be avoided anyway...
> 
> What do you guys think about this?
> 
> /Thomas
> 

I've created a bug to make it easier to track. If this could be of 
interest, I'd be happy to supply an appropriate patch.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=386071

/Thomas




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