[ale] systemd talk from July has slide deck online now

[Jim Kinney]

Thanks for the info on alternate init tools. I've never used any of them
other than busybox in special cases. Kind of shows I tend to stick with
large, server-style distros, huh?

I have some SoC devices aroynd. Hopefully I will make use of tiny distros
in the near future.
On Sep 8, 2015 8:20 PM, "Steve Litt" <slitt at troubleshooters.com> wrote:

> On Mon, 7 Sep 2015 14:59:08 -0400
> Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Sep 7, 2015 1:43 PM, "Steve Litt" <slitt at troubleshooters.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > On Mon, 07 Sep 2015 11:21:24 -0400
> > > Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > http://ale.org/?p=632
> > > >
> > > > The slides are now added to the bottom of the announcement page.
> > >
> > > Hi Jim,
> > >
> > > I think for your next presentation, you should either get rid of all
> > > comparisons to sysvinit and Upstart, or include comparisons to
> > > runit, OpenRC, Epoch, Suckless Init plus s6 plus LittKit, Suckless
> > > Init plus daemontools-encore plus LittKit, and the soon to be
> > > published s6-rc.
> > >
> > > If your presentation is simply "how to use systemd", you need no
> > > comparisons. If your presentation includes "why systemd is better",
> > > it would be misleading not to include the many excellent init
> > > systems available.
>
> > I am unfamiliar with those. Do they all start Linux?
> >
> > My goal was more to show what systemd does different from prior Linux
> > startups for the major distros.
>
> Hi Jim,
>
> Fair enough. Still, your comparison to only upstart and sysvinit could
> be misconstrued to mean it's the best init system. In fact, I'm
> pretty sure the systemd industry and fans will quote your
> presentation as proof of systemd being the best init.
>
> Here are some of the many good inits:
>
> * runit: Serves as both PID1 and typical daemontools-style service
>   manager.
>
> * s6: Very advanced daemontools-style service manager. Requires some
>   other PID1. Sysvinit will fill that bill (without any of the init
>   scripts: Just one line in /etc/inittab). Personally, I used
>   Suckless-Init  to implement PID1, and LittKit to provide
>   deterministic startup order of services.
>
> * s6-rc: This is coming out this month: I haven't used it. From what I
>   understand, this has raised the bar by combining a top quality PID1
>   with the s6 service manager.
>
> * nosh: Another PID1 plus daemontools-style service manager. Its
>   runscripts require a special language, I was unable to compile it
>   eight months ago. Judging from the many things I've heard its author
>   saying, this should be an excellent init if you can get it running.
>
> * Epoch: Trivially easy init system with declarative config file
>   instead of init scripts, run scripts, or unit files. If I need to
>   alt-init a computer in two hours, I'll be using Epoch.
>
> * OpenRC: A sort of advanced version of what sysvinit should have been.
>   I've used it a couple times. I understand it has the ability to do
>   all the same stuff as systemd achieves with its socket-activation. Is
>   not capable of automatically rerunning crashed services.
>
> * RichFelker + LittKit + daemontools-encore: If you want the simplest
>   possible init: One that absolutely anybody can understand and
>   troubleshoot, this is it. Includes a 16 lines-of-C PID1. You can
>   replace RichFelker with Suckless-Init if you want your PID1 to listen
>   for SIGCHLD, SIGINT and SIGUSR1 and do the right thing, substitute
>   the 83 lines-of-C Suckless Init. You'll need to write your own
>   shutdown script, which isn't particularly difficult. If you want to
>   know what RichFelker PID1 is, see the bottom of this page:
>   http://ewontfix.com/14/
>
> * Busybox Init: I know little about it.
>
>
> USE CASES:
>
> The main use for OpenRC, IMHO, is when your distro already comes with
> it. Gentoo, Funtoo, Manjaro OpenRC.
>
> Runit and Epoch are high quality, small footprint inits easily
> installed on any Linux not tied down with a bunch of systemd-isms. Both
> are easy to install, easy to configure, both can rerun crashed
> processes (Epoch gives you more choice in the matter). Unless a 1
> second bootup is vital to you, I can't forsee a use case not conducive
> to Runit and Epoch. Servers, desktops, it's all good. Runit also works
> with BSD.
>
> S6 is a top notch service manager that can be combined with a separate
> PID1 (sysvinit, Suckless-Init, systemd) to init almost any use case.
> Its claim to fame is reliability: You just can't kill it. With the soon
> to come s6-rc, it will be a complete init system of the highest quality.
>
> (RichFelker|Suckless-Init) + LittKit + any daemontools-style service
> manager is best when your top priority is academic simplicity.
> Conforms to http://ewontfix.com/14/. It can be used to alt-init pretty
> much any Linux OS not glued down with systemd-isms, and it will do a
> good job as such. In reality, these kinds of inits serve more as
> demonstrations: For a production machine you'd probably use runit or
> s6-rc instead.
>
> Busybox Init is used when the priority is tiny and simple.
>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt
> August 2015 featured book: Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
> http://www.troubleshooters.com/tjust
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