[Bug 821] New: sysinit chapter: facility names unclear

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             nThis:


This wording: "Boot facilities are used to indicate dependencies in init
scripts, as defined in a previous section. Facility names that begin with a
dollar sign ('$') are system facility names, defined by the LSB, and SHALL be
provided by distributions."

leaves me wondering what the SHALL implies?  Does it mean "if an implementation
provides the underlying functionality, it must provide the corresponding
facility name"?  As worded here is sounds like systems are responsible for
providing them all, no matter what.

Second, we don't say anything about *when* information based on facilities is
evaluated, and I presume that's intentional (if so, I'd like to add an
appropriately placed "unspecified" to this page). It could be entirely static -
at the time install_initd is run; it could be dynamic - the thing that kicks off
the initscript makes sure the facility dependencies are met; or it could be
both. Saying "unspecified" would imply it could be any of those.

Third, after I read the page initscrcomconv.html (same path), I wonder, as an
implementor (on behalf of the lsbsi) how I'd make this work.  In an
implementation of install_initd/bootscripts I have to calculate whether, say,
$portmap will be available at all, and if so, make sure the app package that
depends on it will be started later than the thing which provides $portmap.  But
it's really a runtime dependency.  If $portmap failed, okay.  If the thing that
provided $portmap is /removed from the system/ then on next boot I have an
interesting problem - I should prevent the removal, because it breaks the app
package, but there can be no sensible linkage that prevents someone doing 'rpm
-e portmap' because the app package cannot depend on 'portmap' and thus block
the removal.  Is this just thinking up problems where none really exist?   
 
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