This change allows one to set a environment variables prior to executing
the script. This enables end-users to avoid editing the script itself,
which in turns makes it functionally easier. This also enables end-users
to potentially just drop this script into arbitrary environments without
changing the contents (EG: Docker containers or VMs under configuration
management)
Instead of creating a log file. This change leverages the syslog. This allows us to not have to manually rotate logs, or worry about the log file filling up the file system. This also give us timestamps of the logging without having to create the timestamps ourselves. Messages are logged to /var/log/messages by default.
Nicholas Drone
Paul FREAKN Baker
JP
Mike Lape
Jason Koh