inittab vs. /etc/sysconfig/init for runlevel 3/5

Bill Nottingham notting at redhat.com
Fri Apr 4 14:26:06 UTC 2008


Bill Nottingham (notting at redhat.com) said: 
> With the switch to upstart, we obviated the need for /etc/inittab (upstart
> does not need it, nor read it.)
> 
> Initially, we added a quick hack that read /etc/inittab solely to determine
> the default runlevel. Based on a bug I filed (#432384), we changed that so
> that the key for runlevel 3 vs. runlevel 5 is GRAPHICAL in /etc/sysconfig/init,
> and we'e planning to just remove the inittab file to make things more obvious.
> 
> I'm open to better ideas, though - should we ship a trimmed inittab that
> contains *only* the initdefault line? Should we introduce a new configuration
> flag somewhere else? Does it really matter in the long run?

OK, upon further consideration:

- We're still supporting SysV runlevels in F9
- Given that, we need to support people who customize it beyond 3 and 5
- Rather than invent a new file/key for that (as GRAPHICAL= doesn't cut it), it
probably makes sense to just leave it in inittab for now, and revisit when we've
done more migration

Hence, I'll flip things back in event-compat-sysv, and anaconda - the 'id:'
line in inittab will be read for the default runlevel. (If it's not there,
it will default to 3.)

initscripts with an appropriately neutered inittab with commentary will
show up at some point today. man pages for upstart event syntax will
follow.

All clear as mud?

Bill




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