Init

• Documentation
• Project

Init is a lightweight framework for writing readable, reusable *nix init scripts in Ruby.

This project tries to conform to:

• Semantic Versioning (2.0.0)
• Ruby Packaging Standard (0.5-draft)
• Ruby Style Guide
• Gem Packaging: Best Practices

Additional facts:

• Written purely in Ruby.
• Documented with YARD.
• Automatically testable through RSpec.
• Intended to be used with Ruby 1.9.3 or higher.
• Cryptographically signed gem and git tags.

This documentation defines the public interface of the software. Don't rely on elements marked as private. Those should be hidden in the documentation by default.

In most cases you want to load the library by the following command:

require 'init'

In a bundler Gemfile you should use the following:

gem 'init'

Simply subclass Aef::Init and define at least a start and a stop method. At the end, call the parse method on that class.

  class DemoSubclass < Aef::Init
    def start
      system('echo start')
    end

    def stop
      system('echo stop')
    end
  end
  
  DemoSubclass.parse

To be able to call the commands from Ruby you should wrap the parse method call in a block that only calls it if the script is executed on the commandline.

  if __FILE__ == $PROGRAM_NAME
    DemoSubclass.parse
  end

There is no need to implement the command restart in most cases, as there is one defined by default, which simply calls the commands stop and start in a row. A delay in seconds between the two commands can be defined:

  class DemoSubclass < Aef::Init
    …
    stop_start_delay 3
    …
  end

Notice that in earlier versions the default command was preset to :restart which was not as useful in practice as expected. Many unwanted restarts were triggered because of this, so I don't recommend using this feature any more.

Still, a default command can be specified which is called if no command is provided on the command-line:

  class DemoSubclass < Aef::Init
    …
    default_command :start
    …
  end

If you want to share commands between init scripts, you can simply insert an intermediate class between Init and the final implementation. This way you can build reusable libraries and keep your code DRY.

  class CommonCommands > Aef::Init
    def common
      system('echo common')
    end
  end

  class DemoSubclass > CommonCommands
    …
  end

As of 2.1.0 there is a way to specify lazily-interpreted variables which are inherited by sub classes.

  class MiddleClass < Aef::Init
    # Setting some variables
    set(:executable) { 'daemon' }
    set(:arguments)  { '-abc' }

    # Access variables inside the defintion of a new one
    set(:command) { path + executable }

    # Utilize the variables in command definitions just like local variables
    def start
      `#{command} #{arguments}`
    end
  end

  class LeafClass < MiddleClass
    # Overrides the previous value 'daemon'
    set(:daemon) { 'special-daemon' }

    # Sets the needed but previously undefined path variable
    set(:path)   { Pathname.new('/opt/something') }
  end

See the examples/ folder and spec/bin/simple_init.rb for working example classes.

• Ruby 1.9.3 or higher

On *nix systems you may need to prefix the command with sudo to get root privileges.

There is a high security installation option available through rubygems. It is highly recommended over the normal installation, although it may be a bit less comfortable. To use the installation method, you will need my gem signing public key, which I use for cryptographic signatures on all my gems.

Add the key to your rubygems' trusted certificates by the following command:

gem cert --add aef-gem.pem

Now you can install the gem while automatically verifying its signature by the following command:

gem install init -P HighSecurity

Please notice that you may need other keys for dependent libraries, so you may have to install dependencies manually.

gem install init

Go into the root directory of the installed gem and run the following command to fetch all development dependencies:

bundle

Afterwards start the test runner:

rake spec

If something goes wrong you should be noticed through failing examples.

Please use the issue tracker on github.com to let me know about errors or ideas for improvement of this software.

This software is developed in the source code management system Git. There are several synchronized mirror repositories available:

• GitHub (located in California, USA)

  URL: https://github.com/aef/init.git

• Gitorious (located in Norway)

  URL: https://git.gitorious.org/init/init.git

• BitBucket (located in Colorado, USA)

  URL: https://bitbucket.org/alefi/init.git

• Pikacode (located in France)

  URL: https://pikacode.com/aef/init.git

You can get the latest source code with the following command, while exchanging the placeholder for one of the mirror URLs:

git clone MIRROR_URL

The final commit before each released gem version will be marked by a tag named like the version with a prefixed lower-case "v", as required by Semantic Versioning. Every tag will be signed by my OpenPGP public key which enables you to verify your copy of the code cryptographically.

Add the key to your GnuPG keyring by the following command:

gpg --import aef-openpgp.asc

This command will tell you if your code is of integrity and authentic:

git tag -v [TAG NAME]

To package your state of the source code into a gem package use the following command:

rake build

The gem will be generated according to the .gemspec file in the project root directory and will be placed into the pkg/ directory.

Help on making this software better is always very appreciated. If you want your changes to be included in the official release, please clone the project on github.com, create a named branch to commit, push your changes into it and send a pull request afterwards.

Please make sure to write tests for your changes so that no one else will break them when changing other things. Also notice that an inclusion of your changes cannot be guaranteed before reviewing them.

The following people were involved in development:

• Alexander E. Fischer

Copyright Alexander E. Fischer aef@raxys.net, 2009-2013

This file is part of Init.

Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.