Bug 29061 – make rc start services simultaneously

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: VERIFIED WONTFIX

[Description Graeme Humphries 2003-09-18 19:28:41 UTC]

Just saw the idea from a link on Slashdot, wouldn't it be nice for Gentoo to be
the first ultra-fast booting Linux distro?

The basic idea seems to be: calculate dependancies between services, then start
as many as you can simultaneously. Since some do network access and other
things, this can significantly speed up the boot process.

I'm under the impression that Gentoo's rc system already handles service
dependancy calculation, so perhaps part of the technique described in the linked
page could be quickly adapted to our boot system? In any case, it's definately a
large feature request, but I thought it'd be good to get the ball rolling and
people looking at it now, so that maybe we can do it /first/. :)

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

[Comment 1 SpanKY 2003-09-19 00:12:22 UTC]

we'd have to handle the output somehow otherwise boot would like a friggin mess

[Comment 2 Graeme Humphries 2003-09-19 06:22:32 UTC]

True... but it shouldn't be too hard to count the number of things spawned to boot and print out their initial starting lines in order; then when one finishes starting up use the vt control sequences to move the cursor to the end of the line their startup message is on and print the "[ok]" or "[failed]".

I would think that a simple linked list could track this info nicely. I'm not sure what language the boot script is written in though... or what part of the system actually takes care of that bit. Is it 'init'? Is it 'rc'?

[Comment 3 Graeme Humphries 2003-09-19 06:36:14 UTC]

Also, am I the only one who received the notification e-mail from
"bugzilla", no @, no domain-name, with a link to:
http://you-havent-visited-editparams.cgi-yet/show_bug.cgi?id=29061

Did core team upgrade Bugzilla recently and forget to set some settings? :)

[Comment 4 Martin Schlemmer (RETIRED) 2003-09-20 02:10:47 UTC]

We have this already.  Not much speed increase.

[Comment 5 Graeme Humphries 2003-09-20 07:35:05 UTC]

We already have this? My system sure ain't doin' it, and I /know/ I'd see a speed increase, because I've got a few services that just sit there doing net activity after they start up before reporting that they're done. How do I "turn it on", so to speak?

[Comment 6 Graeme Humphries 2004-02-21 18:36:04 UTC]

I'm still interested in finding out how to actually do this, I'm looking in your direction, Martin, since you said it's already possible. Can you point me at some docs, or references, or even a couple tips on where to get started?

Thanks.

[Comment 7 Graeme Humphries 2004-02-21 18:41:57 UTC]

Heh, just found it in /etc/conf.d/rc, so never mind. I think that's something that should be documented somewhere a little more obviously, though. :)