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Linux Mint Will Continue To Provide Both Systemd and Upstart

jones_supa writes: After Debian adopted systemd, many other Linux distributions based on that operating system made the switch as well. Ubuntu has already rolled out systemd in 15.04, but Linux Mint is providing dual options for users. The Ubuntu transition was surprisingly painless, and no one really put up a fight, but the Linux Mint team chose the middle ground. The Mint developers consider that the project needs to still wait for systemd to become more stable and mature, before it will be the default and only option.

347 comments

  1. The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it's in trying to resolve problems later on, when you'll find that systemd helps you obscure the source of the trouble instead of resolve it.

    1. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by kthreadd · · Score: 0

      it's in trying to resolve problems later on, when you'll find that systemd helps you obscure the source of the trouble instead of resolve it.

      Obscured in what way?

    2. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's also in maintaining distinct management tools, configuration analysis, and configuration tools for DHCP, NTP, the new binary logging, space for logging of kernel booting, and whatever other components of the one man band have been added lately. systemd, and especially its core developer Lennart Pottering, are attempting to create a "stateless Linux", and the ramifications are spilling over into other parts of the system.

      Quoting from the b log at http://0pointer.net/blog/proje...

      > A Stateless System goes one step further: a system like this never stores /etc or /var on persistent storage, but always comes up with pristine vendor state.

      That is a _huge_ shift in system management, and directly violates the file system hierarchy where host specific configurations are stored in /etc or persistent data in /var/lib. They're basically taking all the daemon specific parameters from /etc and putting them in /run, and they're going to run into most of the same problems but in unfamiliar layouts. Every component that stores history in /var/lib or configuration in /etc will have to be rewritten, including long-standing conventions such as /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf, and /etc/nsswitch.conf.

    3. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      As someone who has spent the last week plus upgrading his server to Jessie, I completely disagree that the pain isn't in the switch. It may very well be that more pain is coming but the switch itself has been quite painful and isn't over yet. How the fuck do you do a meaningful Google search on "systemd complains that starting Apache fails and shows the service as stopped but the process actually starts and Apache is working just fine, systemd apparently just doesn't know it?"

    4. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by gbjbaanb · · Score: 5, Funny

      a system like this never stores /etc or /var on persistent storage

      including /var/log?? Well, I suppose that's one way to hide the fact that systemd's logs get corrupted.

    5. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by kthreadd · · Score: 3, Informative

      Sounds like Apache is forking and running as a daemon, and you haven't told systemd to expect that behaviour.

    6. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Kazymyr · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well for one thing by obfuscating system logs in a way that is likely (and expected) to fail.

      --
      I hadn't known there were so many idiots in the world until I started using the Internet -Stanislaw Lem
    7. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by hitmark · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The only behavior systemd "expects" is for daemons to talk to it either via dbus or libsystemd.

      http://ewontfix.com/15/

      Everything else have some kind of problem attach that is just waiting for the admin to tun his back on the rack.

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    8. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Quoting from the b log at http://0pointer.net/blog/proje...t/blog/proje... [0pointer.net]

      > A Stateless System goes one step further: a system like this never stores /etc or /var on persistent storage, but always comes up with pristine vendor state.

      Why not quote the very next sentence, too?
      > On systems like this every reboot acts as factory reset.

      That is a _huge_ shift in system management

      Yes, for the better.

      and directly violates the file system hierarchy where host specific configurations are stored in /etc or persistent data in /var/lib

      Funny, could've sworn it was SysV that has a mess of distro default scripts and settings all under /etc, unlike what systemd is trying to do with distro defaults under /usr and just the site/host specific configuration in /etc

    9. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Trepidity · · Score: 2

      That's not too far from the direction Linux has been going in general, though it's usually baked on top through the use of something like Ansible or Chef that does the factory-reset bit. As the post mentions, CoreOS is also aiming for something similar.

    10. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Bengie · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Bug report: Logs keep getting corrupted and cannot read them at all
      Rejected with reason: Delete the corrupted logs and move on

      SystemD - works well when it works, fails spectacularly when it fails.

    11. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Eunuchswear · · Score: 2

      How the fuck do you do a meaningful Google search on "systemd complains that starting Apache fails and shows the service as stopped but the process actually starts and Apache is working just fine, systemd apparently just doesn't know it?"

      I don't know. I can't even find your bug report.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    12. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Junta · · Score: 4, Insightful

      SystemD - works well when it works, fails spectacularly when it fails.

      Incidentally that is precisely the way Windows is. Windows is exceedingly structured and engineered (contrary to some beliefs), but as a a result when it fails... boy does it go down so hard that no one is going to bring it back. Not surprising many of the principles in Windows design match the design principles of many modern linux distros: Binary configuration files, binary log files, increasingly complex IPC schemes, and less and less friendly to simple scripts (though increasingly better for complex scripting).

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    13. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by jellomizer · · Score: 0

      I am going to propose the linux kernel changes the default color the text font from #AAAAAA to #ACACAC you know just to watch the massive outrage that will happen because of it.

      Complaints from people with the CGA display monitors, Or how this prevent accurate representation of legacy console applications. (I am going to igore the fact the the default bios fonts have changed slightly over the decades as well, and how the higher DPI of the displays, make such changes necessary.
       

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    14. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      What binary config files in Linux?

    15. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      bug report: /var/log/* corrupted, all text files replaced with zeroes from hard disk failure
      Rejected with reason: Delete the corrupted logs and move on

      For fucks sake, grow up.... ALL files types are liable to corruption and depending on the extent of corruption, you ain't gonna be able to read them, text or otherwise.

      The operative words here are "depending on the extent of corruption".

      You can read text logs with a sector editor if there's any possibility at all of pulling raw data off the hardware. For lesser damage - well, Linux is awash in text utility programs and if all else fails, put it on Windows and use the Wordpad program to read them.

      Binary logs are a different matter. To read them at all, you need a matching decoding program. And the damage to the logfiles must be within the limits of the decoding program's ability to skip around damage. You're probably not going to get anything usable from a raw sector dump.

    16. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      >For fucks sake, grow up....

      He did, you didn't. Your argument is based on a strawman (the hard disk is at fault). Only a 5 year old would come up with such a nonsensical argument. The assumption in Bengie's comment is systemd didn't write valid data. One is because the init system sucked, the other is because you bought shit hardware.

    17. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Junta · · Score: 3, Informative

      dconf uses binary configuration files. As I've said many times, while systemd catches a lot of flak for messing with long standing conventions, it is far from alone in modifying the experience (dbus, dconf, systemd, udev all do interesting things, each component bringing interesting capability with varying degrees of drawbacks).

      I think udev generally does a great job of delivering useful capability with minimal downside. Then dconf (most people don't even realize the binary dconf files exist, even when they poke dconf extensively). dbus starts going off the rails (many things that once were simple enough to explore/grep around for are now only possible through internet search of obscure dbus-send commands). systemd I actually consider less bad than having to do more and more dbus stuff.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    18. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by kthreadd · · Score: 1

      You can read journal files too. It's like they are encrypted with a secret key.

    19. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by cryptogranny · · Score: 1

      I agree with you. As someone how also tried to do the old things on a new platform, I also googled about something like this.

    20. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Junta · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have contended with corrputed files plenty. If they are plain text, it's highly unlikely that a glitch leaves it such that a human can't piece together what is left. If it relies heavily upon common features of binary formats (compression, alignment to very particular addresses, section headers), it's quite easily unrecoverable. Basically the exact things that make them attractive (performance, efficiency, analysis) make them lose all meaning pretty quickly if part is missing or something.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    21. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I'm on ubuntu 14.04 and a few times now, systemd of some kind (udev, I think) went cpu bound on me. my fan started spinning like crazy. kill -9 fixed that (the systemd proc). afaict, nothing else went wrong after I killed that proc.

      its still not ready for production use. give it 2 years AT LEAST. if I was sysadmin at a place that needed reliable linux, I'd stay back on a non-sysd system for about that long, if not longer.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    22. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How the fuck do you do a meaningful Google search on "systemd complains that starting Apache fails and shows the service as stopped but the process actually starts and Apache is working just fine, systemd apparently just doesn't know it?"

      I don't know. I can't even find your bug report.

      I haven't filed one. In my view, bug reports are for "Your system is broken." They're not for "Help me figure out how to configure my system." If I can verify that it truly is a bug with systemd, I'll file a bug report. If I can verify that it's a bug with the way Debian installed or upgraded a package, I'll file a bug report with the package maintainer. But right now, I don't have enough information to file an appropriate bug report. I'm still trying to learn how systemd works.

    23. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "You can read text logs with a sector editor if there's any possibility at all of pulling raw data off the hardware." - even when all the sectors are filled with 0's ?

      "Binary logs are a different matter. To read them at all, you need a matching decoding program. " - so what is the "sector editor" - to me thats a "matching decoding program" as with all the other programs you'll need to "read" the raw data - so whats the difference between them and a program to read a binary journal?

    24. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've seen this crap argument of logs being corrupted all the time, but no-one ever mentions a program name that corrupts the data so the implication is that its always a hard disk fault. Its just a regurgitated troll post.

    25. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by kthreadd · · Score: 3, Informative

      Ubuntu 14.04 uses Upstart.

    26. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by silentcoder · · Score: 1

      The obsurificationd service, integrated in systemd which locates any log entries related to the error you want to resolve in the binary log upon access - then translates them via google translate several times into random languages and back into English before presenting them.

      --
      Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
    27. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by ookaze · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have contended with corrputed files plenty. If they are plain text, it's highly unlikely that a glitch leaves it such that a human can't piece together what is left. If it relies heavily upon common features of binary formats (compression, alignment to very particular addresses, section headers), it's quite easily unrecoverable. Basically the exact things that make them attractive (performance, efficiency, analysis) make them lose all meaning pretty quickly if part is missing or something.

      But that's the problem: people who constantly rage against systemd and its binary logfiles are not AT ALL interested in knowing if they can read it, they never tried, they never looked at explanations of how it works or anything.
      The fact is that you can actually use "strings" (the shell command) against your journal file and get A LOT of text logs with a lot more information than in a standard log file. Of course you lose all the semantic like the integrity of the text you're reading.
      Which is because journald won't even compress small logs because it would take too much space. Only big log lines or blobs are compressed usually.
      All this talk about systemd binary logs being unreadable is just plain lies and BS from detractors.
      Of course, if you read your log with journalctl, it will get you all the extra benefits.

    28. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      The log file writing program might have bugs in it (I mean this in a general way, not to point the finger at systemd in particular).

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    29. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All this talk about systemd binary logs being unreadable is just plain lies and BS from detractors.
      Of course, if you read your log with journalctl, it will get you all the extra benefits.

      I see this a lot in systemd discussions. A systemd detractor makes a rational complaint, and then a systemd supporter says that the complaint is untrue. Can somebody who knows what they're talking about please moderate this argument? Who's right?

      In this case, the systemd detractor claims that systemd's log files become unreadable when they're corrupted . But the systemd supporter claims that the log files are readable with journalctl. Unfortunately, the supporter does not mention whether journalctl still works when the binary log file is corrupted . So, the systemd supporter may not be addressing the original concern of the detractor. Can somebody fill in the missing details?

    30. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Informative

      IIRC these "binary" logs you speak of are simply text files with indexing information attached. They're not encrypted or compressed, you can, at worst, use the "strings" command to pull the information, and if you're doing raw sector dumps from a hard drive then you'll be able to read them there too.

      Of course, if the log files are zero'd out, like the bug report you quote, then it doesn't matter whether they're "binary" or text, you're screwed. That has nothing to do with systemd.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    31. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 2

      The big issues with systemd are as follows: A large hatred of the developer, and a large group of people who were perfectly happy with the old system and don't like things being shoved down there throats (which applies to me, and I complain equally as much about stupid UI changes in GNOME and Windows (F*ing metro interface...)

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    32. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 1

      Well, last time I checked SVGAlib was completely broken on modern Linux...

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    33. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Bug report: Logs keep getting corrupted and cannot read them at all
      Rejected with reason: Delete the corrupted logs and move on
      SystemD - works well when it works, fails spectacularly when it fails.

      Except that isn't the bug report at all.

      The real one was Bug 64116 - How does one fix journal corruptions?.

      It was closed "RESOLVED NOTABUG" because you don't need to fix journal corruptions -- journalctl can read the corrupt files and journald rotates the file it's writing if corruption is detected. Nobody suggested you delete the logs.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    34. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      In this case, the systemd detractor claims that systemd's log files become unreadable when they're corrupted . But the systemd supporter claims that the log files are readable with journalctl. Unfortunately, the supporter does not mention whether journalctl still works when the binary log file is corrupted . So, the systemd supporter may not be addressing the original concern of the detractor. Can somebody fill in the missing details?

      The theory is:

      Now, of course, having corrupted files isn't great, and we should make sure the files even when corrupted stay as accessible as possible. Hence: the code that reads the journal files is actually written in a way that tries to make the best of corrupted files, and tries to read of them as much as possible, with the the subset of the file that is still valid. We do this implicitly on every access.

      https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=64116#c3

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    35. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      What's to configure?

      systemd complains that starting Apache fails and shows the service as stopped but the process actually starts and Apache is working just fine, systemd apparently just doesn't know it?

      You were using the standard Debian sysvinit scripts before, and they worked, you're using the standard Debian apache2 service, it should just work. If it doesn't that's a bug. (Actualy, looking at it, apache2 is still using the init script -- there is no apache2.service).

      What does systemctl status apache2 show?

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    36. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      I'd get right on working on that, except that the way journald has been designed makes that pretty hard.

      Obviously another oversight by the systemd team.

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      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    37. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 1

      % ps auxw|grep -i systemd
      root 9394 0.0 0.0 51136 3480 ? Ss May04 0:00 /lib/systemd/systemd-udevd --daemon
      root 18897 0.0 0.0 43456 2664 ? Ss Apr08 0:00 /lib/systemd/systemd-logind

      there are some systemd procs on my system. how did they get there, then? it may not be a full suite, but that udevd thing was what went cpu bound.

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    38. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wait, isn't the whole point of the enforced use of cgroups by systemd to recognize and and handle this situation automatically?

    39. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's not your problem that systemd is trying to solve. It is the distros that want systemd. Doesn't matter how much pain it causes for users (thanks, Redhat!), the distros push it because it makes their work easier. Systemd would not exist if it was about making things better for users.

    40. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They are developed together with systemd, but they are not systemd.

    41. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      There's a simple solution for you: don't upgrade.

      For Gnome, it's really easy: just switch to MATE. It's Gnome2 by another name.

      For Windows, it's easy: just stick with 7.

      For systemd, it's easy: just switch to Slackware, or use an old version of your preferred distro.

    42. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      Stateless boot is nothing new in Linux. What the systemd developers want is to make Linux generic enough to make stateless boot work for those who needs it, instead of each and every developer group making their own proprietary tools. Stateless boot are mostly for embedded but also allow for some interesting network booted options.

      There is a lot of work to be done before it is possible, but with systemd people are at least working on it.

      Regarding the FHS and where to put things like using /run.
      systemd is only doing the sensible thing here. The FHS 2.0 is ancient, so the systemd way of doing things is likely to become FHS 3.0, and then it will be a Linux standard.

    43. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 1

      It isn't that simple. Using old versions isn't a viable option once security updates stop, and Slackware is not a option for a lot of scenarios (say running Oracle DB in the enterprise). Linux is not the novelty it once was

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    44. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Using old versions isn't a viable option once security updates stop,

      No problem, just do security updates yourself. You can backport fixes on your own, you don't need a distro to do it for you. Since you obviously know more than the distro maintainers (or else you wouldn't be disagreeing with their decision to adopt systemd), this shouldn't be a problem for you.

      Slackware is not a option for a lot of scenarios (say running Oracle DB in the enterprise).

      Then create your own distro.

      And how many anti-systemd people are running OracleDB in an enterprise anyway?

    45. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by x_t0ken_407 · · Score: 1

      Wow, did this seriously happen? SMH

    46. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      Bug report: Logs keep getting corrupted and cannot read them at all

      Rejected with reason: Delete the corrupted logs and move on

      I doubt that you can provide a link for that. Perhaps you are hinting to the RFE about "pruning" journal logs containing "corrupted" field values?

      SystemD - works well when it works, fails spectacularly when it fails.

      That is part of the Unix philosophy: (Rule of Repair : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...), or "if you have to fail, fail early and fail noisily". systemd is build around that; so if disks specified in fstab doesn't show up, it won't boot but give a rescue shell instead. This prevents silent data loss; a classic example of "Rule of Repair".

      Been using systemd on Fedora for several years now; it has been rock solid. systemd is just so much better than any alternative out there, and for every release it just keeps on getting better. I love its logging system and the easy and natural way it handles OS containers and system service management.

    47. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I guess you are complaining to the wrong people. Developers of systemd, GNOME 3, etc. aren't to blame for your situation, they just develop the software they'd like to use. You are in this situation because most of the people who criticize systemd do nothing but noise and blame other people. That's not how it works, you can't expect others to do the work for you.

    48. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Mousit · · Score: 1

      You joke, but systemd's default journal behavior is indeed to write ONLY to volatile storage (specifically into /run/log/journal which is a tmpfs volume in Debian), and Debian jessie's standard install actually keeps that default. Or it did at one point; I did a clean install on a new system before jessie went gold, so the defaults may have changed to something less stupid since then.

      I certainly hope so, because otherwise yes, at every jessie reboot, the journal is completely lost with no record of it retained anywhere.

      On my install I had to change that manually to have systemd write to persistent storage instead.

    49. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, for the better.

      Considering that this is the OP's entire point of contention, I'd say that's very much up for debate.

