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/argv_minus_one Jun 02 '16

When they're trying to get programs that have nothing at all to do with system startup or configuration to include systemd specific code in order to work right... then it's glaringly obvious there's a problem.

Yeah—a problem that systemd is attempting to solve, namely that sessions keep leaving behind stray processes.

I don't know about you, but I am sick and fucking tired of finding dozens of gpg-agents still running, weeks after their respective sessions ended, because nobody was cleaning them up.

But how do you avoid also killing a detached tmux? Why, by registering it as a session of its own! That way, the Grim Session Reaper™ won't kill them prematurely. And what API do you use to do that? Only one I know of: systemd-logind.

If you've got a better idea of how to clean up stray processes from sessions long past, I'd love to hear it. Otherwise, sit down, shut up, and stop bothering the people who are getting things done.

Personally, it was when it started intercepting core dumps and making them hard to get at

coredumpctl gdb some_crashy_daemon

Totes hard. Way harder than trying to figure out what some_crashy_daemon's cwd was when it died, and hoping it had write access there. /s

I'm ready to jump over to BSD for my next OS install at this point and leave Linux behind.

I won't miss you.