userland boot time

[Werner Almesberger]

Michael 'Mickey' Lauer wrote:
> Let me briefly discuss different alternatives here:

As a general remark, I wonder how much redundancy could be removed
by "compiling" the init scripts. I.e.,

- resolve dependencies
- eliminate tests with results known at install time, e.g.,
  - case start)
  - if [ -e config_file ]; then use_config_file ...
  - if [ -e init_state_file ]; then ...
  - if [ -x /bin/thing ]; then ...
- eliminate multiple sourcing of helper functions (if collapsing
  the whole thing into a single script)
 
Might be hard to structure them in a way that allows for this sort
of compilation, though. Also, init alternatives may already go in
this direction.

Another user space time killer to look at would be udevstart.
Perhaps a device table would be better for the well-known constant
device files. Or maybe even just pre-create them in the rootfs.

- Werner