Re: Solaris 10 System Boot and Database Startup

On 2006-08-08, joel garry <joel-garry_at_home.com> wrote:
>
> Ceri Davies wrote:
>
>> See
>> http://typo.submonkey.net/articles/2006/06/14/shell-scripting-for-dbms-vendors
>> for a rant I wrote about this some time ago. It also has a solution.
>
>>For some reason, the first line of dbstart (and dbshut, but I'll be talking about dbstart in the >main) reads:
>>
>>:
>>rather than the traditional
>>
>>#!/bin/sh
>>I've seen this practice a lot over the years, from numerous different people, and I have no idea >where it came from.
>
> "Once upon a time, there was the Bourne shell. Since there was only
> "the" shell, there was no trouble deciding how to run a script: run it
> with _the_ shell. It worked, and everyone was happy.
>
> Along came progress, and wrote another shell. The people thought this
> was good, for now they could choose their own shell. So some chose the
> one, and some the other, and they wrote shell scripts and were happy.
> But one day someone who used the "other" shell ran a script by someone
> who used the "other other" shell, and alas! it bombed spectacularly.
> The people wailed and called upon their Guru for help.
>
> "Well," said the Guru, "I see the problem. The one shell and the other
> are not compatible. We need to make sure that the shells know which
> other shell to use to run each script. And lo! the one shell has a
> 'comment' called :, and the other a true comment called #. I hereby
> decree that henceforth, the one shell will run scripts that start with
>:, and the other those that start with #." And it was so, and the
> people were happy.
>
> But progress was not finished. This time he noticed that only shells
> ran scripts, and thought that if the kernel too could run scripts, that
> this would be good, and the people would be happy. So he wrote more
> code, and now the kernel could run scripts, but only if they began with
> the magic incantation: #!, and told the kernel which shell ran the
> script. And it was so, and the people were confused.
>
> For the #! looked like a "comment." Though the kernel could see the #!
> and run a shell, it would not do so unless certain magic bits were set.
> And if the incantation were mispronounced, that too could stop the
> kernel, which after all was not omniscient. And so the people wailed,
> but alas!, the Guru did not respond. And so it was, and still is
> today..." - Chris Torek
>
> So now you know where it came from, and what the proper traditional is.

Much obliged :)

ceri

-- 
That must be wonderful!  I don't understand it at all.
                                                  -- Moliere