    50. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 1

      Plenty of us are, actually. And are running SAP, or any number of other enterprise applications that require stable servers to run on.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    51. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 1

      Ah yes, the developers of GNOME 3, that explicitly said "Having users is not our goal" and still Red Hat (Fedora) shoved it down the users throats? The people who criticize the situation are in this not because of doing nothing, because we were working on actual problems for others. We are here because someone who needed to justify their relevance to the world decided to attack 1 - a problem that wasn't being complained about and 2 - to write his own solution (a developer that does not have a good track record either) and thus reinvent the wheel when there are plenty of open source init alternatives out there (SMF, launchd, and upstart all come to mind).

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    52. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by ChrisMaple · · Score: 1

      I'm just barely able to get most things running the way I like them, and some things I just can't do (like compiling mplayer with all the options I want.). I despise systemd; it makes debugging terribly difficult. And you expect people like me to be able to tell which updates are for security, and which ones won't crash a release no longer supported? You expect me to be able to create my own distro? Not even close.

      --
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    53. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The focus on these states is going to come down to shipping proprietary apps from Redhat & Microsoft & others via containers that don't have to worry about loading LGPL libraries because they'll be communicating with them via kdbus. That's why they're bundling in all these strange services that don't make sense as far as an init system goes. Because the apps will be segmented away and only communicating with the libraries they want as a service, they've end-run the GPL while making money and making their platform a standard.

      Is it too late? I dunno. But I have a feeling a lot of people in the community don't realize what they are signing on for or where we're headed now.

    54. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      No problem, just find an enterprise vendor who makes a Linux distro that's to your liking (assuming your boss is OK with this, if not then you need to do what your boss tells you to).

      If there isn't such a vendor, then the free market has spoken!

    55. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 1

      If you think Linux is a free market you are mistaken. Red Hat IS Linux. They set the standards that everyone else follows.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    56. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      If you can't even compile mplayer yourself and obviously are not capable of making your own distro, then why on earth do you need to do any system-level debugging? Users like you need to just stick with an easy-to-use distro like Ubuntu.

    57. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      The folks at Debian would like to have a word with you over rpm vs. dpkg, among many other huge differences. Slackware and Gentoo and Arch also disagree.

    58. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 1

      Slackware counts as a fringe distro, let's face it. They are more like BSD then Linux. Gentoo is a meta distro, so that hardly counts. And Debian...let's see...did Debian adopt Systemd? Network Manager? PulseAudio? Should I continue down the list of Red Hat projects that are mainstream? Oh, and the Linux Standard base calls RPM the standard package.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    59. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      you've got, at most two years, mint.

      the pain will be trying to maintain both after their upstream sources remove support for upstart with their next version, and their upstream component projects start depending upon the new init system.... right now it is *possible* to run upstart on debian or ubuntu that now ship with systemd, but that will not be the case come debian 9 or ubuntu 15.10 or 16.04 (whenever uncle mark pulls the plug).

      you're just asking for a one-way ticket to dependency hell. embrace the change or change your upstream to bsd. I don't really care which, but upstart is dead. it was a canonical product.. ubuntu has switched, debian has switched, redhat has switched, fedora has switched, suse has switched. hop on the train or be left writing your own init system.

    60. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Slackware counts as a fringe distro, let's face it. They are more like BSD then Linux.

      So? What's the problem with that? If it suits you better than the "true" Linux distros like RH/Fedora or Debian, then why don't you use it? Why are you so determined to stick with Linux, even when all the dominant distros have taken a path you clearly don't agree with? All your screaming and yelling isn't likely to make them change course now.

      Oh, and the Linux Standard base calls RPM the standard package.

      The LSB has done that for well over a decade, and lots of distros (including Debian and all its derivatives) have never switched to RPM. So obviously, RPM isn't the standard.

    61. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Binary logs are a different matter. To read them at all, you need a matching decoding program.

      Of which there are many, and it is open source so you can even write your own or write a systemd patch to write the logs to text files rather than binary ones. It's all free software and still there's people just throwing their arms up and crying that it's all hopeless. What the hell was the point of free software if nobody can be arsed to actually do anything besides whining?

      And the damage to the logfiles must be within the limits of the decoding program's ability to skip around damage. You're probably not going to get anything usable from a raw sector dump.

      Of course you are, even most corrupted audio and video files just result in small glitches in the stream and even one codec implementation has a problem there's usually another that can recover it. The disadvantage they have is that most are closed-source protocols, the systemd log implementation is open source and free software.

      Here is a good resource for understanding journal files and as you can see, reading them is not particularly difficult, nor is validating it and skipping over any corrupted parts.

    62. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by exomondo · · Score: 1

      It isn't that simple. Using old versions isn't a viable option once security updates stop

      Well that's the whole mantra of Free Software, you can either fix it yourself or pay somebody else to fix it for you. So many people still don't understand it isn't meant to be a gratis, leeching ideology. It's gratis due to it being libre, this doesn't mean you're entitled to have everything your way for no cost. If people share your view so much that they produce what you want and you are able to leech off that then good for you but if not then you need to contribute to producing what you want.

    63. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      I can read almost anything _if I'm willing to invest the effort_. But it's another example of the "let's invent a new and unnecessary format, for no particular reason, that isn't compatible with any of the last few decades of stable, tested, robust tools". It also has _nothing_ to do with service or daemon management, which was the original reason that systemd was so widely acepted.

    64. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Restarting the same daemon, insistently, without the userland opportunity to manually restart the daemon log or wrap it in a debugger.

    65. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Then they should have published a proposed FHS. They're making this stuff up on the fly: putting detachable mountpoints under "/run", for example, was quite confusing: I can name more instances if needful.

    66. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Unfortunately, systemd has elected not to work on top of the existing standards. It is breaking everyone else's stable tools though unexpected and unannounced modifications of basic layout.

    67. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      The reorg of the FHS is quite needed in these days of OS containers, sandboxing and virtualization, so while placing stuff under "/run" is something new (part of the proposed FHS 3.0 standard btw), there are good technical reasons for it, including that /run is guaranteed to available from early boot (initramfs).

      I believe this re-org even predates systemd.

    68. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 1

      My friend, I never said I personally planned to stick with them for me. However, there are many things I like about Linux, and my own laptops run Fedora (I can't complain properly if I don't use it and send the developers feedback, now can I?) and Slackware. My home servers are now running IRIX and Solaris, and I have poked around with FreeBSD. For my current job I keep up with Red Hat and Solaris, for previous job I was mixed up in the major Linux distros (Fedora/Red Hat/Cent/Oracle, SuSE, Debian/Ubuntu/Mint), plus UNIX flavors (Solaris 8 - 10, HP-UX 11 - 11iv3, AIX 6.1 and 7.1, and FreeBSD). Fact is, I work with what keeps the bills paid.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    69. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by armanox · · Score: 1

      I'm beyond the point of caring about whether software is free. I care if it works. I also care what I get paid to care about. For years, GNU/Linux worked better for me then anything else I had. In recent years, it has fallen behind in quality, and the infighting has gotten worse.

      --
      I'm starting to think GNU is the problem with "GNU/Linux" these days.
    70. Re: The pain isn't in the switch by exomondo · · Score: 1

      I'm beyond the point of caring about whether software is free.

      Yes it is becoming clear, particularly from this systemd debacle, that it doesn't matter to most people.

      For years, GNU/Linux worked better for me then anything else I had. In recent years, it has fallen behind in quality, and the infighting has gotten worse.

      Then you can do something about it, use something else or take it as it is. If you want your chosen Linux distro the way it was then either pay somebody to backport fixes or do it yourself. All the options are there.

    71. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      So don't ask it to do that, then.

      You do know that the default is not to restart?

      And that even if you do and for that then the restart attempts are rate-limited, just like with traditional init(1).

      (Which is one of the biggest problems with the whole sysvinit horror -- it hardly uses the existing possibilities of init(1)).

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    72. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      I'm http://www.linuxbase.org/betas... open in front of me.

      Mountpoints for removable media are specified as going in "/media", not under "/run/l[whatever]/[userame]/media". While revising this now allows the attached to be mounted under a subdirectory belonging to a particular user and keeping other remotely connected users off the attached media, it creates additional complexities sharing that media. It can be made to work, but it destabilizes the path to the attached media.

      For "/run", the FHS says : "This directory contains system information data describing the system since it was booted. . Files under this directory must be cleared (removed or truncated as
      appropriate) at the beginning of the boot process." If the systemd authors were folowing the FHS, they'd have to delete the contents of /run on reboot. Not remount them: delete them.

      This is one of the typical problems of systemd: they are really making up their own standards and practices on the fly, in violations of anyone else's existing standards. New approaches can be beneficial, but many of the consequences are unclear, and it's breaking stable system software, and existing standards, everywhere.

    73. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      Oh god... life imitating art. I *was* joking as that's such a stupid, brain-dead behaviour.

      How else do you diagnose what caused your server to reboot if.. oh I despair.

    74. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      I assume you are talking about FHS 3.0 here, but remember, that is only a proposal, not a standard. Also note how the FHS 3.0 process has been stalled for years.
      The bottom line today is that there is FHS 2.3, and then everybody doing their own thing , perhaps with some cross-distro cooperating. The end result is no common formal standard for the FHS among the distros.

      Personally I don't think there will be a FHS 3.0 until the dust has settled regarding the current layout reorg,

      The reorg of the FHS that the systemd developer are doing, are caused by good technical reasons. Unix and later Linux have had several of these reorgs over the decades, and it is a process that probably never stops.

      So until the FHS reorg to make about OS containers, and stateless boot work in a sensible manner, the Linux FHS will be in a slight flux. Not a big problem really.
      I guess at some point somebody will make a FHS 3.X out of what the systemd distros does at some point in the future. Personally I prefer this approach of practise getting formalized into a standard. That way you are sure to have both a good working standard, and a standard that people actually use.

    75. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Until they publish a standard for the layout changes, they're winging it. There is no document that I can find that details the overall changes: it's all "read the code" or "I announced it on this mailing list that only a few people read".

    76. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      The systemd requirements for the file system is documented here:
      http://www.freedesktop.org/wik...
      These are rather simple requirements and probably very close to the old FHS 3.0 proposal, I think /run is the only new thing here compared to FHS 2.3

      AFAIK, all other changes of the FHS are merely suggestions like getting extra OS container features when using btrfs, and in case of stateless boot, something for the future. Systemd will continue to work for Linux distros that don't care for stateless boot etc.

    77. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by hitmark · · Score: 1

      So in essence the "wise" men of Gnome took the already questionable gconf, that used XML files, and turned it into the binary files based dconf...

      Fuck it, i'm going back to XFWM...

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    78. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by hitmark · · Score: 1

      In Poettering's world you don't diagnose, you just restart and keep on trucking. It is uptime by machinegun devops.

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    79. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by hitmark · · Score: 1

      Poettering's standard reaction to something breaking because of changes introduced by systemd seem to be akin to Jobs and antennagate, "you are doing/holding it wrong".

      Ran into a email a few days ago in relation to systemd trampling libvirt cgroup configs. It could basically summarized to "libvirt needs to supplicant itself before systemd".

      It is the same kind of ivory tower attitude as we could see back when systemd would DOS the kernel if the kernel command line contained the debug flag.

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    80. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by hitmark · · Score: 1

      Or know it but accept it either because of some star eyed idealism (we can make the desktop so much better!!!) or simple greed (many of them work directly for RH after all).

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    81. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Those are "the systemd requirements for the filesystem", what systemd needs. It provides no clarity about what goes _in_ those directories, nor why, Compare this checklist with the actual FHS documents, and you'll see the distinction. The result is confusion, such as the systemd migration of "/media" attachable storage to the individual user's owned subdiroectories in "/run".

      Allow me to restate your comment:

      > Systemd will continue to work for Linux distros that don't care for stateless boot etc

      Rather, systemd will continue to re-arrange, and break, stable subsystems without warning to the user communities. OTher examples abound. For example, the new replacement for /etc/resolv.conf says at http://www.tin.org/bin/man.cgi...

                Note that /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf should not be used directly but only through a symlink from /etc/resolv.conf.

      Who's going to maintain the symlink? If any sysadmin unsuspectingly edits that file directly and breaks the symlink, or exposes their system to puppet, cfengine, chef, or any other system tool that manages /etc/resolv.conf, does it break the link? And what restores the link if it's broken? If the link is broken, DHCP updates to /etc/resolv.conf will no longer be effectively published by the sytemd based DHCP client.

      I'm not even going to mention what happens if you accidentally follow generations of sytem standard behavior and install NTP alongside an active systemd NTP daemon. It's not a pretty site, and the accumulated clock management confusion if they're not pointed to the same NTP servers can break Kerberos authentication in startlingly short order.

    82. Re:The pain isn't in the switch by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      Those are "the systemd requirements for the filesystem", what systemd needs. It provides no clarity about what goes _in_ those directories, nor why,

      Yes, those are the basics for systemd to work. Again, rather simple requirements. It doesn't state what goes into what, because this is something the distros dictate, not systemd. The systemd developers can merely suggest where to put things, but distros won't necessarily follow those suggestions.

      systemd is designed with different distro policies in mind, so they provide "Presets" to help facilitate the different policies and needs of different distros:
      http://freedesktop.org/wiki/So...

      Compare this checklist with the actual FHS documents, and you'll see the distinction. The result is confusion, such as the systemd migration of "/media" attachable storage to the individual user's owned subdiroectories in "/run".

      The FHS is primarily concerned about directory layout, not so much the content of these. And there is nothing in FHS 3.0 that contradict the slightest that user attached storage is mounted in the /run hierarchy.
      All such disc layout reorgs of the distro I have tried, have been discussed on mailing lists etc. before they are implemented. Again, this is something the distros dictate, not systemd.

      Allow me to restate your comment:

      > Systemd will continue to work for Linux distros that don't care for stateless boot etc

      Rather, systemd will continue to re-arrange, and break, stable subsystems without warning to the user communities.

      Come on. It is the distros that dictates exactly what features systemd have turned on, and how the FH layout is. There are no systemd developers sneaking into the distro repos at night and secretly turning on features without documenting them.

      You may not follow the eg. development mailing list of your distro where such things are discussed, nor care about reading release notes. But Linux distros have always evolved this way, with new ways of doing things, often from release to release.

      OTher examples abound. For example, the new replacement for /etc/resolv.conf says at http://www.tin.org/bin/man.cgi...

      Note that /run/systemd/resolve/resolv.conf should not be used directly but only through a symlink from /etc/resolv.conf.

      I fail to see how this in any way breaks any stable subsystem.
      1. systemd-resolved is an entirely optional feature. If the distros don't want it, they can just turn it off.
      2. Whatever its /etc /run requirements is, this is a new feature, not a change of something old and stable. So it doesn't break anything at all.

      I really don't think you can give just a single non-contrieved example of how systemd are breaking stable subsystems for users without warning.

      While more documentation is always better, I think the systemd project is way better documented than most other software projects, and certainly much better documented than many people think it is.

      I'm not even going to mention what happens if you accidentally follow generations of sytem standard behavior and install NTP alongside an active systemd NTP daemon. It's not a pretty site, and the accumulated clock management confusion if they're not pointed to the same NTP servers can break Kerberos authentication in startlingly short order.

      Running two NTP-clients at the same time was an amazingly stupid thing to do even pre-systemd. AFAIK, systemd per default tries to avoid this by using "conflict" statements in the service files, so if one NTP client or daemon is run, the others are suppressed.
      I don't think eg. SysV

  2. Year of the Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, is 2015 going to be the Year of Linux on Desktop yet??????

    1. Re:Year of the Linux by jeremyp · · Score: 5, Funny

      Linux is merely the kernel used by systemd. The correct name of the operating system is systemd/GNU/Linux.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    2. Re:Year of the Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure it should be GNU/systemd/Linux....

    3. Re:Year of the Linux by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      Not quite - more likely 2015 will be year of FreeBSD on the server instead.

    4. Re:Year of the Linux by stooo · · Score: 2, Funny

      No. Systemd will integrate the GNU environment completely. Soon.

      --
      aaaaaaa
    5. Re:Year of the Linux by Loki_1929 · · Score: 1

      What needs to happen first is for major software vendors to begin supporting it. That's when you'll see enterprises at least begin to consider it.

      --
      -- "Government is the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else."
    6. Re:Year of the Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And by major software, you mean Outlook (and the rest of MS Office). That's pretty much what keeps most of enterprises tied to Windows/OSX these days.

    7. Re:Year of the Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Enterprises on OSX? You're delusional.

    8. Re:Year of the Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. Systemd will integrate the GNU environment completely. Soon.

      s/integrate/assimilate/g

    9. Re:Year of the Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Major software vendors such as? I think you'll find most of the software used on Linux servers is supported on FreeBSD as well

  3. But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why would anyone choose systemd if it is optional?

    1. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because a whole new, integrated and stramlined Linux user experience!

    2. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because many don't know the other system is an option or that what that option means. Systemd is probably the default. Also i looked at one distribution (can't remember which) which also offered another system as optional to systemd and it was just too much to do.

    3. Re:But... by antiperimetaparalogo · · Score: 0

      Why would anyone choose systemd if it is optional?

      Because some people acknowledge its technical qualities, even if they understand the need for the "ideological" debate - but don't believe most of the things you read about it (especially in Slashdot!), since the criticism for its technical qualities (and the need -or not- for it) is usually a reaction caused by the "ideological" debate (so, not a honest -technical- criticism...).

      I may choose systemd for my non-work machine(s).

      --
      Antisthenes: "Wisdom begins by examining the words/names." - excuse my English, i am (slightly...) better with my Greek!
    4. Re:But... by gbjbaanb · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To be fair, Linux has always been multiple components that you can chose which one suits you best - whether its vi or emacs, gnome or kde, sendmail or postfix, apache or nginx, etc

      This is a good thing, where you can swap out component A for B for any reason, and keeps the project competing with each other to get better and better.

      If only you could swap out Systemd so easily, things would be great.

