</LURK> On Fri, Jul 27, 2001 at 09:04:48AM -0700, Joel Baker wrote: > Perry E. Metzger wrote:
> > I've never been anywhere where I've seen System V runlevels actually > > used for changing the state of a running machine in practice between > > one multi-user state and another. When we were re-designing NetBSD's > > init/rc system, we solicited information on such use. Although legends > > popped up of machines that changed the state of a database for an hour > > once a week for various purposes, so far as we could tell cron jobs > > that simply told the database to change state and such would have done > > just as well. We therefore went with a "traditional" system without > > System V style explicit runlevels. > The only case I've seen something used other than "single", "halt", > "reboot", and "multiuser" is when a machine could operate either as a > plain server, or with an X system console on it; runlevel 4 was used to > designate "multiuser, graphical console". > > One could certainly argue that this is a distinction better made in the > X startup area, but I have seen such a thing with my own eyes; it's not > legend. Whether it was a good thing or not, well, that's an entirely > different question. As noted, it could still be handled in other ways. Some laptop users use runlevels to designate a low-intensity mode for portable/battery use and a power-on network-on mode. Some even shut down X when going mobile. I shut down ntp, pcmcia(cardmgr), cron, etc. myself (tho I do it through a script since I also need to change network environment and timezone and put wwwoffle online or offline). -- Tony <LURK>
