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In Which Linus Torvalds Makes An 'Init' Joke (lkml.org)
Long-time Slashdot reader jawtheshark writes:
In a recent Linux Kernel Mailing List post, Linux Torvalds finishes his mail with a little poke towards a certain init system. It is a very faint criticism, compared to his usual style. While Linus has no direct influence on the "choices" of distro maintainers, his opinion is usually valued.
In a discussion about how to set rlimit default values for setuid execs, Linus concluded his email by writing, "And yes, a large part of this may be that I no longer feel like I can trust "init" to do the sane thing. You all presumably know why."
In a discussion about how to set rlimit default values for setuid execs, Linus concluded his email by writing, "And yes, a large part of this may be that I no longer feel like I can trust "init" to do the sane thing. You all presumably know why."
And yet that part isn't 100% separate... it cannot operate on its own, it requires libsystemd -> it isn't separate. While it is true it is mostly unused it is a gross misrepresentation to say it is 100% separate.
Systemd is a poorly thought out concept.. Half of the feature-creep is because of a lack of understanding and the other half due to NIH. ... sure starting with a number is bad BUT blocking a "." in the name... that SMB and AD issues right there...
The recent "username starting with a number" bullshit is clear proof of that... username start with a number & wanting a unitfile executed as said user ? TOBAD... executing as ROOT... Systemd still hasn't resolved this & their preferred solution right now is redefine what a valid user is
Or what about the rapid polling of getpid() ?
its a flawed concept
I quote myself...
More pointedly, systemD has recently been found declareing usernames that are considered valid by the system at large and by POSIX standards, to be invalid and selecting a new userid at random (on some very common systems, root) and silently running processes under that user id.
This is an EXTREMELY non-standard behavior and as such, unexpected by the user community at large. By many, it is considered a security breech. Based on the comment from Linus, I suspect he does not consider this to be sane behavior.
The systemD developer community has demonstrated reluctance to correct this observed behavior.
This isn't "change is scary". This is, the damned thing is broken and the developers went into Pewee Herman mode (I meant to do that! I won't fix it).
THAT is scary. The rude and dismissive attitude around the cult of SystemD is even more scary.
...For all these things and many more there has been a turf war along the lines of "We will fix this in the kernel!", "Oh no you won't, we will fix this with our daemon", "Oh no you won't, my userland administration tool will fix this"....
At that point, the need for an overall system-level architect comes into play. Someone who looks at the overall system, its architecture and design goals and decides the best way to implement features and fixes.
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To this Linux outsider, it seems that systemd was implemented more because someone decided to do it, rather than being done because it was the appropriate solution to a problem.
Unlike most complainers (some that simply doesn't understand systemd at all) systemd solves a number of real world problems created by the disconnect of how computers used to be used (let's call it "static" configuration) and how a system is used today (... "dynamic" configuration).
If systemd is so bloated, reinvents the whole of Linux, is a Microsoft conspiracy etc. why is that it actually solves (most) problems with older init systems? Why is it modern Unix systems have similar "dynamic" init systems rather than the old? Why is it nobody else actually created a modern init system that can be used for the same things as systemd but "follows the Unix philosophy"*?
In a was systemd is kind of a hack - but that is because it tries to integrate into the Unix design and allow it to do things it wasn't designed to do. In some cases maybe systemd have to much of hack in it but again: where is the alternative?
Note: I don't really like systemd.
(* I strongly maintain that people taking about 1) doing one thing well being a Unix thing rather than a design thing 2) thinking that philosophy is actually applied to modern Unix systems are seriously confused)
I am not questioning you opinions on systemd, particularly since my father, a retired CE and lifelong *nix user dislikes it with a passion. But I'm way to ignorant of the dirty mechanics and politics of Linux to understand how, with so many presumably knowledgeable folks who dislike systemd, it became a standard in the more popular distros. Does it solve some vexing issue for the maintainers of these distros? What do these people find so compelling as to make such a fundamental change?
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