    5. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right. The original post's "...will be the default and only option" makes me wonder:

      Since when is "the default and only option" an option?
      And no, I for one don't welcome our new systemd overlords. No, sir. Not at all. :-(

    6. Re:But... by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Insightful

      because some software expects it and doesn't run without it.
      shit software, but software anyways.

      that's whats bad about it, really. it's just not a startup replacement but one that aims to turn developers into developing software that can't work without it,, without trouble.

      why would startup utility provide user authentication? to conquer everything of course.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
    7. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's worse than that. Parts of of systemd are (someday) going to be very useful.

      Other parts are a step in the wrong direction next to a cliff.

      The problem being, systemd doesn't support plug-replaceable parts. You can have it in any color you want, as long as it's solid black.

    8. Re:But... by Gr8Apes · · Score: 2

      Sounds more like Microsoft got into the Linux world.

      --
      The cesspool just got a check and balance.
    9. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pick one and go with it. Given the support for systemd (by people who matter, not trolls), it seems the logical choice.

      You would like that, wouldn't you.

      No. The logical choice is to go with something that can be swapped out, such as anything non-systemd.

    10. Re:But... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Yes and no. Certainly what you say is generally true. But there have been some components that were sticky. For example GCC was sticky and distributions had to pick a fork. Certainly EGCS vs. GCC2 was sticky and you couldn't swap without changing components. In the early days KDE and Gnome apps didn't run or didn't run well in each other's environments. There wasn't an easy way to swap on an individual level. Picking your example of Emacs one of the classic choices: X-Emacs vs. Emacs were not easy swaps and generally you couldn't have both. TeX is famous for incompatibilities.

      The reason Systemd won so decisively is the other projects for an advanced init replacement failed. Had OpenRC been earlier, had upstart not floundered we are looking at a situation much closer to Gnome vs. KDE. Today we have a situation much closer to what the world would have looked like if there had been no Gnome project: old fashioned window managers and you have one GUI, KDE. In such a situation almost all of the distributions would have been KDE distributions...

    11. Re:But... by ookaze · · Score: 1

      The better question is why bother supporting two sets of packages and scripts that accomplish precisely the same thing. Pick one and go with it. Given the support for systemd (by people who matter, not trolls), it seems the logical choice.

      It's a good thing that they bother if they have the workforce, which they seem to have.
      There's no problem with that, gentoo is doing the same thing.
      As long as they are also going with systemd so that when the burden of initscripts is unbearable they're not stuck with an even bigger moutain to climb, it will go well. It will still be really painful for initscripts users though.
      For now, the chasm isn't so big, it will really be huge when kdbus enters a Linux kernel release, even in experimental.

    12. Re:But... by ookaze · · Score: 1

      because some software expects it and doesn't run without it.
      shit software, but software anyways.

      that's whats bad about it, really. it's just not a startup replacement but one that aims to turn developers into developing software that can't work without it,, without trouble.

      why would startup utility provide user authentication? to conquer everything of course.

      You're right of course. Fortunately, the startup utility systemd (PID 1) doesn't provide user authentication, so you and I can sleep well at night while using systemd.
      Some people will tell you that PAM is no better, but that's what most distribution use these days. But if you want and are knowledgeable enough, you can make a system without PAM for user authentication too.

    13. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They wouldn't, which is precisely why it isn't. Pottering is a negomaniac.

    14. Re:But... by gbjbaanb · · Score: 1

      I thought it was a close call on init systems (and to be fair, systemd isn't exactly the mature, rock-solid solution a replacement init should be!)

      The votes for a replacement on the Debian list should have gone with Upstart IMHO as it was the most popular option, although only 1st choice for 2 of the people who mattered.

      Still, it doesn't really matter now - what does matter is that the init system is rock-solid, has buy-in from the customer base (ie the community who use Linux, including server admins) and doesn't require too much re-training to understand and administer it. I'm not sure it has any of those 3 currently.

    15. Re:But... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      I thought it was a close call on init systems (and to be fair, systemd isn't exactly the mature, rock-solid solution a replacement init should be!)

      It depends when you mean. The first vote upstart and OpenRC were falling behind. By the second vote they were far behind. There was no viable replacement. At that point the question was
      a) Whether to support multiple init systems
      b) Whether to unify

      There weren't many upstream dependencies so this was close. Then the upstream dependencies started to spread like wildfire through Debian and the choice became:

      a) Spend a ton of resources fighting the tide and offering multiple systems. Unclear how to do this.
      b) Switch at Jessie
      c) Hold out for one more version

      There were some subtle aspects but mainly it was never really close. Systemd pulled way ahead and created dependencies.

      The votes for a replacement on the Debian list should have gone with Upstart IMHO as it was the most popular option

      Again when? By the time of the final vote, by now upstart isn't viable.

      Still, it doesn't really matter now - what does matter is that the init system is rock-solid, has buy-in from the customer base (ie the community who use Linux, including server admins) and doesn't require too much re-training to understand and administer it. I'm not sure it has any of those 3 currently.

      That's not going to be the criteria. I don't think init based systems are all that stable. Closer using your list is going to be:

      a) Has buy in from the developer base
      b1) offer a total environment that is more stable than init's
      b2) Is designed to be a standard API replaceable with an IaaS for better stability without applications needing to be changed
      c) Be easy to administer.

      The 1990s concept of stability where one is worried about the stability of individual instances is being replaced by the virtualization concept of cloud stability.

    16. Re:But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds more like Microsoft got into the Linux world.

      Yes, Redhat is pulling a Microsoft. Both companies need to die in fire.

    17. Re:But... by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Uh, if you can pick something other than systemd, and you can, then systemd can be "swapped out".

      So, by your criteria, systemd is a valid choice.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    18. Re:But... by DrXym · · Score: 1

      You can't compare some software on the periphery, in user land to a core component like the pid 1 bootstrap. There is very little reason to support two solutions. It just complicates maintenance and packaging and yields virtually no benefit for the dist, the end user or the overall experience.

    19. Re:But... by DrXym · · Score: 1

      People say systemd isn't "rock solid", but I've yet to see any demonstration of that. Major distributions have switched to it, and have been running it successfully for years now.

  4. Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The reason that "nobody put up a fight" is because every intelligent Linux user has seen systemd for the disaster that it is, and they've moved to FreeBSD, PC-BSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD or DragonFly BSD months ago. The only Linux users left are the ones who'd be just as happy using Windows, which is pretty much what they get when using a modern GNU/Systemd/Linux distro.

    1. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And this is such a bad thing? Linux is a wonderful operating system if you have the time and patience to learn every facet of the entire toolchain. Sadly, most of the rest of the world doesn't have the time. patience or ability to learn. Instead, they need something that works now, not after they have spent hours figuring out why they can't get a sound driver to work, or figure out how to install the latest patch.

      If you don't like systemd, then follow the most common advice given in any other Linux support forum...develop something better and push to get it included in your favorite distro's next release. Nuff. said. Enough folks have found the utility offered by systemd to be more than adequate for the needs of most of the people out there. Is it elegant? Does it follow the *nix philosophy? Most definitely not. But it works, and it is getting broad support so the parts that aren't working correctly are quickly being fixed. Which is more than could be said for a lot of other parts of the Linux environment.

      And this is why Linux will not rule the desktop and forever remain in the server room. Until the community can come together and develop a cohesive strategy to create an operating system for the rest of the world, proprietary developers will continue to push out Windows or Mac OS which can fulfill those needs, and people will continue to migrate to iOS and Android (which is Google's proprietary playground, open source or not).

      News flash...Microsoft has decided to join the band too. Windows 10 will most likely end up with a free or community version of some sort, and the runway that Linux had to gain a foothold on the desktop (especially for the corporate world) will come to an abrupt end. Wake up, folks! Get your shit in gear and either get behind, or get out in front and make a better alternative! I would recommend getting in front, forking systemd and reworking it back into a more *nix tool. If I had more time on my plate, I would put in own $0.02 here.

    2. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by squiggleslash · · Score: 1

      I'm sorry, but what? This has to be the most amazing amount of wishful thinking I've ever seen. If it were true, expect the various *BSD communities to be having a mini-freakout right now as they try to handle a massive influx of people completely unfamiliar with how BSD does things, and who - having switched solely because of 'init' - are finding that BSD's version is even less like sysvinit than systemd.

      And unless Windows has become amazingly secure and sanely designed over the last few years, I think it's safe to say that systemd is completely unlike anything Windows has to offer.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by ookaze · · Score: 1

      The reason that "nobody put up a fight" is because every intelligent Linux user has seen systemd for the disaster that it is, and they've moved to FreeBSD, PC-BSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD or DragonFly BSD months ago. The only Linux users left are the ones who'd be just as happy using Windows, which is pretty much what they get when using a modern GNU/Systemd/Linux distro.

      So I'm a unintelligent Linux user that is happoy using Windows to you.
      You should revise your hypothesis, as you're plain wrong in my case: I just can't stand using Windows, the latest one I've used is Win7 though, and I can't stand using it as it doesn't work correctly. I can assure you none of the Linux I use/make/administer are like Windows, I actually understand how they work far more than any Windows I ever used, and they don't crash like Windows.

    4. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Never had a windows 7/8/8.1 BSOD. You either have faulty hardware or you have buggy drivers. But, I once had the explorer.exe not working and my whole desktop including the taskbar disappeared for a few seconds but recovered and it was caused by some other program I was using. But the majority of freezing, whole DE crashing and needing ctrl+alt+f2 to restart it, video glitches, etc... have been all on linux and bsd do to buggy software not physical hardware issues. You want Windows security just run as a standard user.

    5. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by byuu · · Score: 1

      What are you talking about? The FreeBSD forums have a ton of news members lately, all moving away from systemd. Including myself.

      And rc.d is absolutely nothing like systemd. It's far more like SysVinit in that it's just an init system, and not a (DNS server, binary logging system, network time daemon, login daemon, console daemon, HTTP server, QR-code generator, hardware device manager, etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc.) Only rc.d is far simpler and nicer than SysVinit. It's a thing of beauty. I set up an HTTP daemon by making a text file with five lines of text in it. See for yourself.

    6. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Except Redhat is working hard at making Linux such that you don't understand a lot how it works (or that it's getting consistently harder to understand it), that it crashes pretty much like and from same dumbass reasons that Windows does, and most of the rest of the industry is undermanned and/or not interested in this enough to provide alternatives. Journald binary logs, dconf binary configuration and all complications that dbus is are all steps exactly in that direction, and they have all become unaviodable components of most modern Linux distributions.

    7. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      Uhm... Have you actually LOOKED at FreeBSD? It's even more aggressive than systemd in pulling dependencies into the core tree!

    8. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by byuu · · Score: 1

      Which is probably why FreeBSD is an OS and Linux is a kernel.

      The difference is that I trust and support the decisions of the FreeBSD leadership. I cannot say the same for Lennart Poettering.

    9. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      And why do you trust FreeBSD developers?

    10. Re:Everybody good has moved to the BSDs. by byuu · · Score: 1

      Because I investigate the designs chosen, and find myself agreeing with them. For just one example, take the design of /dev/random => http://en.wikipedia.org/?title...

      I've been looking, but so far I haven't found a Linux vs FreeBSD difference where I thought, "wow, Linux does this a whole lot better." I'm sure they exist, and that I'll come across them eventually.

      If there comes a time when I feel the FreeBSD devs start doing a bunch of crazy things as well, then I'll start investigating Minix, Hurd, Haiku, etc.

      I'm not really even that bothered by the Linux kernel choices, but damned if I'm using Poettering's garbage again after suffering through PulseAudio.

  5. Yeah mint! by BlackPignouf · · Score: 4, Insightful

    One more reason to use Mint.
    That's the best they could do out of this situation.

    1. Re:Yeah mint! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Precisely. I can't get that everyone and his dog is rolling over and playing dead with this. They *ALL* remember what came of all of Lennart's OTHER projects. Stuff looking for problems to realistically solve. Stuff that's still not QUITE "right" and the man, rather than finishing the job, moves on to the next disaster. This is no different. This has no place in a "mission critical" space- and yet they're letting them do it. I question the sanity of Red Hat in bankrolling this travesty and then jamming it down our throats in the FIRST damn place. Just like with PulseAudio. No compelling anything, really, and the proponents keep thinking that network service on this little userland mixer feature (which should've been a service of the DRIVER layer for one piece, the mixer) is the greatest thing- when it's part of the latency problems with sound. First hint it's stupid...Android doesn't use it.

    2. Re:Yeah mint! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The point is that they'll do it when it's appropriate while still offering it to people who want to choose to use it.

    3. Re:Yeah mint! by Feral+Nerd · · Score: 4, Insightful

      One more reason to use Mint. That's the best they could do out of this situation.

      The thing about staying neutral in a war of religion is that you run the risk of being branded a heretic by both sides.

    4. Re:Yeah mint! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well my point was that, if you don't want to use systemd, then continuing on using mint is not an option for too long. Sure it's awesome that they give that option now, i'm not denying that.

    5. Re:Yeah mint! by bakedbread · · Score: 1

      One more reason to use Mint. That's the best they could do out of this situation.

      The thing about staying neutral in a war of religion is that you run the risk of being branded a heretic by both sides.

      Except that Debian support both, too. It is more about communication (marketing it), then anything else.

    6. Re: Yeah mint! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What if it's never appropriate to use systemd?

    7. Re:Yeah mint! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One more reason to use Mint. That's the best they could do out of this situation.

      The thing about staying neutral in a war of religion is that you run the risk of being branded a heretic by both sides.

      Except that Debian support both, too. It is more about communication (marketing it), then anything else.

      Once each side gets fed up with you playing both sides and demands you take a stand it boils down to the same thing. I refer you to what happened to the Tucows freeware/shareware download site back in the day, they got so fed up with being shot at by all sorts of different factions within the BSD community (their own words) that they pulled their BSD section.

    8. Re:Yeah mint! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Stuff that's still not QUITE "right" and the man, rather than finishing the job, moves on to the next disaster.

      But... but... but that's agile! Surely you're passionate about keeping up your skill set with the latest agile development fads^H^H^H^Htrends^H^H^H^H^Hmethodologies!

    9. Re:Yeah mint! by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Informative

      The reason so many distros have adopted systemd is because it fills a need: it does something useful for them. This topic has been exposited. In the second link, note how much shorter the unit file is than the init script. That is why distro maintainers have adopted systemd, because they have to write less code.

      So Lennart found something people needed, and built it. That's why people adopted it. You don't have to like systemd, but you should at least understand why it's been adopted.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    10. Re:Yeah mint! by BlackPignouf · · Score: 1

      Great quote, thanks.
      With the exact same arguments (basically, I'm for the inalienable right of existence for Israel, but against colonialism and disproportionate strikes against civilians), I've been labeled a terrorist, an antisemite or a sionist, depending on whom I talk to.

    11. Re:Yeah mint! by 0123456 · · Score: 1

      The reason so many distros have adopted systemd is because it fills a need: it does something useful for them.

      Like what?

    12. Re:Yeah mint! by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      Read the links provided, please.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    13. Re:Yeah mint! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Except that Debian support both, too. It is more about communication (marketing it), then anything else.

      They don't really support both — there's no way to avoid systemd at some point in the installation (although you can yank it in preseed) without installing wheezy, pinning it, and upgrading. And they didn't exactly announce how to avoid it in the install.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:Yeah mint! by hitmark · · Score: 1

      Agile is old school. Its all devops now, gramps.

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  6. Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I've been learning more about systemd lately, and I'm liking what I'm seeing. It's cohesive, yet it's completely modular. It's modern. Its binary log files make debugging easier. It's getting more and more critical functionality every day, and this makes my Linux system easier to use each time I update it.

    The deeper I dig into systemd, and the more I use it, the more I question why we even need the GNU utilities and the Linux kernel.

    I hope to see the most useful parts of the GNU toolchain and the most useful parts of the Linux kernel folded into systemd eventually. This way I don't have to install a Linux distro. I can just install systemd itself, and it will give me everything I need.

    If my computer boots directly to systemd, and systemd provides the command line tools and the UI, then my boot time will be shaved down to almost nothing, and I'll get to use some really nice and modular command line tools. I won't have to try to remember awkward shell, sed, grep, and awk commands and their flags, because if systemd provided alternatives, I know they would be easier to use.

    I've found that systemd is all about empowering me, as a user. It's about letting me get more done with less effort. GNU and Linux aren't always about that. They're about doing things for philosophical reasons, or for scratching an itch of their developers. Systemd is all about getting work done, which is why I've found it to be so useful. If it can do the things that the GNU toolchain and the Linux kernel are doing, but it can do them better, then I'd prefer just to use systemd directly.

    1. Re:Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Take note modern shitposters. This is what a good troll looks like.

      If everyone who wants to derail a discussion would put in as much effort as this the Internet would be saved.

    2. Re:Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm not just the president of Systemd, I'm a client.

    3. Re:Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Another interesting architecture would be having Hurd as the kernel and all SystemD's services as microkernel modules.

    4. Re:Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's not. That was clearly humor. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll) And I can't believe I'm quoting wikipedia but I don't give enough of a damn to do more.

    5. Re:Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But systemd is far too advanced and mature for integration in HURD. It will take at least 70 years of unreliability engineering to get it to a state where it can be integrated. And don't expect it to be finished before... hm.... how does next century sound to you?

    6. Re:Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      You've just described BusyBox - it's been with us for about 15 years. Yet the sky hasn't fallen.

    7. Re:Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by wasteoid · · Score: 1

      Modern Shitposters - I think I have one of their CDs.

    8. Re:Are the "GNU" and "Linux" parts still needed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like it would still lack a decent text editor though...

  7. Pick one by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Pick one and go with it.

    That's exactly what I'm doing. You are free to pick the one you like, but you have no say on which one I'm picking.

