> One other fun problem Spotify is going to tackle is how we're going to handle systemd vs. upstart if/when we transition from straight-up Debian to Ubuntu.
After two years of upstart I am wholeheartedly regretting ever touching it. It's broken by design and currently in such a bad way that you actually might have to reboot the machine to fix it.
Upstart is the main reason I'm considering dropping ubuntu for something else.
For example, there is a long-standing bug [1] where an improperly configured job using "expect fork" can cause upstart to become completely confused and unfixable without a reboot (or a really hacky ruby script [2]).
As the comments discuss, it's not really always clear all the time when to use "expect fork" vs "expect daemon" and the rules change with a `script` block. So this hits people all the time, including me.
It's these kinds of bugs in upstart that bite people all the time. I could go on about its obtuse configuration but I can declare unequivocally that upstart configurations are my least favorite part of system administration, bar none. `Start-stop-daemon` reduces some of the pain but is also difficult to debug.
After two years of upstart I am wholeheartedly regretting ever touching it. It's broken by design and currently in such a bad way that you actually might have to reboot the machine to fix it.
Upstart is the main reason I'm considering dropping ubuntu for something else.