startup and shutdown scripts

Since the RPM versions I had downloaded and used previously for my RedHat 5.2 were missing at least one piece I needed to use, I switched from attempting to use an RPM version to compiling the sources from what I hope is the most recent non-developers release at ftp://squid.nlanr.net.

While it took a while to get it installed and it is much easier to follow the comments when everything is under /usr/local/squid I am missing a few features of the RPM.

Everytime I installed an RPM it would place a script in /etc/rc.d/init.d which would take the options start|stop|restart|status all of which made my life simpler. Now I find that I don't know how to start and stop squid. I went nuts for two hours yesterday trying to restart squid. I got a fatal error because a previous instance of squid restarted itself after I thought I killed it.

After reviewing the archives I realize I'm not the only one to have problems like this, but the solution was not clear to me.

Various of the RPM scripts had some very good features, writing messages to the system logs with logger, keeping the options in a file etc. Though the scripts from some would use RunCache and others don't.

What I'd like set up is:
1. start and stop squid easily with a script file.
2. cron job rotate the logs and generate reports
  (I downloaded some of the PERL scripts and they worked fine).
3. Make sure that the cache (cache index) never gets damaged.
4. Make sure that all the actions get time-stamped and logged
   to the system log.

I could probably write it myself but I'm unclear on a few things. Mainly the purpose and relevance of RunCache and RunAccel. They are still in the distribution but they do not seem necessary if squid has the options to startup and shutdown built into the executable.

I know this has been talked about in the list before. I have seen things that seem to contradict the FAQ, which says to start RunCache in the background. There have been previous posts saying not to use RunCache at all. I am still new to squid and quite confused in my attempts to learn what the risks are from the different methods.

--
Josh Kuperman        Saratoga Springs Public Library
sar_kuper@sals.edu   49 Henry St  
518.584.7860x211     Saratoga Springs, NY 12866
http://www.library.saratoga.ny.us