[ale] [Fwd: Advertising on ale.org] - OT MS vs Apple vs Linux/UNIX

Solomon Peachy pizza at shaftnet.org
Sat Sep 12 16:44:39 EDT 2015


On Sat, Sep 12, 2015 at 11:08:26AM -0700, Alex Carver wrote:
> 1.  If a feature of systemd is not needed at all, does it still load?

Generally speaking, no.  Most of systemd exists of independent binaries
that are enabled at runtime based on userspace-level configuration; the 
only exception to this that I can think of is the journal.

> Case in point, according to the docs PulseAudio is a core module of PID
> 1.  

I'm not sure where you read that, as PulseAudio has nothing to do with 
systemd.

> 2. Can I patch a piece of systemd without forcing a reboot? 

Yes, including the component that runs as PID1.

> 3.  For some of the more unusual inclusions in systemd (e.g. DHCPd) is
> it possible to turn that feature off, remove its memory footprint, and
> replace it with another? 

systemd's dhcp client and server are entirely optional, both at compile 
time and runtime.  If not actually invoked/executed, they don't do 
anything but take up space on disk.

> Maybe some of the angst would calm down a bit if the developers and
> documenters would actually explain these things instead of just saying
> "look what new feature we added".  That's mostly what I see on that
> -devel list, a lot of excitement about pulling in yet another feature
> but no real documentation about what to do when it doesn't fit a need.

You're probably best off looking at the user-facing documentation, which 
necessarily does lag a bit behind posts on the -devel list.  :)

> I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt but the documentation 
> I can find is so poor or inapplicable to the use case (meaning 
> supplied as a distro package rather than built from source)

systemd-the-project can be seen as a big box of tools that can be used 
to build a distribution.  Exactly which parts the distro enables and 
utilizes are up to the distro, so it's hard to write meaningingful 
documentation when nearly every component is optional.

For example, going back to your earlier questions about the dhcp stuff:

It's a completely optional component from systemd's perspective, so 
strictly speaking using it or not would be a matter of running 
'systemctl stop systemd-networkd' and that's about it.  However, if your 
distro was built to utilize that feature, then you'd have to come up 
with an alternative way to bring up your network devices.

I hope that makes sense.

 - Solomon
-- 
Solomon Peachy        		       pizza at shaftnet dot org
Delray Beach, FL                          ^^ (email/xmpp) ^^
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
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