From cd946f0b9c51d4dcc1ab174daf853bdf5c828855 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: David Oberhollenzer <david.oberhollenzer@tele2.at>
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2018 19:14:08 +0200
Subject: Add basic documentation stub

Signed-off-by: David Oberhollenzer <david.oberhollenzer@tele2.at>
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 create mode 100644 README.md

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+# About
+
+This directory contains the source code for a tiny init devised for
+the Pygos system.
+
+The main goal of this project is to create a simple framework for:
+
+- system boot up and initialization
+- service supervision
+
+With the additional aims of having something that:
+
+- simply works
+- is easy to understand
+- is easy to configure and maintain
+
+
+The init process is intended to run on top of Linux and makes use of some
+Linux specific features (e.g. signalfd), but if sufficient interest exists,
+it should still be possible to make it run on some BSDs or whatever else.
+
+The init system tries to mimic the concept of unit files from systemd as those
+were considered to be a good design choice.
+
+Those parameterizeable service description files are stored in `/usr/share/init`
+by default. Services are enabled by creating a symlink in `/etc/init.d`. This
+can be done using the `service` command line tool.
+
+See [docs/services.md](docs/services.md) for more information on service
+description files.
+
+See [docs/bootup.md](docs/bootup.md) for more information on what the init
+daemon does during system boot.
+
+
+Right now, the system is in a "basically works" proof of concept stage and
+needs some more work to become usable.
+
+There are plans for *maybe* *eventually* adding support for Linux name
+spaces, seccomp filters and cgroups as needed in the medium future.
+
+
+## Why
+
+There are already a bunch of similar projects out there that have been
+considered for use in the Pygos system. The reason for starting a new
+one was mainly dissatisfaction with the existing ones. Other Projects
+that have been considered include:
+
+- systemd
+
+    Contains a lot of good ideas, but it is HUGE. It has tons of
+    dependencies. It implements tons of things that it simply shouldn't.
+    It has a horrid, "modern", python based, hipster build system.
+    It's simply too damn large and complex.
+
+- SystemV init
+
+    A bad combination of unnecessary complexity where it isn't needed and a
+    complete lack of abstraction where it would be needed. Shell script
+    copy and paste madness. There are reasons people started developing
+    alternatives (other than "hurr-durr-parallel-boots").
+
+- upstart
+
+    Seems nice overall, but needlessly big and complex for the intended
+    use case in Pygos. Would have needlessly added D-Bus to the system.
+
+- OpenRC
+
+    Was already integrated into Pygos. Things turned out to be broken.
+    Upstream developers did not accept fixes (after ignoring them for weeks
+    and preferring typo fixes instead). Complaints from other people who
+    tried to contribute fixes were observed on GitHub. Complaints from
+    package maintainers about deteriorating code quality were observed
+    on the official IRC channel. Documentation is non-existent.
+
+- daemon tools and similar (runnit, s6, minit, ...)
+
+    The sixties are over. And even code from that era is more readable. The
+    source code for those projects should better be tossed out the window and
+    rewritten from scratch. If you are a first semester CS student and you
+    hand something like this in as a homework, the best you might get is a
+    well deserved slap on the back of your head.
+
+- busybox init
+
+    Nice and simple. Probably the best fit if the rest of your user space is
+    busybox as well.
+
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