inittab
The article doesn't mention what init system replaced it - we have all assumed a clasic SysVinit. Is this so?
I have some old systems that use respawn behavior in the inittab to keep some of my Oracle clients running. I have them all set up to run with init 4. Unfortunately, the inittab only respawns ROOT processes, so I needed a wrapper to setuid() and drop various privileges, then get the Oracle environment variables in place, erase any lock files, then finally execute the correct program. My C code that does this resembles duct tape and bailing wire.
Moving these processes to systemd was VERY pleasant. I created units that ran as the correct users, read environment files and set them before executing, erased lock files before forking the main process, then ran final settings mods after the last program was up. I did not need any of my ugly C for this at all.
I can do all of this under either system, but what I needed was much more straightforward with systemd. I understand why people don't like it, but it does work for me when I need it.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
