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diff --git a/doc/quickstart.html b/doc/quickstart.html new file mode 100644 index 0000000..da47334 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/quickstart.html @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +<html> + <head> + <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en" /> + <title>s6-linux-init: quickstart and FAQ</title> + <meta name="Description" content="s6-linux-init: quickstart and FAQ" /> + <meta name="Keywords" content="s6-linux-init installation quickstart faq" /> + <!-- <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="http://skarnet.org/default.css" /> --> + </head> +<body> + +<p> +<a href="index.html">s6-linux-init</a><br /> +<a href="http://skarnet.org/software/">Software</a><br /> +<a href="http://skarnet.org/">skarnet.org</a> +</p> + +<h1> Quickstart and FAQ for s6-linux-init </h1> + +<h2> Quickstart </h2> + +<ul> + <li> Install all the s6-linux-init dependencies: + <ul> + <li> <a href="http://skarnet.org/software/skalibs/">skalibs</a> </li> + <li> <a href="http://skarnet.org/software/execline/">execline</a> </li> + <li> <a href="http://skarnet.org/software/s6-portable-utils/">s6-portable-utils</a> </li> + <li> <a href="http://skarnet.org/software/s6-linux-utils/">s6-linux-utils</a> </li> + <li> <a href="http://skarnet.org/software/s6/">s6</a> </li> + </ul> </li> + <li> Install <a href="index.html">s6-linux-init</a> itself </li> + <li> Save your old <tt>/sbin/init</tt> binary </li> + <li> Save and remove your old <tt>/etc/s6-linux-init</tt> directory, if you have one </li> + <li> Make sure you have a <tt>/run</tt> directory </li> + <li> Write a machine initialization script in <tt>/etc/rc.init</tt> and + a machine shutdown script in <tt>/etc/rc.shutdown</tt>. Make them executable. </li> + <li> Check that your devtmpfs is automounted by your kernel at boot time. If it is not, +add the <tt>-d 1</tt> option to the <tt>s6-linux-init-maker</tt> command line below. </li> + <li> As root, run: <pre> + rm -rf /tmp/s6-linux-init /tmp/init + s6-linux-init-maker /tmp/s6-linux-init > /tmp/init + chmod 0700 /tmp/init + mv /tmp/s6-linux-init /etc/ + mv /tmp/init /sbin/ </pre> </li> + <li> Reboot. </li> + <li> Congratulations! your machine is now running a s6-based init system. </li> +</ul> + +<h2> FAQ </h2> + +<h4> Why is it so complicated to use s6 as an init process? It's much +simpler with runit. </h4> + +<p> + Yes, runit is simpler, because it provides a simple +<a href="http://smarden.org/runit/runit.8.html">runit</a> binary +suitable as a <tt>/sbin/init</tt> program and calls scripts to +handle the three stages of init. However, the runit design has a +few perfectible points: +</p> + +<ul> + <li> The one-time initialization is performed in <tt>/etc/runit/1</tt>, but +the supervision tree is not run until <tt>/etc/runit/2</tt>, which means +means that it is impossible to start supervised services during the +one-time initialization. Early daemons such as <tt>udevd</tt>, for +instance, have to remain unsupervised. </li> + <li> runit runs with its descriptors pointing to <tt>/dev/console</tt>, +which means that error messages from the supervision tree, and uncaught +logs, will be displayed on the system console; they are not saved beyond +the console buffer capabilities. </li> + <li> The runit supervision tree is of height 3 +(runit, runsvdir, runsv), when height 2 is enough - some init +systems, like sysvinit, systemd or launchd, even provide a +supervision tree of height 1! (At the expense of complexity in the init +process, of course.) Height 3 is a bit redundant, because the supervision +capabilities of the root will be redundant with either those of the trunk +or those of the branches. Its display is also aesthetically less pleasing than +height 2: try out <tt>ps afuxww</tt> on a runit-based system. +Yes, this point is extremely minor, but still deserves a mention. :-) </li> +</ul> + +<p> + Running a s6-based init addresses those issues: +</p> + +<ul> + <li> Save for the initial tmpfs mount, <em>all</em> of the machine +initialization runs in the stage 2 script, i.e. <tt>/etc/rc.init</tt>, +and the supervision tree is already available at that point. This +makes it possible to start one-shot services as well as long-run +services in the desired order while ensuring that every long-run service +is properly supervised, i.e. it lays the ground for a proper dependency +management system. </li> + <li> s6-linux-init solves the problem of uncaught logs in a clean +way, and any error message from any process in the system is +guaranteed to end up in a logging directory. The <em>only</em> +exception is error messages from the catch-all logger process itself: +those naturally go to <tt>/dev/console</tt>. </li> + <li> When s6-svscan runs as process 1, the supervision tree is of +height 2, and <tt>ps afuxww</tt> looks clean. </li> +</ul> + +<p> + To sum up, a s6-based init is cleaner than a runit-based +init; it's a bit more complex to set up, but it organizes the system +in a better way, without using more resources. And the goal of +s6-linux-init is to make the setup more accessible. +</p> + +<h4> My <tt>/etc/rc.init</tt> script is not printing anything! </h4> + +<p> + You probably gave the <tt>-r</tt> option to +<a href="s6-linux-init-maker.html">s6-linux-init-maker</a>, and +your <tt>/etc/rc.init</tt>'s output is being logged into the +<tt>/run/uncaught-logs</tt> directory instead of printed to +<tt>/dev/console</tt>. +</p> + +<h4> I want to run s6 in a container, and I just want to log +to stdout/stderr, without this tmpfs and <tt>/dev/console</tt> +stuff and +without having a catch-all logger inside the container. Is it +possible ? </h4> + +<p> + Yes, it is possible, but then s6-linux-init may not be what you +are looking for. For your case, it will be simpler to run s6-svscan +directly! +</p> + +<p> + If you are using +<a href="https://www.docker.com/">Docker</a>, there is a +<a href="https://github.com/just-containers/s6-overlay">s6-overlay</a> +project specifically made for integrating s6 into Docker images. +</p> + +</body> +</html> |