Ubuntu Upstart unpacked

Downloaded and unpacked upstart, you will need to configure the source tree, build and install it. The main question here is deciding whether or not you want to take the plunge and replace sysvinit immediately, or whether you want to test first.

The brave will want to configure the source such that the executable parts are placed on the root filesystem and the data partsare in the usual places.

This led to an eventual rewrite of initialization scripts and the use of runit instead of the traditional SysV init. The results were fantastic: a fast booting system with services starting in parallel and a series of scripts to start and stop the system with a small footprint and amazing speed.

When I recently installed Fedora Core 10, I found that one of the new features was the use of Ubuntu"s Upstart, a SysV init replacement system.

I've taken the opportunity to poke at it a little bit and see how it compares to runit and SysV init, especially in light of the fact that a number of features it does have or plans to have mimic a lot of the things that made runit and supervised services so appealing.

According to Canonical, Upstart is an event-based replacement for SysV init, that handles the starting of tasks and services during boot.

It stops them during shutdown, and supervises them while the system is running. From an end-user perspective, the system boots no differently.

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