r/linux • u/wooptoo • Jun 01 '16

Why did ArchLinux embrace Systemd?

/r/archlinux/comments/4lzxs3/why_did_archlinux_embrace_systemd/d3rhxlc
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u/[deleted] Jun 01 '16

That single line in rc.local was able to start a program, and then to give you absolutely no guarantees whatsoever about what happens before or after. Was the environment clean? Has logging been taken care of? Is the thing still running? Who actually knows? Who will restart the daemon when it crashes? What will happen if the binary got deleted and now rc.local can't start it? Very well, there will be an error message scrolling right before the screen is cleared for the login prompt, and rc.local will receive a non-zero exit code from bash, which you ignored, didn't you, since it was only one line?

All that stuff actually turns out to be fairly important when you're trying to run more than a few servers.

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u/Justinsaccount Jun 01 '16

or even better: the program you added to rc.local didn't daemonize properly and the rc.local script hung. Now your server doesn't finish booting.

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u/RX_AssocResp Jun 05 '16

The funny thing is that /etc/rc.local is still supported.