Yesterday I finally decided to investigate the occasional broken pipe errors with `s6-rc-update' on my machines, and realised that I always used it the wrong way: # rm -rf /etc/s6-rc/db/main # Which /etc/s6-rc/compiled links to. # s6-rc-compile /etc/s6-rc/db/main /etc/s6-rc/main # s6-rc-update /etc/s6-rc/compiled So s6-rc-update ran with the incorrect assumption that the old database was at /etc/s6-rc/compiled, resulting in all kinds of hilarity.
This is certainly an inexcusable PEBKAC; however, the cause was not really obvious from the error output of the s6-rc programs. So perhaps we can make the error messages more indicative; or if that requires too much additional complexiy, emphasise in the s6-rc documentation that the service db is not supposed to change throughout its lifetime (including that last `s6-rc-update' invocation that would replace it; and except that a major upgrade of s6-rc might require an in-place rebuild)? -- My current OpenPGP key: RSA4096/0x227E8CAAB7AA186C (expires: 2020.10.19) 7077 7781 B859 5166 AE07 0286 227E 8CAA B7AA 186C
