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It's unfortunate that many of the modern components frequently seen in Linux environments do not appreciate/respect/promote the use of plain-text files and scri

It's unfortunate that many of the modern components frequently seen in Linux environments do not appreciate/respect/promote the use of plain-text files and scripts. Thinking of systemd and its many utilities, Docker, etc.

lima 10y ago
> systemd Isn't systemd's configuration entirely plain text?
- robmccoll 10y ago
  Some of the configuration is plain text: unit, service, and environment files are plaintext. Which services are enabled and disabled cannot be controlled through file manipulation that I know of. Journal (log files) are binary. I think what bothers me about both is that the presence of text files in a predefined location is not enough to make things happen on its own. Instead of the simplest possible everything-is-a-file and interacting with the filesystem is the interface, you have an additional requirement of calling binaries and their subcommands.
  - juliangoldsmith 10y ago
    IIRC enabling and disabling services in systemd are done via symlinks. You'd have to call a binary to start newly-added services, though. (i.e. systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl start service)
    - lima 10y ago
      > You'd have to call a binary to start newly-added services It reloads its configuration on SIGHUP (same as daemon-reload).
  - edbrown23 10y ago
    Generally systemd manages enabled/disabled services through symlinks in /etc/ (/etc/systemd/system/ on my Fedora 24, for instance), which you can add/delete in the shell if you want to. It's admittedly not plain-text, but manipulation-wise it's about equal.
    - robmccoll 10y ago
      Nice - learned something new. Thanks!
    - mjevans 10y ago
      It's using the default database (the filesystem) for it's configuration in that instance.
fapjacks 10y ago
Can you please explain what you mean with respect to Docker? I've been using it (and the other software in its ecosystem) for three years and have never run into files and scripts that were not plaintext. Even image layers are just tarballs of files and metadata.

lima 10y ago

> systemd Isn't systemd's configuration entirely plain text?

robmccoll 10y ago
Some of the configuration is plain text: unit, service, and environment files are plaintext. Which services are enabled and disabled cannot be controlled through file manipulation that I know of. Journal (log files) are binary. I think what bothers me about both is that the presence of text files in a predefined location is not enough to make things happen on its own. Instead of the simplest possible everything-is-a-file and interacting with the filesystem is the interface, you have an additional requirement of calling binaries and their subcommands.
- juliangoldsmith 10y ago
  IIRC enabling and disabling services in systemd are done via symlinks. You'd have to call a binary to start newly-added services, though. (i.e. systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl start service)
  - lima 10y ago
    > You'd have to call a binary to start newly-added services It reloads its configuration on SIGHUP (same as daemon-reload).
- edbrown23 10y ago
  Generally systemd manages enabled/disabled services through symlinks in /etc/ (/etc/systemd/system/ on my Fedora 24, for instance), which you can add/delete in the shell if you want to. It's admittedly not plain-text, but manipulation-wise it's about equal.
  - robmccoll 10y ago
    Nice - learned something new. Thanks!
  - mjevans 10y ago
    It's using the default database (the filesystem) for it's configuration in that instance.

fapjacks 10y ago

Can you please explain what you mean with respect to Docker? I've been using it (and the other software in its ecosystem) for three years and have never run into files and scripts that were not plaintext. Even image layers are just tarballs of files and metadata.