[Soc-coordination] systemd-to-initscript - please review

[Tollef Fog Heen]

Hi,

I'd appreciate it if somebody could review the system-to-initscript
project on the wiki.  Text reproduced below for your convenience:

= SysV-init file creator from systemd service files =

 * '''Description of the project:'''

The goal of this project is to allow a migration away from SysV init in a smooth way while catering for the ports which still need SysV init for the foreseeable future.

The current problems of migrating away from SysV init are:
 * No-one wants a flag day;
 * Non-Linux architectures are not currently supported by any of the successors of SysV init (and such support is not probable to happen in the foreseeable future);
 * Imposing the maintainance of multiple init descriptions (say: one SysV init script and one systemd service file) on maintainers will be error-prone, especially on low-usage init systems.

The idea of this project is to allow maintainers to maintain one single file (in the case for this project: the systemd service file) for all init systems (at least SysV init) and pushing the complexity out of most packages. As a bonus, the quality of the init scripts overall is quite likely to increase, since writing correct init scripts is quite hard.

There will be some init scripts that will fit into systemd service files and those will impose maintenance of two different files, but this should be rare and usually only needed for the early boot services.

 * '''Confirmed Mentor''': TollefFogHeen
 * '''How to contact the mentor:''' IRC: Mithrandir or email: tfheen at debian.org
 * '''Confirmed co-mentors:''' DidierRaboud (OdyX at debian.org)
 * '''Deliverables of the project''': 
  * a tool that, given a systemd service file will output the corresponding init script implementing the corresponding commands/settings;
  * a document or policy describing the limitations of the init scripts and service files;
  * a huge reduction in code duplication currently happening in the SysV init scripts;
 * '''Desirable skills''': 
  * Experience in init scripts (writing them, patching them, ideally maintaining some)
  * Programming knowledge (the language would probably be an interpreted one, but might be at the choice of the student, preferably able to run from standard Priority level [perl, python, ...].)
 * '''What the student will learn:'''
  * Internals of the Debian boot process and the various init systems;
  * How to write code that's portable between various kernels;

Thanks and regards!

-- 
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are