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List:       gentoo-dev
Subject:    Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: udev <-> mdev
From:       "Walter Dnes" <waltdnes () waltdnes ! org>
Date:       2012-07-30 16:44:04
Message-ID: 20120730164404.GA8879 () waltdnes ! org
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On Sun, Jul 29, 2012 at 01:38:28PM +0200, Luca Barbato wrote

> Forking udev and making sure it stays as lean as possible isn't that bad.

  That describes mdev to a T.  No need to re-invent the wheel.

> Making mdev a bit richer and enjoy the speed advantage of busybox
> over stand alone shells could be another option.

  The busybox people would probably not want "additional functionality"
built-in.  A better route would be "mdev helper programs" or "shims"
that we can add to Gentoo as required.  Actually, shell scripts
launched by /etc/mdev.conf can be quite powerful.  E.g.  wiki page
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Mdev/Automount_USB has ash scripts to
implement auto(un)mounting of USB devices.  It works for me, but I'm
waiting for feedback from other users before moving it out of beta
("Work In Progress") status.  Once I'm confident in the scripts, I'll
link to them from the main mdev page at
https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Mdev  In case you're wondering, I'm not a
C programmer, so scripting was the only available tool for me.

> Most of the perceived speed in non-shell init systems is due not
> having to spawn as many processes. A full busybox wouldn't spawn
> many processes.

  It would be an interesting project to make a busybox-based Gentoo
fork.  But there are differences between busybox utilities and
standalone gnu utilities.  This is especially important for a
source-based distro like Gentoo, where all sorts of gnu utilities
get excercised by build scripts each time you do an update.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>

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