[NTLUG:Discuss] init differences

[Carl Haddick]

On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 12:51:42AM -0500, Leroy Tennison wrote:
> Learned recently that other *NIX use cumulative run levels where it 
> appears that Linux puts links to every script needed for a given run 
> level in it's rc?.d directory.  Is there a reason for this or is it just 
> stylistic preference?
> 
> Also, seems that SuSE has more run levels than Red Hat (particularly S 
> unless Red Hat has added that since I last used it), is there a good 
> reason why?
> 

If you have a script with the typical start/stop/restart arguments, you
can use a single copy in multiple runlevels with symlinks named in the
convention [SK][0-9]+nameofscript.

If the symlink in a particular runlevel's directory starts with 'S',
it's called with the 'start' argument when switching to that runlevel.
With a leading 'K', 'stop'.

You can use files instead of symlinks, but then you risk multiple copies
of the allegedly same script when maintaining a service.

At least that's my guess.

Carl