  8. But... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Can it run Linux?

  9. No one put up a fight?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    15.04 was junk. It broke two machines, destroyed settings and I could NOT load the software that was needed even from scratch. The software required UPSTART API, that systemd (d for dumb?) did not provide.

    Systemd is failure on consumer support and community support. The forced broken transition was a mess. Now, what will happen 16.04 LTS.do to the installed based for server class machines where software patches follow proven methods... Will systemd hose them too??

    YEAH I will be modded down for talking bad about systemd. But the truth hurts.

    1. Re:No one put up a fight?? by Junta · · Score: 2

      Right now the 'debate' is in full on 'no true scotsman' fallacy mode. No *real* users are complaining, so all people who *sound* like they are complaining need to shut up. If you complain, you must not be a *true* user.

      --
      XML is like violence. If it doesn't solve the problem, use more.
    2. Re:No one put up a fight?? by osiaq · · Score: 0

      Nothing to fight. I got excellent professional linux full of binaries but with no-hassle-whatsoever desktop environment, the most stable I ever worked with. It's free as a beer and came preinstalled with my MacBook Pro. Yosemite. I encourage everyone: if you choose the binary Linux - choose the best one. Just not for servers.

  10. Phew! by Grindalf · · Score: 1

    Oh man, that's good news. Those people who were dragging their feet had me going up the wall. Init's had it's day, it fleeces me out with time consuming problems ...

    --
    The purpose of existence is to make money.
  11. so... by hitmark · · Score: 1

    How long before they have to replace anything beyond the GNU stuff with something out of the 90s to avoid dragging in the systemd shoggoth via some dependency or other?

    --
    comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    1. Re:so... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      I'd guess about 5 years to you'll need to be on anti-systemd distributions that have hundreds of upstream packages they don't support or only support with lesser known (less supported) compile options. Upstream is aggressively putting systemd dependencies in, Linux software has chains of dependencies. So distributions like Crux and Alpine will have to become very aggressive about "no".

  12. Re:Systemd detractors are like climate change deni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Only people who have yet to do the switch have a reason to complain.
    If people who complain switch over to a different dist then there is no real reason for them to complain anymore. What is left is the trolls who only complain for the sake of complaining.

  13. Re:Systemd detractors are like climate change deni by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    And you are just a troll trying to control the direction of conversation away off topic to some religious bullshit.

  14. Re:Systemd detractors are like climate change deni by sjames · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Actually, it seems quite the opposite. We have the systemd crowd claiming that it's simpler even when there is a whole new level of complexity in systemd they don't even know about (hint, look for the systemd craziness in /lib). Like the climate change deniers, they believe that since they haven't personally seen a problem in their simple and vanilla system that there isn't a problem at all.

  15. I hope they do this properly & publish the res by Zocalo · · Score: 2

    Mint is a fairly popular and stable distro, so they've got a great opportunity to get some hard data on the whole systemd thing. Hopefully the choice of default and how the choice is presented to users is done in an even handed manner (maybe randomized like MS did with the EU browser selection ballot in Windows) and they are gathering some stats. Even though there's no chance of it ending the dispute, I'd be really curious to see the the answers to these:

    How many users choose Upstart?
    How many users choose systemd?
    How many users choose Upstart when it's not the default option?
    How many users choose systemd when it's not the default option?
    How many more downloads does this release get than a typical release (potentially indicating people switching from other systemd-only distros), if any?

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  16. Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    systemd is an abomination.

    Linux's benefit for a long time now has been the ability to swap functionality out you don't like for other functionality that you do. I don't know who in their right mind thought it was okay to move critical system infrastructure systems (init, time, logging, etc) into the hands of an untested piece of software which clearly has very deep issues, written mostly by a developer who has a track record of making extraordinarily poor choices in software development and writing poor code.

    What's stunning to me is that smart people in leadership positions in a variety of distributions have decided to support such an asinine system. What's even more stunning is that Lennart didn't stop them, realizing his code was not appropriate in production environments and doing the responsible thing, which is to say "We're far from ready". systemd's position as PID 1 on Linux systems creates an enormous SPOF given the complexity of the code. The only sane position systemd developers can take is "we're not ready, please don't use this even as a test in your released distributions".

    For all practical purposes, the rapid and unseemly adoption of systemd means that many enterprises running distributions that now rely upon systemd have to make the decision to not trust their distribution any more if they consider their systems mission critical. This is going to make people move to FreeBSD, Oracle, Windows, non-systemd distributions, microservice/microkernels, etc in rapid fashion. It is going to literally kill Linux for the people who have not yet figured out how to deal with the loss of machines (the majority of the enterprise world). And that may be a good thing, in the sense that Linux has in many ways become indistinguishable and directionless in the sea of operating system options. It tries to be far too many things to far too many people.

    Lennart likes to whine about how much the community hates him and how much people take it out on him personally. Reality is that outside of a few people who take it much too far, the reason people don't like Lennart is because he makes poor decisions with poor forethought and his advocacy and arrogance for his own approach have a seriously negative effect on a great many people, enterprises, and efforts. He likes to think he is a genius and we simply don't understand his vision, but for a great many people, his vision is the antithesis of what we like about Linux and Unix. Systemd developers don't understand the arguments of simplicity, composability, and small programs that do one thing well.

    The truth is the fault doesn't rely totally upon Lennart and his team: Some of the blame can also be assigned to Linus for poor stewardship, but Linus has a set of complex motives and organizations that influence him. Linus should have killed this stuff much earlier.

    I think in a few years, we'll realize what a mistake we made in giving Mr. Poettering any chance of credibility in operating system software development.
    I hope it comes sooner rather than later.

  17. Year of the Linux Desktop delayed.. by waldozer · · Score: 1

    Thousands of Windows user trying to switch to Mint our stuck on the "Green Screen of Indecision", not having a clue to use systemd or not!

  18. I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

    It's a fact that the fix for corrupt logs, which systemd will often corrupt if you power-cycle your system, is to delete them and throw them away. https://lwn.net/Articles/621453/ https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2013-July/185702.html It's a fact that systemd will only sometimes recover any part of its bullshit binary logs, and only any part after any error. So if journald truncates a file because it shits itself, which it has been known to do, then you lose the whole log.

    Moderators, you might want to familiarize yourself with the festering pile of shit which is Lennart Poettering, as well as the pile of crap which is systemd, before you moderate any systemd discussions. Because you clearly have no idea what you're doing.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    1. Re:I like how this got marked troll by phantomfive · · Score: 3, Funny

      Moderators, you might want to familiarize yourself with the festering pile of shit which is Lennart Poettering, as well as the pile of crap which is systemd, before you moderate any systemd discussions.

      Please, tell us how you really feel! It's not clear to me from this sentence.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Please, tell us how you really feel! It's not clear to me from this sentence.

      The way I really feel is that I'm currently building Linux From Scratch.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:I like how this got marked troll by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      That's actually pretty cool. Why not use Slackware or something though?

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    4. Re:I like how this got marked troll by jbssm · · Score: 0

      Sincerely, all this hate towards systemd looks like pure zealotry.

      True, I know very little about the inner workings of systemd so I'm not qualified to vouch or to go against it. But well, I'm pretty sure that the collective intelligence of: Ubuntu, RedHat, Debian, CentOS, etc, etc, etc, creators that choose to use systemd in their distributions and even of Linus Torvald that already stated that systemd just isn't the anti-christ you try to make it look to be, surely surpasses yours or any of the systemd hatters that keep starting flame wars about it here in ./

      True, like any piece of software, systemd surely must have issues (binary logs seem like one) that should be fixed or parts that may be improved, but all this constant bashing from some members against it, is just purely irrational.

      Linux is open, if you hate systemd so much, just make your own distro and watch all the users flock to your world of paradise void of systemd... or not. In any case, normal users and readers of /. are sick and tired of your constant rantings about systemd.

    5. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      That's actually pretty cool. Why not use Slackware or something though?

      I don't feel like Slackware offers me enough management to be useful over just raw Linux. Even it includes stuff I don't really feel I need. I could of course be using gentoo, and I'll probably take a look at that again soon. Last time I tried to follow the directions, and I'm pretty good at that mind you, I couldn't actually get the system built. I think that's because I added in a few too many flags, but if the selling point is that you get it how you want it, then the published USE flags should probably work. But hey, maybe I'm just being too critical. What they're doing is non-trivial.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sincerely, all this hate towards systemd looks like pure zealotry.

      Yeah, that's what they said about our love for Linux in the first place. Now that it's successful, and specific people are helping specific corporations gain undue control of it and at the expense of quality, they say it again about our desire to protect what made us care about it in the first place. We love Unixlikes which are actually "like Unix" ("The Unix Way", blah blah blah) not solely for aesthetic reasons, but for specific technical reasons which systemd compromises.

      True, like any piece of software, systemd surely must have issues (binary logs seem like one) that should be fixed or parts that may be improved, but all this constant bashing from some members against it, is just purely irrational.

      It's constantly being bashed by "some members" of the community because it's still a problem. It's not like we pointed out the problems and they were fixed, or the community rejected it. We pointed out real problems which were summarily ignored, and which are now becoming real problems for more people. This is not production-quality software. I am not in theory against everything they are trying to do, but I am absolutely against the way they are trying to do it, and who is trying to do it as he has proven both his incompetence and unwillingness to consider user feedback in the past.

      In any case, normal users and readers of /. are sick and tired of your constant rantings about systemd.

      Riiiiight, that's why we keep having these massive arguments about systemd, because you are all so tired of it. Just like you don't need the FCC to take things off the air because you can change the channel, you don't need us to stop discussing systemd and why it's literally both bad and wrong. You can just skip the discussion.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:I like how this got marked troll by ookaze · · Score: 0

      It's a fact that the fix for corrupt logs, which systemd will often corrupt if you power-cycle your system, is to delete them and throw them away. https://lwn.net/Articles/621453/ https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2013-July/185702.html It's a fact that systemd will only sometimes recover any part of its bullshit binary logs, and only any part after any error. So if journald truncates a file because it shits itself, which it has been known to do, then you lose the whole log.

      Your facts are plain lies, any sysadmin can see that. systemd does not corrupt logs when you power-cycle your system either, the fact of power cycling your system is actually what corrupts your file-system, and that's not even always the case.
      Stop using "data=writeback" on your ext4 FS, take the performance hit and start using "data=ordered" instead of spreading lies, perhaps your FS will leave you alone then.
      Up to this morning, I used the journal to debug an embedded system (raspberry pi) that would not boot, for which I don't have a console nor ssh access. I just shut it down electrically, then get the SD card, then read the journal file from another system. Guess what: the entire file is readable every single time (I've done it a lot to debug boot problems) with journalctl, with even the kernel boot messages as thanks to systemd, I get really everything in the log.

    8. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Damouze · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The issue is not with systemd corrupting the binary logs, or with the filesystem corrupting the binary logs, but with the fact that they are -binary- logs. A log file should be an ordinary text file. Nothing more, nothing less.

      To say nothing about the very concept of systemd being a BAD IDEA. One daemon to rule them all and in the darkness bind them? Give me a break. It used to be that Linux was a fairly faithful UNIX-like operating system. And you know what makes a good UNIX or UNIX-like operating system? The tools, specifically those that are well-written and do one thing and do it well (with reasonable exceptions). Systemd is neither well-written nor does it do one single thing very well, well maybe corrupt your log files and crash very, very spectacularly.

      By the way, if you're so worried about your filesystem getting corrupted, why use ext4 at all? It contains serious design and implementation flaws, specifically concerning the journal. XFS is by far a better journalled filesystem, with none of those issues. It is simply the best choice, especially if your concerned with the integrity of your data.

      --
      And on the Eighth Day, Man created God.
    9. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Eunuchswear · · Score: 2

      It's a fact that the fix for corrupt logs, which systemd will often corrupt if you power-cycle your system, is to delete them and throw them away. https://lwn.net/Articles/621453/ https://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/devel/2013-July/185702.html

      No, it's not a fact. If the log file is corrupt journald rotates it. It doesn't "delete it and throw it away".

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    10. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Systemd is neither well-written nor does it do one single thing very well, well maybe corrupt your log files and crash very, very spectacularly..

      Systemd (the program) manages a dependency graph of "units" and triggers user-defined actions in the correct sequence when the system state changes.

      That's the single thing it does. It doesn't do logging at all - that's a separate service journald that is usually packaged with and started by systemd but is not part of the same daemon. udevd and logind are also separate services. Clearly if you lump a bunch of related daemons together and insist they are all one daemon called "systemd" then that straw-man is going to be confusing.

    11. Re:I like how this got marked troll by mrchaotica · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu, RedHat, Debian, CentOS

      You just listed the same two groups twice. Ubuntu uses systemd because Debian chose to use it, and CentOS uses systemd because RedHat invented it. Ubuntu and CentOS aren't deciding independently; they're using what their upstream distro chose.

      True, like any piece of software, systemd surely must have issues (binary logs seem like one) that should be fixed or parts that may be improved, but all this constant bashing from some members against it, is just purely irrational.

      The problem with systemd is not that it has "issues" -- $DIETY knows lots of Free Software has "issues!" -- the problem is that systemd's issues are designed that way on purpose, marked "wontfix," no compromise is tolerated, and the main developer (Lennart Poettering) is an ass about it.

      --

      "[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz

    12. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In any case, normal users and readers of /. are sick and tired of your constant rantings about systemd.

      Normal user and reader of /. here.

      I want to hear about the problems with systemd.

    13. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In any case, normal users and readers of /. are sick and tired of your constant rantings about systemd.

      I don't give a shit if you're tired of hearing about it. I'm tired of systemd being forced down my throat. If I have to deal with it, then you do too.

    14. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      By the way, if you're so worried about your filesystem getting corrupted, why use ext4 at all? It contains serious design and implementation flaws, specifically concerning the journal. XFS is by far a better journalled filesystem, with none of those issues.

      Not on Linux it ain't. I've had it eat my data before, and I am now leery of it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    15. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ./

      Good old Dotslash.

    16. Re:I like how this got marked troll by phantomfive · · Score: 1

      you know what makes a good UNIX or UNIX-like operating system? The tools, specifically those that are well-written and do one thing and do it well

      This link has a pretty good summary. I summarize the Unix way as "write good code."

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    17. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Grishnakh · · Score: 2

      Just like you don't need the FCC to take things off the air because you can change the channel, you don't need us to stop discussing systemd and why it's literally both bad and wrong. You can just skip the discussion.

      No, we actually can't. The problem is that you anti-systemd wackos can't just discuss it in places like this thread (where it's actually on-topic, a story about Linux Mint continuing to provide both systemd and upstart). Instead, you have to jump into every Linux discussion anywhere and ramble on and on with your gripings. We can't have a discussion about, say, The GIMP without some anti-systemd nutter jumping in and complaining about systemd now.

      So even if any of your complaints were actually valid, you all look like a bunch of raving loons because a bunch of you just won't shut the fuck up about it in discussions which have absolutely nothing to do with systemd. It's like the boy who cried wolf: at this point, I'm so sick of the anti-systemd nutters that I really don't take anything they say seriously, so if some of them do have any valid technical complaints, it's lost in the noise.

    18. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So even if any of your complaints were actually valid, you all look like a bunch of raving loons because a bunch of you just won't shut the fuck up about it in discussions which have absolutely nothing to do with systemd.

      The title of this /. topic is:
            "Linux Mint Will Continue To Provide Both Systemd and Upstart"

      You systemd-tards really need to get out of the Poettering reality distortion field and start seeing the truth.

      You just can't stand it that the #1 distro is actually giving users a choice! LOL!!!!!

    19. Re:I like how this got marked troll by jbssm · · Score: 1

      I'm tired of systemd being forced down my throat

      Then go ahead and create your own distro free of systemd.

    20. Re:I like how this got marked troll by jbssm · · Score: 1

      We love Unixlikes which are actually "like Unix" ("The Unix Way", blah blah blah) not solely for aesthetic reasons, but for specific technical reasons which systemd compromises.

      Then, why don't you create your own distro free of systemd? Nobody is forcing you to use it, and way smarted people than you, that actually create the most used distros, as well as the all mighty keeper of the Linux kernel, don't see a problem with systemd.

    21. Re:I like how this got marked troll by jbssm · · Score: 1

      Ubuntu, RedHat, Debian, CentOS

      Not really, like stated, it's Ubuntu, RedHat, Debian, CentOS, etc, etc, Linus Torvald and a lot of people the contribute a lot to the Linux community that don't see any problem in using systemd... versus a bunch of vocal people that keep complaining about systemd but that don't do much/nothing for the Linux community.

    22. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sincerely, all this hate towards systemd looks like pure zealotry.

      What part of "I want and need log files" is pure zealotry?

      True, I know very little about the inner workings of systemd so I'm not qualified to vouch or to go against it.

      So "I need log files" is pure zealotry, but yet "I know nothing about it" is rational?

      But well, I'm pretty sure that the collective intelligence of: Ubuntu, RedHat, Debian, CentOS, etc, etc, etc, creators that choose to use systemd in their distributions

      With the exception of RedHat, not a single distro you listed has chosen to run systemd. It was forced on every last one of them.

      So yes, I'm pretty sure the collective intelligence of those distro maintainers stating that they don't want to use systemd but have no choice since all the other RedHat owned components now require systemd to even run, is completely accurate.

      Since I'm sure being one of the people who DOES have knowledge and experence with systemd's inner workings you will now call me a zealot - but least I remind you: True, I know very little about the inner workings of systemd so I'm not qualified to vouch or to go against it.

    23. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      Ah, another typical moronic anti-systemd troller, proving his utter stupidity.

      Maybe if you had bothered reading my whole post, you would have seen this:

      The problem is that you anti-systemd wackos can't just discuss it in places like this thread (where it's actually on-topic, a story about Linux Mint continuing to provide both systemd and upstart)

      Or are you too stupid to understand this?

