Often I see functions inserted into a daemon shell script. For instance, consider the following two.

Reference my 2.2 Apache script /etc/init.d/httpd

Reference http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2012/03/lsbinit-script/


What are the difference between these two libraries(?) that are being inserted? How does one determine which should be used? I don't seem to have /lib/lsb/... on my Centos box. Am I missing something?


Also, within the shell script, how are these functions being used? For instance, within /etc/rc.d/init.d/functions, I see kilproc() {...}, and within /etc/init.d/httpd, I see the following two lines of code.

Thank you

Part of the problem you are having is that RH doesn't follow the LSB.

The next part depends on which CentOS version you are using - RH/CentOS as of release 7, no longer use either one. They are using systemd run units instead, and not using init.d for anything, and are not using shell scripts.

The intent of the functions is to provide a common method of interfacing with the init process and interfacing with the administrator. Because the two different methods are available, it all depends on which "standard" you follow.

The init functions in lib usually handle satellite scripts like the ifup and ifdown commands. The ones in /etc are for the actual startup scripts.