Re: Shutdown - 25 Years Later

On Fri, 18 Apr 2025 12:27:25 +0200, Marc Haber wrote:

Farley Flud <ff@linux.rocks> wrote:

Note: the "shutdown" command belongs the package "sysvinit"
and probably has been replaced within the junk Systemd that
has grabbed the balls of most, but not all (and certainly
not mine), GNU/Linux distros.

 
Surprisingly, in Debian the shutdown binary is in the systemd-sysv
package and will thus vanish as soon as we¹ eventually get rid of the
last init script, but I am pretty sure that shutdown nowadays just
issues a command to systemd like the appropriate systemctl reboot or
systemctl halt.
 

So too does the sysvinit version of shutdown, but the command (or signal)
is sent to the program "init", which is the program called by the kernel
on boot (but that also can be overridden).

Init then consults the file "/etc/inittab" which then determines the
next course of action.

In former/current distros the init program will execute a script
that was/is supplied by the distro maintainers, but any user can
easily substitute his own script.

But even with sysvinit, the distro-supplied scripts were oriented
toward multi-user, server environments which is totally ridiculous
for a stand-alone, desktop workstation.

Sysvinit, in contrast to that abomination known as systemd, is
simplicity and elegance in the flesh.  I, and anyone, can supply
my own boot and shutdown scripts that will conform to the specific
purpose of the machine.

GNU/Linux is far more flexible and adaptable than even the lackey
distro maintainers could ever realize.



--
Systemd: solving all the problems that you never knew you had.