So, I would like, for example, "/etc/init.d/net.eth0 start" to start all services that are on by default, but which depend on that (if they have not been started yet) The rationale for this is: 1. The restarting of services that have failed to start would be easier. For example, /etc/init.d/net.eth0 often fails to start up in the boot. This happens when I cannot get a DHCP address (I have a cable modem) I have several services depending on the success of net.eth0, namely ssh and postfix. And when net.eth0 doesn't start on the boot, those also don't get started. Now, when I start net.eth0 manually, I need to start postfix and sshd manually, which is tedious. I would like them to be started automatically, when net.eth0 starts. Imagine that I would have 10 network services. Then the easiest measure I could take would be rebooting the system until I get an IP address which is not clearly the right way. 2. The behavior of "start" should be similar to the behaviors of "stop" and "restart" See what happens when I stop and start net.eth0 manually: cs191238:/home/jsykari# /etc/init.d/net.eth0 stop * Stopping DDClient... [ ok ] * Stopping postfix... [ ok ] * Stopping sshd... [ ok ] * Bringing eth0 down... * Waiting for dhcpcd to shutdow....done [ ok ] cs191238:/home/jsykari# cs191238:/home/jsykari# /etc/init.d/net.eth0 start * Bringing eth0 up... [ ok ] cs191238:/home/jsykari# Note that the result is _not_ the same as with "etc/init.d/net.eth0 restart" (which will simply restart every service) Then, the behavior of "start" would be similar to the behavior of consequent "stop" and "restart" (they all affect the dependencies of the service in question) So, as a conclusion, it would be very nice if just "net.eth0 start" would bring up the device _and_ those devices which depend and should be running (i.e. they are configured to run on current runlevel via rc-update) but are not running for some reason. This functionality should perhaps be implemented as another command, such as "startall" or "startdeps": # /etc/init.d/net.eth0 startall Starting net.eth0... ok Starting sshd... ok Starting postfix... ok Then, actually, runlevels could be modeled as services which would depend on everything on that runlevel (or maybe not), and booting the system would just mean "/etc/init.d/default startall" or similar.
I've ran into this problem also. I stop the network, or it fails to start, then later when I start it I have to go thru and start the 15 or so services that got stoped when net.eth0 stoped, but don't start when it starts.
Try: # rc
