[plug] IP Chains

[russ]

Christian wrote:
> 
> If you run the script which the boot process is also going to run then
> rebooting does not do anything different. Do you reboot if you change
> your machine's IP address?  How about if you add a new route?  Do you
> log out and in again if you add something to your ~/.profile?  If people
> want to reboot their machines every time they breathe then that's their
> decision but it seems silly to advocate it to people, particularly
> someone who is new to Linux from a Windows background.  It would make
> more sense to point out that a reboot is unnecessary and highlight how
> Linux is better in this regard.

You don't know what will happen when you reboot until you reboot,
unless you are a linux boot guru of course.  :)

I would assume that booting is not entirely random sequence, some
things need to be done before others. I'm not a linux expert and many
times I've managed to get something running then when I reboot the
next day it doesn't work any more. And, as someone already said, it's
a lot easier to pin point the problem when you make the change rather
than a couple of days later when you find something you thought you
had fixed doesn't work. You may not remember what you have done (as an
amateur I do that a lot too :).

It's not a "windoze" thing. It's a reasonable test for possible
mistakes, especially for a beginner.