    24. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What part of "I want and need log files" is pure zealotry?

      Well, let's see here. How did you get log files before? Was it through rsyslog or some other syslog variant? Well, guess what, you can still use that. Just install rsyslog and start it up. It will automatically start logging messages like it did before. You'll get the advantage of the journald queryable logs, as well as the classic ASCII logs.

      So, what's the problem again?

    25. Re:I like how this got marked troll by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      All the distros you list have made incredibly stupid decisions in the past that have driven away users, like GNOME3 and Unity to name a couple.

      Holding them up as some kind of beacon of good engineering sense and proper direction is laughable.

      Those of us with decades of experience in systems programming and systems administration will tell you, systemd is pure bloated badly engineered rubbish.

    26. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      "Must be an ordinary text file" - is that a law of nature? Why should it be a text file?

      Oh, and systemd does not delete bad log files. It simply rotates them, preserving corrupted files from any further corruption.

    27. Re:I like how this got marked troll by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Linux Mint provides that, and their whole reason for being #1 is that they have rejected the nonsense of Unity and GNOME to actual care about user wants and needs, and for seeing that systemd is in is current state half-baked at best.

    28. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 4, Informative

      The issue is not with systemd corrupting the binary logs, or with the filesystem corrupting the binary logs, but with the fact that they are -binary- logs. A log file should be an ordinary text file. Nothing more, nothing less.

      The glaring problems with flat file, unstructured text logs have been discussed for decades now. Plain text log files, like the original syslog(3) interface was simply bad ideas that Linux inherited. The main commercial selling point with any syslog implementation today is exactly that you can avoid several of these problems by using a DB.

      An overhaul of the creaking legacy Linux logging system have been needed for a decade at least. Remember, the Rsyslog project was started exactly to fix such problems. They failed partly because distros and developers don't care about working together for a common goal and because there was no other central developer hub who would take the initiative.

      systemd have finally fixed so many of the classic syslog problems. I don't care if you think syslog is perfect and never can be improved, and Rsyslog should be avoided for providing binary DB storing option, but please don't think that other people agree to this postulate.

      And systemd's journald is designed to be 100% backwards compatible with syslog, so if your setup have legacy need, it is trivial to get a systemd distro to use legacy syslog text logs.

    29. Re:I like how this got marked troll by jbssm · · Score: 1

      Those of us with decades of experience in systems programming and systems administration will tell you, systemd is pure bloated badly engineered rubbish.

      Those of us that have to stand the IT department will tell you that you practically always think that you know way more than you actually do and that we also know that your arrogance needs quite a bit of taming. Surely any reasonable persons agrees that someone that is ahead of a distro or a kernel programmer knows way more about how the various components of a linux distribution fit togheter than than some guy from the IT department that lives to make user's lives miserable.

    30. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Urkki · · Score: 1

      I'm tired of systemd being forced down my throat

      Then go ahead and create your own distro free of systemd.

      I hope you realize that's exactly the kind of forcing he's talking about? Most users need an OS now. Creating a stable, tested, trustworthy, secure custom distro is beyond resources (be it employers willingness to pay for maintaining an independent Linux distro, or hours per day reserved for maintenance of custom Linux instead of doing what one actually wants to do) of 99% of even those Linux users, to whom systems matters. For them it's basically, use systemd or switch to Windows (not a bad choice, actually, for a modern semi-decent PC with enough RAM to run a few VMs). Ie. showing systemd down their throats.

    31. Re:I like how this got marked troll by troff · · Score: 1

      > "Must be an ordinary text file" - is that a law of nature? Why should it be a text file?

      Because 111010010001 1011 0100011 00100 01 01000110111101 01110010100000001101011 110100100101 010 110100100011 00010111 00 1010101101010 01011110110.

    32. Re:I like how this got marked troll by IgnitusBoyone · · Score: 1

      I've run Gentoo for almost every project since 2004. It has changed a lot over the years and really matured. When we used to do stage 1 installs you could mess up a great deal by using USE flags that configured unstable behavior, but now it is pretty stable. I would stay away from global flags and instead look towards an appropriate profile like Desktop/Server then modify your USE flags on a per package level in /etc/portage/package.use

      The rc.init system to me is light years above other offerings, but its possible I just really like colored ascii.

      --
      Momento Mori
    33. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      No, we actually can't. The problem is that you anti-systemd wackos can't just discuss it in places like this thread (where it's actually on-topic, a story about Linux Mint continuing to provide both systemd and upstart). Instead, you have to jump into every Linux discussion anywhere and ramble on and on with your gripings.

      Maybe you haven't noticed, but systemd has ramifications for everything else in your system. Consequently, systemd has ramifications for many other discussions about Linux. Yes, sometimes the mention of systemd is unwarranted, but often it is clearly on-topic.

      It's like the boy who cried wolf: at this point, I'm so sick of the anti-systemd nutters that I really don't take anything they say seriously, so if some of them do have any valid technical complaints, it's lost in the noise.

      You're characterizing them as nutters, but they aren't that. There are real reasons why systemd is bad software which doesn't belong in a Unixlike, and they have been discussed extensively. If you won't consider them simply because some people have arguments you don't like, then you're the problem.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    34. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      If you won't consider them simply because some people have arguments you don't like, then you're the problem.

      No, I won't consider them because the anti-systemd crowd looks like a bunch of nuts, and bring it up in all kinds of discussions which are clearly way off-topic. Just because systemd involves a bunch of low-level system daemons doesn't mean screaming about how "bad" it is is warranted in a discussion about US politics, medical research, or some news about some web-based company. I never see this with the pro-systemd crowd, only calm and rational discourse rather than the conspiracy-theory-like insane ramblings that the anti-systemd crowd spouts.

    35. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I never see this with the pro-systemd crowd, only calm and rational discourse

      There's a lot of insults, both warranted and unwarranted. I don't find that to be calm, and the unwarranted ones aren't rational. I don't need them to be calm, but I disagree with your characterization.

      rather than the conspiracy-theory-like insane ramblings that the anti-systemd crowd spouts.

      What's theoretical about redhat wanting to exert more influence over Linux?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    36. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Then, why don't you create your own distro free of systemd?

      I'm building LFS right now.

      Nobody is forcing you to use it,

      Nope. They're trying, though.

      and way smarted people than you,

      know to look for the red squiggles

      that actually create the most used distros,

      Ah yes, the appeal to popularity.

      as well as the all mighty keeper of the Linux kernel, don't see a problem with systemd.

      Linus Torvalds said: "I don't actually have any particularly strong opinions on systemd itself. I've had issues with some of the core developers that I think are much too cavalier about bugs and compatibility, and I think some of the design details are insane

      Now, what was that you were saying again? Nobody was listening.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    37. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      What's theoretical about redhat wanting to exert more influence over Linux?

      That's not a conspiracy theory, that's just normal business. RH already exerts a huge amount of influence over Linux, and has for a very long time. However, no one is forcing other distros to adopt systemd. Debian, Ubuntu, and friends haven't adopted RPM yet, and RH has been pushing that thing for almost 20 years now. Companies attempt to exert influence, that's a normal fact of life.

      The conspiracy theory is that systemd is affiliated with the NSA and is being used to insert NSA-accessible backdoors in everyone's Linux box.

    38. Re:I like how this got marked troll by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      I'm curious: why not just make an indexed database logging system on top of, rather than instead of, text logs? i.e. write out log entries in some structured but still text-only format in one file, and then maintain an efficient binary index of entries in a separate file. That way you get all the nice search etc, while still being able to grep the raw text if you really need to.

    39. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      However, no one is forcing other distros to adopt systemd.

      That's a disingenuous thing to say when important packages have come to depend upon it... due to redhat's influence. I would never before have described that as undue, but...

      Debian, Ubuntu, and friends haven't adopted RPM yet, and RH has been pushing that thing for almost 20 years now.

      That's different. The package management is part of the defining quality of the distribution, it's part of what differentiates it from other distributions already. There are emotional reasons not to adopt another package manager. Also, RPM is obviously crap. Many people believe as you do that the descriptions of systemd's crappiness are overblown, although I can't imagine anyone familiar with Linux having that opinion, because pulseaudio.

      The conspiracy theory is that systemd is affiliated with the NSA and is being used to insert NSA-accessible backdoors in everyone's Linux box.

      On one hand, that's pretty kooky. On the other hand, the NSA has done spookier shit — it's easy to believe, although to the best of my knowledge, there's no good reason to believe that over mere incompetence at this stage.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    40. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Grishnakh · · Score: 1

      That's a disingenuous thing to say when important packages have come to depend upon it... due to redhat's influence.

      Which "important packages"? The only thing I know of offhand is Gnome depending on logind (which is only one component of systemd; it's quite possible to make a system that uses logind without the rest of systemd if you want). And even there, who cares? Where is it written that Gnome needs to be the flagship DE anyway? KDE and Xcfe are better anyway, and legions of Gnome users have abandoned it for those and for MATE and Cinnamon.

      The package management is part of the defining quality of the distribution, it's part of what differentiates it from other distributions already.

      Um, you could say the exact same thing about the init system. In fact, this is exactly the case with Slackware, which uses a BSD-style init system.

      Many people believe as you do that the descriptions of systemd's crappiness are overblown, although I can't imagine anyone familiar with Linux having that opinion, because pulseaudio.

      I've been using Linux as my primary desktop since 1999. I've never had any trouble with PA. So yeah, I think the descriptions of systemd's crappiness are overblown, just like they were with PA.

    41. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Also, I have to admit that the apt system is more efficient, faster to report updates, and historically more stable with mixed repository management than rpm and especially their macro-management tools, 'yum' and now 'dnf'.

      dnf is pulling the same stupidites systemd is based on. Add a lot of features no one wants and break the known workable configurations, at very high costs in rewriting numberous tools to work with it.

    42. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      Because those databases bulk up, they get corrupted, and then _all_ logs are lost, not merely the specific utility's log file or particular time-stamped, rotated log file.

      Been there, done that, had to help clean up the mess that a certified Splunk admin repeatedly made of the Splunk logs. He kept failing to realize that there are many distinct logs which have unique individual formats, and which can overwhelm the Splunk servers very quickly when they start spewing in erronesous states. This is especially of Java servers, which spew the java error codes without oranizable or easily indexed time stamps.

    43. Re:I like how this got marked troll by exomondo · · Score: 1

      I hope you realize that's exactly the kind of forcing he's talking about? Most users need an OS now. Creating a stable, tested, trustworthy, secure custom distro is beyond resources (be it employers willingness to pay for maintaining an independent Linux distro, or hours per day reserved for maintenance of custom Linux instead of doing what one actually wants to do) of 99% of even those Linux users, to whom systems matters.

      And finally they are starting to realize that Libre != Gratis. There are people working hard to produce software that they need and want, a side-effect is that you can get it for free and if you're not contributing then you're leeching and that is OK but you don't get to dictate what they do. Now if you are contributing then vote with your wallet and take your contributions elsewhere. The mentality of you entitlist little shits where you conflate this to mean they are "shoving systemd down your throat" is fucking absurd.

      It's pure laziness, use Windows, use OS X, use BSD, use any one of the many Linux distros that does not have systemd, use a version of Linux distros from before they incorporated systemd and backport necessary patches. There are plenty of options out there but you just want it all done for you and all done your way for no cost. With this mentality I see why Free Software is still struggling to get mainstream adoption, most people are just in it for the gratis aspect. If systemd truly were a tiny minority pushing something largely buggy and unwanted on the masses then the Free Software ideology and the free market would have stamped it out by forking the existing distros. Maybe it is buggy but if so those who see that are too lazy to do anything about it.

      NB: I have no opinion either way on systemd, it's just sad to see how far the Free Software movement is falling. If a well-reasoned, objective argument won't win them over then obviously resorting to vitriol won't, let it go and move on.

    44. Re:I like how this got marked troll by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      How would all the logs be lost, if the bulk of the data is still stored in text-only format in a separate file? It's the same exact arrangement as what we have with syslog today, just with indices on top of that.

    45. Re:I like how this got marked troll by exomondo · · Score: 1

      There are real reasons why systemd is bad software which doesn't belong in a Unixlike, and they have been discussed extensively. If you won't consider them simply because some people have arguments you don't like, then you're the problem.

      So perhaps linking to the well-reasoned, objective posts would be appropriate. I understand this is an emotional issue for some people so an emotional response is expected but the vitriol-spattered posts don't do anything to progress the issue, they lead to it being dismissed as the agenda of "nutters" or "trolls" and such (the conspiracy theorist might say they are the work of the pro-systemd crowd ;) ).

      If you want people to reverse course then more vitriol isn't going to work.

    46. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      I missed the part where you mentioned "on top of", excuse me.

      The part about how Java error logs tend to spew errors without any indexable reference means you have to add your own. That is, in fact, what Splunk does.

    47. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      In fact, this is exactly the case with Slackware, which uses a BSD-style init system.

      Slackware uses a hybrid BSD/sysv init system.

      I've been using Linux as my primary desktop since 1999. I've never had any trouble with PA.

      Congratulations? I've been asked if I wanted a medal recently, guess it's your turn.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    48. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Those of us that have to stand the IT department will tell you that you practically always think that you know way more than you actually do and that we also know that your arrogance needs quite a bit of taming.

      Why does that apply to all the Systems Administrators who want to keep the system the way it is — working and comprehensible — and not to Lennart Poettering, who has been shown to write poor-quality software in the past?

      Surely any reasonable persons agrees that someone that is ahead of a distro or a kernel programmer

      Ahead of one? What does that mean? In traffic?

      knows way more about how the various components of a linux distribution fit togheter than than some guy from the IT department that lives to make user's lives miserable.

      Oh, you're one of those. A user. Move along, no one need concern themselves with what you think about init systems or log daemons.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    49. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The glaring problems with flat file, unstructured text logs have been discussed for decades now.

      They are overblown, but even if you don't agree, the solution is not to replace them with crappy binary logs with serious data retention problems.

      Plain text log files, like the original syslog(3) interface was simply bad ideas that Linux inherited.

      No, that was a brilliant idea that Linux inherited. The widespread use of flat files with arbitrary formats is a feature, not a bug. You and those in your camp are forgetting that Unix was what came after baroque systems with structured file formats which were not human-readable. It was an improvement. Now you want to go back to the old way. It's comparable to the people who want to make everything a web application. That's just going back to the cathedral model of the mainframe, where your PC is a dumb thin client, and you're at the mercy of your remote overlords. It's doing what we've already done and abandoned because it was inferior, and now you want it to be the new hotness. Well it isn't, it's actually even older than Unix, and it was wrong. We moved past it.

      systemd have finally fixed so many of the classic syslog problems.

      What classic syslog problems? I haven't had a problem with log rotation, really the last remaining issue, in approximately forever.

      And systemd's journald is designed to be 100% backwards compatible with syslog, so if your setup have legacy need, it is trivial to get a systemd distro to use legacy syslog text logs.

      And syslog gets the messages late, and may not get them at all.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    50. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      I'm curious: why not just make an indexed database logging system on top of, rather than instead of, text logs? i.e. write out log entries in some structured but still text-only format in one file, and then maintain an efficient binary index of entries in a separate file. That way you get all the nice search etc, while still being able to grep the raw text if you really need to.

      There are several problems with solution: it isn't backwards compatible with syslog (journald strives for 100% backwards compatibility).

      It doesn't solve the problems that combining meta-data with log entries in flat text files, makes the text logs hard to read for humans since the log lines become far too long and complex.

      It doesn't really gives any advantage of pure binary data. Remember grep, sed, tee and every other standard Linux text tool works with systemd's journal through the standard Linux/Unix concept of piping, so there is nothing lost by going pure binary.

    51. Re:I like how this got marked troll by SuseLover · · Score: 1

      Nice for hackers. So when your system is compromised all the attacker has to do is cause systemd or the system to crash and it deletes all evidence of the attack for you.

      And if the logs get corruped and deleted, how are you supposed to do the root cause analysis?

    52. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      Plain text log files, like the original syslog(3) interface was simply bad ideas that Linux inherited.

      No, that was a brilliant idea that Linux inherited.

      Come on, syslog(3) wasn't even signal-safe and designed as dog slow too. It was crap. People have been working ever since to make syslog thread safe (still interim), etc.

      What classic syslog problems? I haven't had a problem with log rotation, really the last remaining issue, in approximately forever.

      That syslogd can't log until rootfs is started and most of the machine is up, that it is dog slow and silently drops messages under load, that there is no common API for accessing the content of the data, that the data is basically free form, deviating from machine to machine (an industry exist dedicated to this problem alone) also making it impossible to make a distro agnostic GUI log viewer, that meta-data like monotonic timestamps are basically impossible to add without the log entries becoming unreadable long, that text logs simply don't scale (again, an industry exist to solve this problem, see Splunk etc.), that using regex becomes intolerable and unwieldy above a certain point, that in order to grep for something in the log file, you basically already have to know the name of the function and what the problem is, this makes syslog log files basically impossible to use for newbies, so they have to resort to trawling through the logs like reading a book.

      Really, flat file, un-indexed log files meant to be read by a human SA is something that belongs to another era. What the present and the future needs are binary, structured and indexed logs with a stable API that can be parsed by machines and that works even at mega-scales.

      And systemd's journald is designed to be 100% backwards compatible with syslog, so if your setup have legacy need, it is trivial to get a systemd distro to use legacy syslog text logs.

      And syslog gets the messages late, and may not get them at all.

      Well, these are know problems with syslogd implementations; they silently drop messages under even moderate load. It is their ancient design, so using pure syslog you will never know whether something was logged or dropped. With journald you will at least be informed if log messages are dropped. The latter should be a rare occurrence since journald is so much faster than syslogd.

      journald goes to great lengths by using per app log rate limiting in order not saturate syslogd, but the inherent limitations in syslog means that this will always be an best effort. Still, it probably isn't worse than using syslogd alone.

