README

# README
# perp: persistent process supervision
# (includes runtools and libasagna)
# wcm, 2009.12.28 - 2013.01.11
# ===

This is perp, aka "the perpetrator", a persistent process supervisor
and service managment framework for un!x.

The perp package provides a set of daemons and utilities to reliably
start, monitor, log, and control a collection of persistent processes.

-Huh?

A "persistent process" is defined as any long-running program,
normally starting at system boot and intended to continue running
until system shutdown.  Also known and often described as a "service",
a persistent process generally provides some essential, on-demand,
system service.  Programs that serve email, domain name queries,
and http requests are all examples of services that are normally
run as persistent processes.

-So?

perp provides a portable, uniform framework for installing such
services on any un!x platform, initializes services reliably within
a consistent process environment, and makes sure they continue to
run and log untended for as long as necessary.

-Is that all?

The big news with release 2.0 is that the perpd(8) daemon now runs as
a single process, coalescing all the operations formerly provided by
multiple perpetrate(8) supervisors into a single executable.  By
eliminating all the supervisory "middle-man" processes, the context
switching overhead of the perp system is substantially simplified over
earlier releases.  And perpd(8) now sets up a mere 2 file objects on
startup -- a lock file and a domain socket -- and otherwise generates
no disk activity whatsoever during runtime.

-Says you!

Sigh...


Package Layout:

  ./CHANGES     changlog and release history
  ./INSTALL     how to install/upgrade
  ./LICENSE     copyright/license info
  ./README      this here file right here
  ./conf.mk     build/install configuration file
  ./examples/*  sample service definitions
  ./lasagna/*   libasagna utility library sources
  ./perp/*      perp build sources
  ./runtools/*  runtools build sources


Requirements:

This package is intended to build, install and run on any contemporary
un!x platform without additional requirements.  It has been tested on
the following platforms:

  NetBSD 5.0, i386
  Linux 2.6+, i686, gcc + gnu libc
  Linux 2.6+, i686, gcc + dietlibc
  Linux 2.6+, x86_64, gcc + dietlibc
  Darwin 10.3.2 (Mac OSX), i386


Installation:

See INSTALL for complete instructions on building and installing the
software, and upgrading from an earlier release.  


Documentation:

This package includes a set of troff -man pages.  To view them prior
to installation, see the /man subdirectory within each of the ./perp
and ./runtools subdirectories.  It is suggested to skim the following
pages for an overview of the system:  perp_intro.8, perpd.8, perpetrate.5,
and perp-setup.8.


Process 1 (/sbin/init) Support:

This release of perp does not include replacement for /sbin/init.
If this is important for you -- and especially if you are interested
in developing a complete perp-based un!x distribution -- please
let me know.


Feedback:

This project includes the suggestions and corrections provided by perp
users from around the world.  Thanks for your feedback!


More information:

http://b0llix.net/perp/


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