18 Nov
2021
18 Nov
'21
6:03 p.m.
On 11/18/21 11:57 AM, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
Yes, I'm aware of that particular practice, yet
one hesitates to call it
a 'standard'.
I don't. I've been doing it (and implementing it) for 35 years!
That being said, I don't think it unreasonable to
use
SIGHUP for something that is never going to have carrier dropped on it.
So background 'systems' processes would be an obvious candidate.
I think that's in line with the early thinking, yes.
'Early' Unix to me means before it got ported
off the PDP-7.? I started
using it in about 1978, which I believe was in the first decade of its
public release from AT&T.? In some ways, it was a significantly
different beast than what you see, today. However, I didn't start doing
systems programming on Unix until about 1985 when the plug got pulled on
36 bits, first Ultrix, then Sun.? This was until about 1988.? Maybe we
might call that 'middle' Unix?
Perhaps. I started with SVr2 (AT&T 3B1). (then Ultrix, then Sun,
like you, now Linux and SmartOS)
Being a 'purist' in Unix is really a pointless
exercise.? Vendors and
developers agree on things until they don't agree and when they need
something, it's anybody's guess as to what might get made into an
unofficial standard.? You'd be surprised (or not).
Not. In the UNIX world, as you've no doubt observed, things tend to
coalesce into common usage patterns (like SIGHUP to reconfigure a
running process) over time, mostly due to public conversations (Usenet,
mailing lists, web fora) creating expectations, and vendors and
development groups slowly adapting to them.
I'm not saying it's a bad idea.? I'm
saying a Unix 'standard' is
whatever an unofficial majority thinks it is, which may or may not be
what others think (say POSIX, for example).? You also see a lot of this
in the C library.? Timing functions come to mind.
Yes, that's pretty much what I said above. I think of those as
"organic standards", for the lack of a better term, but I think the term
fits. It sure beats the design-by-committee garbage that gets foisted
upon us every so often.
It's a slippery term and what you think is a
standard today may not be
in a decade or two.
Right, common usage evolves, like everything else. This is a good
thing, not a bad thing. Unless, of course, something gets changed for
the sake of changing it, by kids who think everything needs to be
"FRESH!", i.e., different from established expectations and accepted
methodologies. (systemd comes to mind)
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA