[NBLUG/talk] Why have directories in /var/run if they're not persistent through reboot?

Tom Most twm at freecog.net
Wed Aug 2 21:58:50 PDT 2017


On 07/31/2017 09:35 AM, Jordan Erickson wrote:
> On 07/31/2017 12:06 AM, Tom Most wrote:
>> I'll take a moment to node that pidfiles are not usually necessary on a
>> modern Linux system: under systemd there is no need to bother with them,
>> as init tracks the process directly.
> "modern Linux system" -- Them's fightin' words ;} Truly I can think of a
> *couple* of modern distros who use an init system that doesn't attempt
> to usurp the entirety of what small pieces working well together have
> been accomplishing for many, many years.
I mentioned systemd as it is the most commonly deployed modern init, not
to say that it is the only one. I could certainly have worded this
better, but, eh, I was tired. Frankly the odds are that Zach is
deploying to a system that runs systemd or Upstart, both of which I
would count as "modern" (this is about whether your init can supervise
processes in a useful way).

I actually really appreciate that this is the case, as it gets me one
step closer toward never having to maintain an init script again.
>> all hail systemd
> RMS called, he wants his religion back.
I intended this as a tongue-in-cheek remark about how stuff changes, in
the context of a response that states that PID files are usually no
longer necessary. For context, moving /var/run to /run was proposed
early in the systemd days, and has since been incorporated into the FHS
<http://refspecs.linuxfoundation.org/FHS_3.0/fhs/ch05s13.html>. It was
also adopted by other distributions because, frankly, it's a good idea
that solved real problems.

I am not sure how merely mentioning systemd --- once in the context of
"lots of distributions in 2017 ship it" and the other slightly snarky
--- qualifies me as a Priest in the Church of Holy systemd. I really
don't want any part of that poisonous "debate".

---Tom
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