    53. Re:I like how this got marked troll by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Judging by this thread, it does give at least one advantage, that being the ability to at least partially recover and analyze corrupted logs.

    54. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Urkki · · Score: 1

      You seem to agree with "shove systemd down the admins' throats", you just say it in a more roundabout way. "Open wide or GTFO and switch everything you use to something else."

      And I do feel the Linux FOSS community has dropped a ball here a bit, as there doesn't seem to be a good, complete server distro without systemd dependency, even though there seems to be demand for one. I'd have thought somebody would have picked that ball and run with it.

      Me, I just expect the Linux distros I use to basically work out of the box, and keep working with minimal hassle. Xubuntu has been doing it for me lately (since Ubuntu switched to Unity), together with Ubuntu Server, mostly using LTS.

    55. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Debian isn't a "good, complete server distro"?

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    56. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      Judging by this thread, it does give at least one advantage, that being the ability to at least partially recover and analyze corrupted logs.

      The same is very much true for systemd's journald files. They are just appended text files with another delimiter +index, so in worst case a hex editor or "strings" may read them.

      "journalctl" is designed to cope with corrupted journals and read them very well. It should be noted here that corruption of journal files as discovered by the --verify option, mostly are very trivial errors like a monotonic timestamps of the wrong length etc. Such errors only affects a single log entry, and often even that log entry can be read without problems. Despite using journald since it became standard on Fedora (F15) I have never experienced any data loss nor having journal files that I was unable to read.

    57. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Once upon a time (in 1977 actualy) I learned to program (in Fortran on an ICL 1903T). When introduced to the concept of files I was intrigued by the idea of "binary" files: "cool" I thought, "I can hide things in there and nobody can read them, 'cos it's binary". Image my disgust when I found that a simple "cat" to the terminal recalled all my "hidden" text.

      Yes, the contents of a binary file are a bunch of ones and zeroes, but so are the contents of a "text" file.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    58. Re:I like how this got marked troll by exomondo · · Score: 1

      You seem to agree with "shove systemd down the admins' throats", you just say it in a more roundabout way. "Open wide or GTFO and switch everything you use to something else."

      Rubbish. You're the one begging for updates and then don't like what they offer, if you don't like it then stop taking it. The problem is you take whatever they give you and try and blame them when you don't like it and pretend like they forced it on you.

      And I do feel the Linux FOSS community has dropped a ball here a bit, as there doesn't seem to be a good, complete server distro without systemd dependency, even though there seems to be demand for one. I'd have thought somebody would have picked that ball and run with it.

      Yes this is the obvious mentality, everybody seems to think somebody else should have done it for them by now. So everybody sits around bitching and nobody does anything.

    59. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Cyberax · · Score: 1

      Thank you for demonstrating so succinctly that a text-based format can be utterly incomprehensible and there are no real downsides for a well-designed binary format.

    60. Re:I like how this got marked troll by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      People have been working ever since to make syslog thread safe

      Syslog is not so demanding that it must be multithreaded.

      That syslogd can't log until rootfs is started and most of the machine is up,

      You mean boot logging? There are numerous ways to solve this which would have made more sense, including a small change to the linux kernel to make it stop throwing away boot logs when they are large.

      that it is dog slow and silently drops messages under load

      So use syslog-ng, which can be used in place of syslog without changes to other daemons, unlike journald. Which again, is the reason we're even having this conversation.

      that there is no common API for accessing the content of the data

      Yes, yes there is. It's access to a text file. Unix has APIs for that. HTH.

      that meta-data like monotonic timestamps are basically impossible to add without the log entries becoming unreadable long,

      Wait, you don't care about human-readability, but you don't want the logs to become unreadably long? Make up your fucking mind. You're just making shit up, I can tell because that shit is contradictory.

      that text logs simply don't scale

      Still not an argument against text logs, only an argument for also implementing binary logs. And I wouldn't put them into their own shitty files with their own shitty format, I would put them into an RDBMS. Putting them into crappy, easily-corrupted binary log files is just asking for trouble, and guess what? It's causing trouble.

      that using regex becomes intolerable and unwieldy above a certain point

      What? So now you don't like flat files or regex? Why don't you just fuck off to Windows and let us have our Linux? You clearly don't like Unix.

      that in order to grep for something in the log file, you basically already have to know the name of the function and what the problem is

      Nonsense, and also nonsense. If you have that much syslog data to comb through, then your logging levels would cause you to have problems finding the same data if you ran systemd as well.

      OK, so your objection is that one implementation of syslog sometimes drops messages or is slow to report them. But the obvious rebuttal that anyone with two brain cells would use is that there are multiple syslog implementations, and you don't have to use the crappiest. But there's only one implementation of journald, and you do have to use it, and it has the problem that it corrupts logs. Since it has one fucking job and it fails at it it really hasn't improved the situation, and it's made it harder to swap out for a working component, so it's actually made it worse.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    61. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      CentOS is RedHat. You're an idiot.

    62. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Oh, you're one of those. A user.

      What do you reckon, marketing?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    63. Re:I like how this got marked troll by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      You have no point, as disto programmer and maintainers with massive following are not wholesale adopting systemd, e.g. linux mint team

      You are the arrogant one, you are just a end user with opinions with no deep technical knowledge. You are listening to whomever has the biggest megaphone.

    64. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      I'm getting bored of asking this, but, once again:

      That's a disingenuous thing to say when important packages have come to depend upon it.

      Which important packages?

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    65. Re:I like how this got marked troll by jbssm · · Score: 1

      I'm just an end user "with no deep technical knowledge" compared to an admin, and you are just an admin "with no deep technical knowledge" compared to many distro maintainers. You may know better than me, but they surely know better than you and they choose to use systemd.

    66. Re:I like how this got marked troll by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      You mean boot logging? There are numerous ways to solve this which would have made more sense, including a small change to the linux kernel to make it stop throwing away boot logs when they are large.

      The kernel ring-buffer size can be user specified, so no need to ever lose such messages. The problem is that during boot, only messages directed at /dev/kmsg is recorded until rootfs is mounted and syslogd is running. This is hard to do something about since it is a kernel limitation that only one device at the time can own /dev/log. journald catches all messages, including those to /dev/kmsg and /dev/log, and it does this from early boot. So a journal based system will always contain more info than a pure syslog system.

      So use syslog-ng, which can be used in place of syslog without changes to other daemons, unlike journald. Which again, is the reason we're even having this conversation.

      Regarding silently dropping messages: AFAIK all syslog daemons does this per design (or lack thereof). The main problem is that calls to syslog() would be blocking if implemented in a safe manner.

      Wait, you don't care about human-readability, but you don't want the logs to become unreadably long? Make up your fucking mind. You're just making shit up, I can tell because that shit is contradictory.

      You misunderstand; a reason why syslog messages doesn't contain monotonic timestamps etc. is that it makes the log entries extremely long and hard to read for humans. It is a kind of limitation of the "design".
      journald doesn't have such limitations since it is field based, and the output format is easily adapted to what view you want. If you only want wall time stamps, you can get that, if you want monotonic time stamps, you get that, and only that.

      So with the journal, you can add more fields in the future without making the log entries unwieldy, something impossible with syslog.

      Regarding human readable: I only care about that for the subset of information I intend to read, and this is exactly what journalctl does. That way you can have logs that are easy to parse for both humans and machines; each consumer gets exactly the view of the data that they want in a form they can use.

      that text logs simply don't scale

      Still not an argument against text logs, only an argument for also implementing binary logs. And I wouldn't put them into their own shitty files with their own shitty format, I would put them into an RDBMS. Putting them into crappy, easily-corrupted binary log files is just asking for trouble, and guess what? It's causing trouble.

      Yes, the scaling thing is a good argument against using flat file text logs. You really need indexes when analysing such huge amount of data, which is exactly what people are doing at the moment; they invest in often proprietary commercial solutions in order to massage their flat text file log data into something usable.

      RDBMS have been tried for a long time and they are not a good general purpose solution for local logging. They are also much more prone to corruption than the journal's simpler binary storage format.

      What? So now you don't like flat files or regex? Why don't you just fuck off to Windows and let us have our Linux? You clearly don't like Unix.

      While regex is a powerful tool, the old joke about trying to solve a problem using regex, and then discover you now have _two_ problems, is true too. Discounting the many variations of regex that each program like grep /egrep uses, it simply becomes unwieldy when you are using regex epressions that are +120 characters long. Making ad hoc queries with regex really is painful when the complexity rises beyond the basics. The systemd journal is so much better regarding this since it is field based.

    67. Re:I like how this got marked troll by hitmark · · Score: 1

      Why oh why is it that the naysayers are the ones that has to move on and start over?!

      Why could not Poettering and CO create their own distro and prove it functional from the ground up first?!

      Damn it, look at how it is done at the kernel. New subsystems are maintained outside of the main tree for years while the bugs etc are hammered out.

      Poettering and crew is not just replacing init with systemd, they are replacing everything between the kernel and the web browser with something new. This should really require that it is developed in isolation until the feature creep has come to a halt, and the bugs can be found and hammered out.

      The latest changes include stuff like ADSL controls in networkd and folding power management into logind.

      It barely makes sense that this has found its way into virtual noname distros and such. But that RH and Canonical is putting them into releases is whacko.

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  19. Felt good, until the last part. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ..., before it will be the default and only option.

    So Mint is still out of my list.

  20. Thank you, Mint by The+Infamous+Grimace · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Seriously. Thank you for giving me a choice. If I want to try systemd and see if I run into issues with my particular use-cases, I can. If I want to avoid the possibility of conflicts and continue with the (admittedly crufty) sysvinit scripts I can.

    --
    Ignorance and prejudice and fear
    Walk hand in hand
    1. Re:Thank you, Mint by The+Infamous+Grimace · · Score: 1

      [Edit] Oops. Meant upstart, not sysvinit.

      --
      Ignorance and prejudice and fear
      Walk hand in hand
    2. Re:Thank you, Mint by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Pity. If you had meant sysvinit you could have just carried on using your init scripts, systemd runs init scripts for backwards compatibilty. I don't know what it does with upstart -- I've been able to avoid that steaming mess.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
  21. False summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The summary (and the article it links to) have the situation backward. Ubuntu is the distribution which is offering users the coice of booting using Upstart or systemd. Under Ubuntu you can currently chose which init software to use (as of Ubuntu 15.04). Linux Mint does not do this, at least not yet.

    Linux Mint has two primary branches, Linux Mint Main (which uses Upstart for init) and Linux Mint Debian Edition (which uses SysV Init). Which each branch you get just one init technology, you don'tget to choose which one you want. This is largely becaue Linux Mint Main is based on an older version of Ubuntu (Ubuntu 14.04) and was released before Ubuntu started offering two init systems.

  22. The mint team is doing a right thing. by cryptogranny · · Score: 3, Informative

    The mint team is doing a right thing. I'm writing this from a CentOS 7 machine that I'm using to test systemd. One day, when the XFS partition was corrupted I realized that the system can't do usual self check and self repair. Why? Because systemd.fsck module runs fsck.xfs which according to the manual "simply exits with a zero exit status". You can boot with init=/bin/bash, but can't correct system scripts to change the behavior, everything is in binaries now.

    1. Re:The mint team is doing a right thing. by jbolden · · Score: 1

      That's not systemd. You should read the man page for fsck.xfs ( http://man7.org/linux/man-page...) which recommends you use xfs_repair.

      And you can easily boot if a single non-boot partition is corrupted.

    2. Re:The mint team is doing a right thing. by cryptogranny · · Score: 1

      Yes, I cited the man page so I've read it. But don't you find it awkward if OS can do self repair after reboot? Is this a new feature of RHEL7? Move to XFS as a default and make obsoleted the usual "clearing orphaned inode" behavior? The XFS has it's repair path. First try to mount fs manually and it will replay the journal, if not then xfs_repair etc. Why not to make some twist to mount it with systemd first? You may find the reasons but my main point is that if it were init scripts in bash I could just read them instead lots of googling. I googled about /forcecheck for systemd, then about boot parameters, then about sources of systemd-fsck module, then... Systemd do old things in a new way, new files, new options. On CentOS 6 I just open bash scripts, read them and change to make system bootable.

    3. Re:The mint team is doing a right thing. by cryptogranny · · Score: 1

      fix to my post> But don't you find it awkward if OS can't do a self repair after reboot?

    4. Re:The mint team is doing a right thing. by jbolden · · Score: 1

      There are two issues here

      XFS has changed the way it repairs. That has nothing to do with systemd.

      Systemd does, as you say, old things in new ways. Which means config files are probably worse than they used to be. This is a reasonable concern. There is a one time training hurdle, just like when you changing end user's applications. There does need to be some improvement in best practices as we move from a more mature set of configurations to a much less mature set of configurations.

    5. Re:The mint team is doing a right thing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are two issues here

      The first being that you're a troll.

    6. Re:The mint team is doing a right thing. by cryptogranny · · Score: 1

      You definitely have a point here. I'm just afraid that it is not a level of maturity, but a deviation from paradigm. I like simple things such as "everything is a file", "configs in plain text", "combination of small tools". I also agree that renovation of init system is a necessity. But the fact I can't no longer easily manage services without special bash-completions tells me that something is horribly wrong with the new practices.

  23. Gratutous forks are no solution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Killing systemd is.

  24. Mod up by jbolden · · Score: 1

    Short but actual useful advice. This should be modded up.

  25. Re:I hope they do this properly & publish the by jbolden · · Score: 1

    I don't think that's terribly useful information regarding users. The question has never been which do end users support, end users mostly don't care. Among those who do care, you have a lot of traditionalist system admin types and those are probably substantially biased in the anti-systemd direction. Systemd breaks stuff they care about. The benefits won't be seen till years later and mostly will be experienced by people other than them.

    What's important is not that. But rather as upstream packages drop support what happens to Mint. Say in mid-2017 if Mint is still offering the option and non-systemd has substantial costs, how many choose it. That's the relevant number for the Debian systemd debate. What percentage of users are willing to write off huge numbers of applications in exchange for a more traditionalist process management system, as more packages become dependent on advanced process management?

  26. Linus' (lack of) leadership by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Lignux has been alternatively silent and ambivalent on the matter. My guess is money is changing hands between him and his Red Hat masters.

  27. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by jbolden · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Let me just point out, Oracle Linux 7 is systemd only. Oracle switched Jul 23, 2014. So yet another enterprise vendor that doesn't buy into the whole "systemd isn't mission critical ready" meme you all are pushing.

  28. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    What's stunning to me is that smart people in leadership positions in a variety of distributions have decided to support such an asinine system.

    You don't understand why because you don't understand the benefits that systemd provides.

    It makes writing an init script quite a bit easier, and since the distro leaders spend a lot of time doing that, systemd made their lives easier.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  29. systemd vs. init appears to me like a petty issue by Qbertino · · Score: 2

    To be honest, I never got what all the rage is about. As with the foaming at the mouth because of Gnome 3.

    I do 'get' init and runlevels and I like them. I can change them with a texteditor and they're all fairly neatly sorted in someplace below /etc or something (can't remember exactly, to lazy to check now). I haven't used runlevels in 9 years or so, I'm not an admin, but I know when they're useful and I probably could start editing and switching them within 5 minutes.

    I don't know what all the systemd hate is about, but the shrill voices of nerds who don't have enough sex to remain cool irritate me. I can asure you that I'll chime in if I find out somewhere down the line, when I need runlevels or systemd's equivalent and there's no replacement to be found - some neat newfangled click-tool or equaly easy or better neat textfiles and directories to fiddle about with.

    I know very well that systemd will die a very quick death if it turns out to be a shitty system in practice. It's FOSS folks - if it's shit and there's a better, working FOSS alternative people will move (back) to it faster than you can say "Mambo out, Joomla in". No reason to get all that worked up as if the world has ended.

    AFAICT that won't happen. systemd is with all the new distros - apparently for the simple reasons that it boots faster. Well, it that appears to be a good enough reason for many people, so be it. New issues probably will be patched and the simple fact that systemd has most distros on its side probably is momentum enough to make init a thing of the past.

    That aside, there are, IMHO, way more pressing issues plagueing Linux and it annoys me that no one seems to care about those.

    Like for instance: Why is monodevelop the only dev-environment that does not crash on me after a regular installation?

    Why do Anjuta, KDevelop, Codeblocks etc. crash on me on mint pure native Debian or Ubuntu linux installs when I attempt to compile something? Isn't the C family of languages our native turf?

    Why do 49 out of 50 attempts to compile something downloaded in source from Github or SourceForge fail with obscure error messages? Does something like this still happen on software systems in 2015?? Color me suprised.

    Why am I tempted to register with Apple, download XCode and be done with it? This doesn't feel right.

    How about fixing or getting all worked up about that shit? It's a shame I can't compile native Linux software on Linux simply due to the fact that all the rest of the bunch aren't as disciplined as Linus Torwalds and get their fucking C/C++ pipeline in order.

    The truth is, Linux will be going nowhere if we don't fix some basics, simple down a little and perhaps move towards open or at least fixed-standard hardware concepts. Wether some dude or distro thinks systemd is awesome or not shouldn't matter that much.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
  30. Re:Systemd detractors are like climate change deni by ookaze · · Score: 2, Informative

    Actually, it seems quite the opposite. We have the systemd crowd claiming that it's simpler even when there is a whole new level of complexity in systemd they don't even know about (hint, look for the systemd craziness in /lib). Like the climate change deniers, they believe that since they haven't personally seen a problem in their simple and vanilla system that there isn't a problem at all.

