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diff --git a/doc/faq.html b/doc/faq.html index 2fe7acd..692c7f7 100644 --- a/doc/faq.html +++ b/doc/faq.html @@ -25,10 +25,13 @@ Why not put all the information for a service in a single file? </h3> <p> - Because parsing sucks. Writing parsers is an annoying, ungrateful task; -and automatic parser generators produce big and inefficient code. For + Because parsing sucks. Writing parsers is an annoying, ungrateful task, +with significant risks of bugs and security holes; +and automatic parser generators produce big and inefficient code - and +they are not immune to bugs or security holes either. For security, efficiency and maintainability reasons, I prefer to focus my -efforts on code that actually does stuff, not parsing code. +efforts on code that actually does stuff, not code that parses a text +file. </p> <p> @@ -206,5 +209,47 @@ for. When in doubt, use bundles. </p> +<h2> Mechanism vs. policy </h2> + +<h3> s6-rc feels bare: there are tools, but no wrappers, no pre-packaged +scripts to boot my machines, no default runlevels. By comparison, OpenRC +provides a complete default set of scripts! </h3> + +<p> + In the world of software development, it is important to distinguish +<em>mechanism</em> from <em>policy</em>. Mechanism is "how do I perform +the job", and should, theoretically, be addressed by software authors. +Policy is "what are the details of the job I perform, where should I +put my files, what conventions do I use", and should, theoretically, be +addressed by <em>Unix distributions</em>. +</p> + +<p> + Like the rest of <a href="http://skarnet.org/software/">skarnet.org +software</a>, s6-rc aims to provide <em>mechanism, not policy</em>: +it is OS-agnostic and distribution-agnostic. Providing boot scripts, +or anything of this kind, would go against this principle; it is +possible that a policy defined by software conflicts with a +policy defined by a distribution, for instance the provided boot +scripts do not match the distribution's needs, and so the distributors +have to patch the software! +</p> + +<p> + The s6-rc tools only provide mechanism, so they can be used as is by +individual users, or by a distribution. They do not need to be patched. +It is up to distributions to provide their own policy surrounding those +tools, including complete service databases. It is literally the +distributors' job! +</p> + +<p> + OpenRC is a different case, because it was developed <em>by</em> and +<em>for</em> a Linux distribution, so with that in mind, the OpenRC +developers did not have to think much about separating mechanism from policy. +It works very well for Gentoo and Gentoo-derived distributions; but it +requires more work to use OpenRC outside of that frame. +</p> + </body> </html> |