Re: A dumb question

From: Alex Efros <powerman_at_powerman.name>
Date: Tue, 2 May 2017 00:41:36 +0300

Hi!

On Mon, May 01, 2017 at 11:11:25PM +0200, Francisco Gómez wrote:
>     "It's old software. Its last version is from 2014. If I have to
>     choose between a dynamic, bug-filled init like Systemd and a barely
>     maintained init like Runit, I'd rather use Systemd."
>
> That sounds bad, doesn't it?

That sounds like everyone has own preference and that's ok. If you like
complexity and issues - use systemd, that's what it's for. It works too,
more or less, so you've such an option.

> I hence ask: why is it that Runit has no new versions, neither a VCS
> repository or bug tracker? Has Runit been so well tested and hardened,
> is it such a simple codebase? Or are there not enough interested,
> capable people maintaining the project?

Well, personally I'd love to see runit official repo on github. But it's
up to runit's author to define own workflow.

Most of djb's and djb-like software (with notable exception of qmail) is
small, simple, does just one thing, does it completely enough, does it
reliable enough… and thus it doesn't needs to be updated, fixed or even
improved. Because if you needs it to be improved then usually that means
you just need some other software, not that one.

Runit may have some very minor issues, which no one is interested enough
to fix, but in general it does it's work very well and it doesn't matter
how many years ago it was released if it still does everything we needs
today without any issues. Actually I find this very cool, because it's
just one thing less to bother about and to re-learn every few years
because it's buggy and/or changes too fast under my fingers.

> Sorry for asking this, but I'm really curious and interested on using
> Runit, and questions need answers. Even if those questions are really
> questionable on themselves. Cheers~

I don't see anything wrong with such a question. People gets used to
software which wasn't designed well and/or try to do many tasks at once
and thus they doesn't expect anything good from software which doesn't
looks like it fix a couple of bugs every week - because they know there
are bugs in every software, and they know they'll need active support to
fix bugs they'll find… and thus without such support using software isn't
an option at all. Runit, and few other notable software, is different - it
just works, and works well. It doesn't do everything you may need (just
like all other similar software), but everything it does it does well and
it functionality is more than enough in many use cases - no necessarily in
your use case, of course (take a look at s6 if you'll need more features).

-- 
			WBR, Alex.
Received on Mon May 01 2017 - 21:41:36 UTC

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