    There is no "systemd crowd". There are systemd users that find it easier to use than previous solutions which have bugs which won't ever be fixed like Upstart.
    systemd is actually far less complex than using Upstart + countless tools and daemons with their configurations scattered all other the place.
    I don't see the crazyness you talk about in /lib/systemd or /usr/lib/systemd. I don't use every systemd utilities, but I caved in for a lot of them and threw away xinetd, my custom FS mount scripts, my custom network scripts...
    And my simple and vanilla systems, with their LVM on software RAID, FS on SAN and NAS, ... which were a pain to tune so that they bootup correctly every time, were a breeze to migrate to systemd. So yes I don't see a problem with my vanilla systems that even distributions didn't know how to setup 15 years ago, and some still can't today.

  31. Re:systemd vs. init appears to me like a petty iss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I was "foaming" not so long ago about systemd and Gnome 3. Then I suddenly realized there are a thousand wonderful alternatives out there. I'm not trapped into using these things if I don't want to.

  32. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    OP was referring to Solaris, not OL.

  33. Logs via network by bouldin · · Score: 4, Informative

    SysD's binary logs have another, serious flaw: they are not designed to be sent over a network. This has been an intrinsic part of syslog for a looong time.

    There are a few tools to send journald logs remotely, but they rely on tailing the binary log, then reformatting it and transmitting it over HTTPS to another tool on the destination system.

    I found a feature request for journald/sysd/whatever to enable network logging, and the solution they are adding is to... tail the binary logs with basically the same tools.

    Putting the disk in the middle and depending on file tailing is such a bad solution. Many things can cause this to fail; it's a total kludge.

    I discovered this when investigating how to send journald logs to Splunk. The solution there is to... tail the binary logs with journald to a text file and have Splunk monitor the text file.

    Now, this is not a fatal flaw. Journald could (I assume) be enhanced to natively send logs over a network. But, this shows that systemd is not enterprise-grade or production-grade, and was not designed with that kind of reliability in mind.

    1. Re:Logs via network by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The real, fundamental problem isn't even having binary logging, they are free to do that in whatever miserably thought out bugfest they like. The problem is that they thought binary logging should be the primary means, and that is just stupid. I am all for a binary log... right next to the good old text log like we've always had. And if this was what they had done, then they would have got no argument on this issue. Instead, they threw away what we had, what was working, what all our tools were expecting, and replaced it with something that works sometimes.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Logs via network by jbolden · · Score: 1

      SysD's binary logs have another, serious flaw: they are not designed to be sent over a network.

      No actually they are. Systemd has an export format and a JSON library you can attach to that produces a version of the log designed for combining. Systemd works far better with messaging clients than syslogd because it was written after messaging and networks.

      Your specific example is also wrong. You just setup a Splunk forwarder: http://answers.splunk.com/answ...

    3. Re:Logs via network by Electricity+Likes+Me · · Score: 1

      What are you even talking about? journalctl -a -f will output the logs straight from memory.

    4. Re:Logs via network by bouldin · · Score: 1

      No actually they are. Systemd has an export format and a JSON library you can attach to that produces a version of the log designed for combining. Systemd works far better with messaging clients than syslogd because it was written after messaging and networks.

      I wouldn't say converting all that metadata to text is great for the network. You have to parse all that JSON on the receiver end.

      Your specific example is also wrong. You just setup a Splunk forwarder: http://answers.splunk.com/answ...

      I guess you didn't actually read that article, which is about configuring a systemd unit file to start/stop Splunk.

    5. Re:Logs via network by bouldin · · Score: 1

      What are you even talking about? journalctl -a -f will output the logs straight from memory.

      Does it? If so, then it's not as bad, but needing to chain these commandline tools together to send logs over the network is still a kludge.

      I'm not saying you're wrong, but do you have a reference for that?

    6. Re:Logs via network by jbolden · · Score: 1

      You are right. I had your question backwards. But that makes the answer even easier:
      journalctl -o short -f | ncat remote-destination.com 12345

      As for the JSON on the receiver end, the receiver just links to the library and puts it into whatever logging format it wants. That's unavoidable unless you just want to dump the data structure as text for every entry.

      As for converting to text, you can't advocate for syslogd and then object to text. You have 3 options:

      a) Leave it in native binary format and let the receiving system parse
      b) Convert to some independent format on sending system
      c) Convert to receiver's binary format on the sending system

      Systemd supports all 3. So I'm not sure what the issue is. It allows you to do what you want.

    7. Re:Logs via network by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      SysD's binary logs have another, serious flaw: they are not designed to be sent over a network. This has been an intrinsic part of syslog for a looong time.

      Of course you can push journald logs over the network in several different ways, and you can also receive them using the journald. But the systemd journald isn't substitute for syslog, but meant to complement it. Just use rsyslog when it is relevant, or just systemd's journald when that suffices.

      Here is the document info for "journal export format"
      http://www.freedesktop.org/wik...

      Here is how to receive or pull systemd journals across the network: It can either pull log requests or passively wait for a connection:
      http://www.freedesktop.org/sof...

      Here is how to serve journald log entries across the network:
      http://www.freedesktop.org/sof...

    8. Re:Logs via network by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Hang on a second -- "chain these command line tools together", I've heard of that before -- don't we usually call that "the Unix way"?

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    9. Re:Logs via network by rubycodez · · Score: 2

      Why bother with that rubbish when proper text logs are so superior and easy to handle?

      unnecessary complexity, that's the flaw of systemd

    10. Re:Logs via network by jbolden · · Score: 1

      Why bother with that rubbish when proper text logs are so superior and easy to handle?

      They aren't superior they are simpler. A list of random sentences of news articles is less valuable than a hierarchical index of the news stories. Similarly for computer events. Organization and hierarchy helps? How do I ask a text log to give me all events related to a particular hard drive hardware errors in the last 2 weeks easily?

    11. Re:Logs via network by bouldin · · Score: 1

      Take it easy - I'm not an anti-sysd zealot, just a skeptic.

      Since you brought it up, though, the Unix way of forwarding logs has been to add an IP to /etc/syslog.conf. You shouldn't need to run userspace tools piped through netcat to get that (I understand that since sysd 216, you don't need to).

      My original concern was that journald was not designed from the ground up to work in a large multi-system environment. Since I posted that, I found a doc from 2011 that announced journald and declared intent to make it distribute logs over the network, so I'll have to give the authors the benefit of the doubt until I dig in and understand the architecture better.

      Speaking of the architecture, I'm still trying to find a doc or diagram that explains the memory mapping used by journalctl to follow logs. Haven't found it yet, so maybe I'll have to look through the source for that. It's really the kind of thing that should be documented, though. Lennart isn't some kid working out of his basement; this project has all the resources of Redhat behind it.

    12. Re:Logs via network by bouldin · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the links. Last time I looked into this, the remote features were still a feature request.

      Maybe I'm not understanding you, but I thought journal was meant to be superior to syslog and eventually supplant it.

    13. Re:Logs via network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Mod parent up. Seriously, this is the argument against the logging capacity of the suite. Why replace something that works all the time, is always recoverable, and is demonstrably compatible with existing toolsets, with a kluged up piece of crap that works some of the time, is never recoverable, and demands that existing toolsets be rewritten to comply with its new standards? This makes no sense whatsoever.

    14. Re:Logs via network by Peter+H.S. · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the links. Last time I looked into this, the remote features were still a feature request.

      Maybe I'm not understanding you, but I thought journal was meant to be superior to syslog and eventually supplant it.

      Well, yes and no. journald was meant as a total overhaul of _local_ Linux logging. It provides "metal-to-metal" logging by being able to operate in initramsfs before rootfs is mounted, and pivot back to initramfs (Dracut) after rootfs has been unmounted. It collates all logs into a single view, instead of the myriad of scattered legacy log files (including binary logs like utmp etc).
      It also vastly improve the way programmers can use logging, since syslog(3) etc. have so many limitations regarding speed, messages per seconds etc.
      It also provide structured logs with plenty of metadata like monotonic timestamps that are troublesome in syslog text logs.

      Rsyslog and similar syslog implementation works both as a _local_ logging system _and_ as a remote log sink.

      journald doesn't work as a general log sink for remote logging, nor does it provide DB interfaces and various other similar plug-ins. So for general log-sinks, Rsyslog was always meant to be choice.

      journald was also designed to be 100% compatible with syslog since it was obvious that legacy requirements would make that a necessity. So again, for legacy setups, syslog was always the designed choice to run on top of journald.

    15. Re:Logs via network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No... it's a fucking kluge. The Unix way is telling rsyslogd where your syslog collector is, wiping your hands on your pants, and never having to touch the syslog function again.

    16. Re:Logs via network by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      You may be looking in the wrong place -- there is a lib for reading the journal, journalctl is just a simple client.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    17. Re:Logs via network by qvatch · · Score: 1

      grep?

    18. Re:Logs via network by jbolden · · Score: 1

      First off grep is generally bad with minor variations. It would work if there was a good uniform identifier system. But because there isn't using grep to search a large log you can get lots of false positives and false negatives.

      For example if the error says /dev/sda1
      or it could say /dev/sda or it could say something about the mount point or the file it errored on. Also grep is not going to organize the material by anything other than sequence in original file and source file.

    19. Re:Logs via network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't understand why it would be difficult(for anyone, not only for systemd devs) to add a line or ten of code in a patch to write the same content of the binary log to an text-only log. Is there something fundamentally different from how it is done on any other system? Any distro could do that(and maintain the patches if they are not accepted mainline...)

    20. Re:Logs via network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wouldn't be. The maintainer doesn't want to, despite numerous feature requests to that effect. That's one of the many reasons people have personal issues with the guy.

    21. Re:Logs via network by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      You are right. I had your question backwards. But that makes the answer even easier:

      It's easier if you answer the wrong question, which is what you did. The question is how to get journald to send the logs across the network to another logging host without hitting the disk, because if there's a problem going to the disk with your data then you're also not going to get your logs to go across the network to the remote host which isn't about to suffer a horrible kernel panic and corrupt all its logs and totally fail to send anything on to the remote machine which would have preserved information about what the machine was doing right before it exploded.

      So I'm not sure what the issue is. It allows you to do what you want.

      That's because you didn't read the comment to which you're replying, or doing that, you failed to understand it. Which reminds me, we were talking about journald.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    22. Re:Logs via network by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Uh, that's "journalctl -f", no code needs ti be written.

      Or just run rsyslogd.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    23. Re:Logs via network by jbolden · · Score: 1

      My answer was clear. The original poster and yourself are both wrong. The disk is not in the middle. In journald.conf set Storage=none and log remotely. Then the journal won't touch the local disk at all yet the export to other systems still works fine. There is an application running and it is sending data from memory to multiple streams. It is simply not true that a disk is required to send data.

      systemd allows you to configure logging however you want and is more flexible than the init based systems of years ago. Which was my answer. You are gaining not losing flexibility. The system has more easily (to a developer) hooks. And as the external tooling develops there will be far more hooks for system admins.

    24. Re:Logs via network by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Ah, so the Unix way is using monolithic binary blobs instead of small carefully crafted tools connected by pipes.

      Thanks for that insight.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    25. Re:Logs via network by bouldin · · Score: 1

      You may be looking in the wrong place -- there is a lib for reading the journal, journalctl is just a simple client.

      Indeed. I figured I would start at journalctl since I know the functionality is there.

      Found pretty much what I was looking for - the journal library mmap()s the requested journal file and watches for additions using inotify event queues. So, everything is going through the disk before it goes out to the network.

      I'm still not crazy about that design, but from what PeterHS was saying, maybe rsyslog is still the preferred method of sending logs over the network.

      For what it's worth, the journalctl/libjournal code I looked through was pretty clean and easy to follow. There are a decent amount of sanity checks, which is a good sign. I disagree with the design decisions, but the code was a good bit better than most open source code I've seen. Hell, probably better than most closed source I don't get to see.

    26. Re:Logs via network by bouldin · · Score: 1

      What are you even talking about? journalctl -a -f will output the logs straight from memory.

      I worked back through journalctl's "follow" code into the journal library, and this does not seem to be true. The journal library mmap()s the requested journal files to memory, and uses inotify event queues to watch for updates to the file. So, the disk is definitely in the middle, and I think my earlier criticism stands.

      From your message, I thought maybe journalctl actually connected to journald and got copies of log messages before they were written out, but that does not seem to be the case.

      OTOH, mmap()ing a large file should be more efficient than using the regular read() system calls, so at least there's that. But putting the disk in the middle is such a strange design decision. E.g. I assume if you don't write certain messages to a journal, then they can't be sent over the network.

    27. Re:Logs via network by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      In journald.conf set Storage=none and log remotely.

      So what happens when you also log locally?

      The system has more easily (to a developer) hooks.

      Yes, which you are required to use.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    28. Re:Logs via network by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Found pretty much what I was looking for - the journal library mmap()s the requested journal file and watches for additions using inotify event queues. So, everything is going through the disk before it goes out to the network.

      No, going to memory -- even if it's written sync the in-memory cache and inode will get updated before the disk write is done, so the write to the network should happen in parallel with the write to the disk.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    29. Re:Logs via network by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Uh, that's "journalctl -f", no code needs ti be written.

      Which means if there's a problem with journald, a component which I can not replace, then I don't get any logging. Not just no text logging, but no logging. And I can't replace it to find out if that's even the problem. I have to troubleshoot it, and it's new and it offers me nothing I needed. If I wanted my boot log output I'd log it to serial. But I virtually never need it, which is probably why nobody bothered to fix this problem before: in the rare case that you need access to those logs, you're probably a kernel hacker, who can handle a null modem cable and has another system right there.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    30. Re:Logs via network by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Which means if there's a problem with journald, a component which I can not replace, then I don't get any logging.

      Why can't you replace it? It has a defined API, just write your own.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    31. Re:Logs via network by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Why can't you replace it? It has a defined API, just write your own.

      Yeah, sorry, I meant trivially replace it. With syslog there's already a number of competing daemons I can swap in. With journald, there aren't. I'm coming at this from the angle of the systems administrator, not the software developer. And that's the problem with systemd: it does the opposite. Systemd is literally the result of a [mediocre at best] software developer who says "what can I do to improve the boot process" and winds up completely ignoring years of lessons hard-learned by systems administrators, who actually have to go and implement this stuff. SMF and launchd are commonly used as arguments in systemd's favor, but systems administrators hate those things due to their inscrutability.

      With sysvinit, syslog, etc., I can swap out the individual daemon right now because they are making only incremental improvements. Instead of going down that path, systemd decided to throw many things away at once. And yes, I fear change for change's sake. We have discussed other mechanisms here by which the same things could have been accomplished without throwing away the baby.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    32. Re:Logs via network by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      Randomly swapping system components to see what's broken? Where have I heard that one before:

      Q: How can you recognise a DEC field circus engineer with a flat tire?
      A: He's changing one tire at a time to see which one is flat.

      Q: How can you recognise a DEC field circus engineer who is out of gas?
      A: He's changing one tire at a time to see which one is flat.

      http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/F/field-circus.html

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    33. Re:Logs via network by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Randomly swapping system components to see what's broken?

      Not randomly. Sometimes you see what the problem is, and then see if there is a replacement which claims to not have the same problem. Then you try it on to see if it does what it says. HTH

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    34. Re:Logs via network by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      with grep of course

    35. Re:Logs via network by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      Wrong, grep is great for minor variations and making a second pass to strip out unwanted things. You are are saying you were too lazy to learn the built in tools that easily solve problems

    36. Re:Logs via network by jbolden · · Score: 1

      OK show me the grep command to pull all variants that every application on a Linux system uses in syslog to refer to a drive failure?

    37. Re:Logs via network by rubycodez · · Score: 1

      See, you show the problem that is between your ears, love of unnecessary complexity instead of seeing the core issue. There is only one thing you need to look for to see *if a drive is bad* and giving errors on read or write

    38. Re:Logs via network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Where are the "small carefully crafted tools" in systemd? It's one, giant, binary blob with toolsets that can spit out its proprietary data from running memory in vaguely-readable format that you can then pipe into various other unrelated commands to get the same thing that rsyslogd used to provide in a flat text file and shoot across the network to a log collector. So, yay for you because you're a poor liar, I guess.

      Captcha: lemmings

    39. Re:Logs via network by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My answer was clear. The original poster and yourself are both wrong.

      Yes, of course everybody that doesn't agree with you is wrong!

      Why don't you just admit you're a troll too and be done with it?

    40. Re:Logs via network by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

      The humourectomy was a success, I see.

      --
      Watch this Heartland Institute video
    41. Re:Logs via network by hitmark · · Score: 1

      Not just feature requests. They are bluntly stated that any patches for functionality they have no interested in will be rejected.

      Damn it, they even yanked HDD readahead support recently because everyone on the dev team was using SSDs.

      It's like Torvalds yanking everything out of the kernel that didn't support x86 because thats all he is running on his desk.

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
    42. Re:Logs via network by hitmark · · Score: 1

      The main devs on systemd seems to be coming out of a combo of devops/cloud and desktop, with little to no regard for keeping serious servers up for years on end.

      In essence their idea of uptime is more akin to machinegun fire. Dump everything into containers/VMs, and just fire up a new one when the old one goes belly up. Don't care about bugs etc, just restart restart restart.

      --
      comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  34. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, the benefits are clear. If someone promised you a fabulous new car that went 300mph and was only $5K, you'd be like "sign me up!" Until it breaks down on the side of the road.

    In this case the "benefits" (writing init scripts easier) do not outweigh the significant disadvantages. Making init scripts easier to write was a problem that could have been solved without replacing everything in system functionality into some sort of monolithic diseased cow. Especially when the trend is to virtualize and containerize. Now your "benefits" have cost you lost or corrupted logs, a process that takes the entire system down with it, and the inability to swap out your functionality with something better.

  35. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by hublan · · Score: 1

    Reading this, all I could hear was the voice of the Simpsons' comic book guy.

    What's your take on the new Avengers movie?

