As a side-effect, I've hyperlinked some more manual pages at the FGA on the Service Access Facility, including the one for the doconfig() function, for those wondering where the mentioned dedicated configuration language was.

* http://jdebp.info./FGA/unix-service-access-facility.html

#s6 #nosh #execline #SAF #Unix

@apgarcia @lightning @zash @ska

"sprawling" is a quality judgment, though.

You're claiming that you can tell this about #systemd from knowing that it has 216 manual pages but cannot tell the same about package B with its 106 manual pages, despite having exactly the same information, the count of manual pages, for both.

Is package B "sprawling"? Is #s6 with 88 pages? Or #execline with 62 pages?

If you don't know for them, you cannot know for systemd based upon exactly the same information.

I've got a lean #Linux image built and booting entirely without a POSIX shell. And I've got a trivial #execline command line running.

Now, it would be really cool to be able to bootstrap #pkgsrc and #mksh from this point... I've got some ideas... 😄 #Unix

execline is one of the most underrated tools for Unix-like systems: https://skarnet.org/software/execline/

Conceptually, it's a scripting language. But really, it's a way to execute command lines with Bernstein chaining: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch06s06.html

It's incredibly neat and simple. Once a script is running, there's no resident parser. Just each running program.

#execline #unix #s6 #linux #openbsd #freebsd

Security wrappers, or Bernstein chaining, is both underappreciated and underused in #Unix programs: http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/taoup/html/ch06s06.html

It's such a powerful technique that can lead to more secure *and* simpler programs. #WinWin

The #execline scripting language is a brilliant example of this: http://skarnet.org/software/execline/

#security #simplicity

@byllgrim@mastodon.xyz look up http://skarnet.org/software/execline/index.html #execline @alexbuzzbee