    --
    My spoon is too big.
  36. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by ookaze · · Score: 1

    systemd's position as PID 1 on Linux systems creates an enormous SPOF given the complexity of the code. The only sane position systemd developers can take is "we're not ready, please don't use this even as a test in your released distributions".

    So that everyone can see the level of BS of this user : "Linux's position as a kernel on Linux systems creates an enormous SPOF given the complexity of the code. The only sane position Linux developers can take is "we're not ready, please don't use this even as a test in your released distributions".
    This is the level of discussion, it's pathetic actually.

    For all practical purposes, the rapid and unseemly adoption of systemd means that many enterprises running distributions that now rely upon systemd have to make the decision to not trust their distribution any more if they consider their systems mission critical. This is going to make people move to FreeBSD, Oracle, Windows, non-systemd distributions, microservice/microkernels, etc in rapid fashion. It is going to literally kill Linux for the people who have not yet figured out how to deal with the loss of machines (the majority of the enterprise world). And that may be a good thing, in the sense that Linux has in many ways become indistinguishable and directionless in the sea of operating system options. It tries to be far too many things to far too many people.

    The problem for you shills of proprietary OS vendors and appliances, is that Linux actually succeeds in being many things to far too many people (in your eyes).
    You'll have to do better than that: while you shills cry here, Linux succeeds, and with systemd, is available in even more products than before.
    You know the stupid Cloud rage going on right now, systemd allows Linux systems to be rapidly deployed there.
    Yes, you shills have no purpose in this matter actually, you've already lost.

    Lennart [...] likes to think he is a genius and we simply don't understand his vision, but for a great many people, his vision is the antithesis of what we like about Linux and Unix. Systemd developers don't understand the arguments of simplicity, composability, and small programs that do one thing well.

    I guess the problem is that systemd is heavily dependent on Linux, whose "developers don't understand the arguments of simplicity, composability, and small programs that do one thing well", to quote you. These developers (Linux kernel and systemd) only understand the arguments of programs that just work, are robust, adaptable, coherent, fast and efficient, easy to use, difficult to break, the most secure possible.

    The truth is the fault doesn't rely totally upon Lennart and his team: Some of the blame can also be assigned to Linus for poor stewardship, but Linus has a set of complex motives and organizations that influence him. Linus should have killed this stuff much earlier.

    I think in a few years, we'll realize what a mistake we made in giving Mr. Poettering any chance of credibility in operating system software development.
    I hope it comes sooner rather than later.

    So you came to the same conclusion as myself. Except that I think Linux, Lennart and co are far more intelligent than you are, and I just happen to agree with them on technical ground with my knowledge of the field. Even my experience of 15+ years of building special purpose Linux OS from scratch agree with systemd and Linux OS, and even with GNU most of the time, believe it or not.

  37. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Eunuchswear · · Score: 1

    on't know who in their right mind thought it was okay to move critical system infrastructure systems (init, time, logging, etc) into the hands of an untested piece of software which clearly has very deep issues,

    Yes, upstart is pretty crappy, isn't it.

    --
    Watch this Heartland Institute video
  38. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by jbolden · · Score: 1

    Oh that makes sense.

  39. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Have you read http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html and http://ewontfix.com/14/ ?

  40. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    Oracle Linux is just rebranded Redhat. Oracle switched because Redhat switched (ditto CentOS and all the other Redhat-based distros), not because they saw any inherent superiority in systemd. (And guess who Poettering works for? Hint, their logo is a crimson fedora.)

    Sure, Oracle is big enough they could have forked it, but then it wouldn't be 100% Redhat compatible, and they'd have to hire developers to actually write code rather just have a script that globally replaces Redhat trademarks with Oracle trademarks. Both of which would cut into Larry Ellison's bottom line, so won't happen.

  41. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It makes writing an init script quite a bit easier,

    I keep hearing this, but it's not like writing a (sysv) init script is at all hard. There's a pretty standard template to follow. You can just copy an existing script and change a few variables and a few lines of code, set up the links in the rc.d directories, and done.

    If it takes much more than that, then there's a fundamental design flaw in the service you're writing the init script for. Probably that it's way more damn complicated than it needs to be.

  42. Re:systemd vs. init appears to me like a petty iss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Easy, Invest $99 - $200 on a Windows OS for 10($20 a year) years and you still can run open sourced applications like code::blocks, monodevelop, netbeans, eclipse, etc... You can also download for free visual studio community 2014 which runs c/c++, c#, vba to get some real work done. Stop wasting your time on linux.

  43. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You'll have to do better than that: while you shills cry here, Linux succeeds, and with systemd, is available in even more products than before.
    You know the stupid Cloud rage going on right now, systemd allows Linux systems to be rapidly deployed there.

    It is to laugh.

    Linux-based products have been around for years before systemd, and work fine. (A couple of examples close to hand: my old wi-fi access point, my old (pre-Touch) Kindle, my Raspberry Pis running pre-systemd distros.)

    I (well, the Fortune 200 company that pays me to keep their stuff running) have hundreds of systems deployed in "the cloud" right now (quick check: 324 running, a bunch stopped but not terminated, a few initializing), only a handful running systemd (and we'll probably revert those). Sys V init is more than fast enough for booting up a new cloud instance -- after all, they're virtual servers, they're not running X Windows or any other graphic subsystem, or any audio, or ever going to get any "hot plug" devices shoved into their non-existent USB ports. Moreover, their text-based logs just stream straight into our ELK-based logging stack (ie, not Splunk, but Splunk-like) without having to do weird-ass shit with systemd's binary journals.

    Systemd is just an unnecessary complication.

  44. Re:systemd vs. init appears to me like a petty iss by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, the reason for systemd adoption isn't faster boot. The reason is that a lot crap is stuffed into one software package so that the system can work its magic when you plug in a thumb drive or a pair of USB headphones or a new network interface so that it just "starts working" (for whatever definition of working some developer had in mind). There's a lot of disparate software trying to accomplish individual parts of this on a typical desktop system and desktop environment developers complained a lot about this - in their eyes - complete mess this current stack represents. The systemd developers listened and reacted. This is why systemd isn't an init system anymore, but something else entirely. It tries to be all these various underpinnings of a desktop environment at once and Gnome and KDE devs gladly fall in line.

  45. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by jbolden · · Score: 1

    The claim of the other poster is that systemd is not enterprise ready. I'd say Oracle's endorsement is a fairly clear refutation of that or at least strong counter evidence.

    I'd agree that Oracle's Linux team didn't care much. They were following RedHat's lead but the fact that they followed RedHat's lead still means a lot. If they hated it, they would have picked a non-systemd choice for Oracle Linux instead of RHEL.

  46. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Might want to read the SMF documentation before claiming it makes any sense...

  47. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "So yet another enterprise vendor"

    I'm not sure cutting and pasting what Redhat do should be considered a different vendor.
    But your point is silly. Oracle Linux is an easy location for systemd. It is usually installed in a minimally modified form in order to maintain support for Oracle applications. The biggest problems with systemd is when you try to do something that the systemd developers didn't expect, or didn't think was worth the effort. _Then_ you're fucked.

  48. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Let me just point out, Oracle Linux 7 is systemd only.

    Of course it is...it is just rebranded RHEL, just like CentOS and Scientific Linux.

  49. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by phantomfive · · Score: 1
    Russ Albery has a good discussion of the topic. You may not agree with him, but you ought to be aware of his points. For example,

    Sysvinit [is] simply inadequate.... The model of fork and exit without clear synchronization points is inherently racy, the boot model encoded into sysvinit doesn't reflect a modern system boot, and maintaining large and complex init scripts as conffiles has been painful for years. Nearly every init script, including the ones in my own packages, have various edge-case bugs or problems because it's very hard to write robust service startup in shell, even with the excellent helper programs and shell libraries that Debian has available. A quick perusal of /etc/init.d/skeleton and the complex case statements and careful attention to status codes required for a proper init script makes this case clear.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  50. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by jbolden · · Score: 1

    Remember the OP's claim. Oracle had to agree to the switch. You don't get more enterprise than Oracle. So their failure to pull away means they didn't think systemd was a terrible idea.

    Oracle Linux is an easy location for systemd. It is usually installed in a minimally modified form in order to maintain support for Oracle applications

    Yes. That's the bulk of enterprise deployment.

    The biggest problems with systemd is when you try to do something that the systemd developers didn't expect, or didn't think was worth the effort.

    Excluding conversion (I'll agree conversions can be complex) like what?

  51. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    I understand what you are trying to say, that the GGP's post is ridiculous and hyperbolic (seriously, Poettering's code isn't that bad....the absolute worst you can say about it is that he needs to improve as a software architect; that post is moronic).

    Still, I don't think I would hold up Oracle as an example of good judgement. They may be thinking, "as long as it's as stable as RedHat, we don't care."

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  52. Exactly by pavon · · Score: 1

    I don't know why this is moderated down, it is absolutely correct. Ubuntu provides and supports both upstart and systemd:

    It's worth noting that while systemd is the default in Ubuntu 15.04, all of the Upstart packages are still there, and you can in fact keep using it if you wish. If you want to switch back and forth, you can use Grub and select "Advanced options for Ubuntu," where you will find an "Ubuntu, with Linux ... (upstart)" entry. If you want to permanently switch, install the upstart-sysv package.

    Mint is just following their lead, which makes sense given that Mint is based on Ubuntu. This is a non-story, fabricated because editors know systemd flamebait generates traffic.

  53. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by jbolden · · Score: 1

    Two things:

    a) Oracle has to deliver stability. They have stability guarantees in their contracts
    b) He specifically cited Oracle, so that's why I brought them up.

    I do think highly of Oracle. There are certainly problems. But partially those are caused by over promising and partially those are caused by being held to a much higher standard than other vendors where. Oracle can be jerks but there is a good reason they have grown the way they have. So FWIW I would consider their judgement good.

  54. Here's a reason why systemd is actually good. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    True story. I have a RHEL7 server that behaves as follows.

    If I unplug the USB keyboard and plug it back in again, dbus or consolekit takes down the sshd and you can't restart either the keyboard or the sshd. Took me a while to figure it out.

    Thank you systemd and surrounding crap, I would never have looked into FreeBSD or discovered the joys of ZFS if it were not for you.

  55. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Yeah, but Oracle uses it."
    "Yeah, but Oracle uses it."

    How many times are you going to post the same shit? Oracle has a department of people to provide dedicated support to their tiny installation base of customers who pay dearly for the privilege of running their DBMS on Linux. Linux is much bigger than that. No one, except you and perhaps another few hundred customers, gives a shit what Oracle does or does not do! They are not a representative of the significantly larger Linux community.

  56. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by jbolden · · Score: 1

    OK what enterprise applications have indicated they have problems with systemd?

  57. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Oracle would rather sell you Solaris on Sparc. If Linux develops a reputation for instability, they will only be that much happier (and take Postgresql with it!).

    Oracle isn't doing much with Linux. They basically repackage RedHat, so it's not like they have their top minds working on it (Oracle has very good people........but they also have a lot of really bad people).

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  58. Re:Systemd detractors are like climate change deni by sjames · · Score: 1

    Just wait till you try to boot the server with the RAID in degraded mode. Oh, the fun you'll have!

  59. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you see Oracle scrambling to port systemd to Solaris, since they obviously feel it is so great?

  60. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by jbolden · · Score: 1

    Solaris had a process manager years before Linux did. The ideas for systemd came from big box Unixes.

  61. Great news! by MobileTatsu-NJG · · Score: 1

    This is great news. I'm really excited about trying out systemd. Everybody's talking about it!!

    --

    "I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)

  62. Re:systemd vs. init appears to me like a petty iss by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    This is why systemd isn't an init system anymore, but something else entirely. It tries to be all these various underpinnings of a desktop environment at once and Gnome and KDE devs gladly fall in line.

    What's really sad is that systemd seems like something I would really like, in about five to ten years when it's mature enough to screw with. It's not something I want anywhere near a production server, or even my desktop. I might never want it on a server, but I like candy-coated desktops so long as I can dig down into the guts. And also, only if it doesn't make sophomoric mistakes like the devs thinking they're smarter than all the classic Unix devs put together, in spite of copious evidence to the contrary.

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  63. How? Fork Ubuntu? Use Devuan? by GodWasAnAlien · · Score: 1

    I am a skeptical.

    Will Mint really fork Ubuntu? And keep an Upstart optional system?

    An easier path, is perhaps have two paths (as Mint currently has).

    An Ubuntu based system, which would have SystemD,

    And a Devuan based system, which would offer other init systems. (The Devuan system would replace the Debian derived Mint).

  64. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Rhyas · · Score: 1

    You know the stupid Cloud rage going on right now, systemd allows Linux systems to be rapidly deployed there.

    You lost all *your* credibility there. systemd has absolutely nothing to do with cloud deployment, if anything, it complicates existing tool sets that are already being used for cloud deployments, because it obfuscates underlying process making it even harder to debug mass deployments.

    I guess the problem is that systemd is heavily dependent on Linux, whose "developers don't understand the arguments of simplicity, composability, and small programs that do one thing well", to quote you. These developers (Linux kernel and systemd) only understand the arguments of programs that just work, are robust, adaptable, coherent, fast and efficient, easy to use, difficult to break, the most secure possible.

    Robust? Efficient? Easy to Use?Just Works? You might be talking about the kernel, but you're definitely not talking about systemd anymore. I would put good money on any kernel developer pissing in your coffee just for saying systemd architecture is anything even remotely comparable to the kernel.

    If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The old init system worked just fine. So what if it was scripts, scripts are the heart of any unix system, and have been for years. So what if the more complicated your app was, the more complicated your init process was. Using systemd isn't going to make your special purpose Linux OS any simpler, it still has to do the same damn thing. It's only going to hide that complexity in yet another tool.

  65. Hitler finds out Debian uses systemd by mrons · · Score: 1
  66. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hahaha XD

    Sorry, have you used Oracle? I have, for many years, and them adopting something is usually a sign that it is bug ridden and unstable, if not now, then soon. For example:

    Solaris - Good when Oracle aquired it, now a bug ridden mess.
    ZFS - Good when oracle aquired it, now a bug ridden mess (at least their version, which others have forked beforehand)
    MySQL - Good when Oracle aquired it, now becoming more and more bug-ridden. Most people use the non-Oracle fork
    etc....

    Honestly, when you think about it, Oracle makes a huge amount of money on support contracts. More than the licensing itself (which is wallet burning as is). It is in their interest to give you a bug ridden mess, because then they can make more money by charging you for patches, support calls etc... Not to mention that they are the only ones who can fix it (talk about a captive audience).

    I myself made a mint migrating large enterprises off Oracle for the last 5 years. The only reason they are even still mentioned in enterprise is because of the DB offering, but even that is starting to erode.

    So them adopting systemd for me at least, indicates that systemd is a) in the "needs constant babysitting" state in order to function and b) needs magic incantations to make work (which is highly billable by "consultants").
    That is where the good money is for companies providing support services (including Red Hat, incidentally. Who foisted this upon us in the first place). I suspect that so many people are for systemd because they see an opportunity to relive the hayday's of Windows in the 90's-2000's, when you needed to be versed in the dark arts to coax Windows to do something other than the path provided by Microsoft. Some people made a killing as "consultants" during that phrase, to the detriment to the entire PC ecosystem.

  67. On a Positive Note by bufo333 · · Score: 1

    The amount of time, effort and money being dumped into FreeBSD/PCBSD is amazing, just look at the new feature list for the upcoming PCBSD release. Oh and by the way convert to FreeBSD we have cookies!

  68. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by hitmark · · Score: 1

    If systemd was just a init replacement, i would agree.

    But at this point in time the one systemd tarball holds a init replacement, cron replacement, udev, firewall manager (firewalld), logger (journald), networkmanager (networkd), dhcp client, dns client, session/seat tracker (logind) that was also recently put in charge of handling power button and laptop lid events (replacing/merging shutdownd).

    And i swear they were planning to put in a userspace TTY manager as well in the near future.

    In essence it has pretty much become a second kernel in userspace.

    --
    comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  69. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by jbolden · · Score: 1

    I don't see any evidence that Oracle is heavily invested in either Solaris or Sparc. They were dying technologies when Oracle bought them and they have done little to revive them. Oracle has the cash for a massive push for Solaris or Sparc innovation and they haven't done it. They've let them fade.

    Anyway I've met the thought leaders for Oracle Linux. Their work right now is focused on really large customer support. Oracle is using Oracle Linus to get further into the hosting / cloud / IaaS reoccurring revenue business (think classic Terremark, Sungard...) The people are strong. Areas like application centric virtualization, and virtual compute appliance (Oracle's cheap version of Netezza / Exadata) are where the focus is. Just not the sort of stuff the /. crowd cares about.

  70. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Anyway I've met the thought leaders for Oracle Linux. Their work right now is focused on really large customer support. Oracle is using Oracle Linux to get further into the hosting / cloud / IaaS reoccurring revenue business (think classic Terremark, Sungard...) The people are strong. Areas like application centric virtualization, and virtual compute appliance (Oracle's cheap version of Netezza / Exadata) are where the focus is.

    Interesting, thx.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  71. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Nah, it's not a problem that they are in one tarball (after all, an entire distro can be found in an ISO). The problem is they are all interdependent, with more things growing dependent on them. There is no sane reason that Gnome should depend on a particular init system.

    More importantly, the systemd team is taking an ad-hoc, 'code first' approach, which has led to poor interfaces between everything (internal programs and external programs).

    I discuss this at length in the journal entry linked to in my sig, below.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  72. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by hitmark · · Score: 1

    To me at least keeping things distributed separately makes it harder for a developer to accidentally cross the internal/external divide.

    --
    comment first, facts later. http://chem.tufts.edu/AnswersInScience/RelativityofWrong.htm
  73. Re:Lennart Poettering is cancer on the face of Lin by phantomfive · · Score: 1

    Maybe. Gnome still depends on systemd, and it is distributed completely separately.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."