4 ms·

What's the recommended way for someone to learn systemd properly? Is there a readable manual somewhere that documents everything? That's the only thing I find

by nnq 7y ago

What's the recommended way for someone to learn systemd properly? Is there a readable manual somewhere that documents everything? That's the only thing I find scary about such big systems, the lack of comprehensive docs and a "starting point for learning them" from 0 to hero. Like, with Git there's tons of nice tutorials like "learn kit bottom up by reinventing it in way X" etc. plus a good "default book". What's the equivalent of https://git-scm.com/book https://git-scm.com/book for systemd?

otterley 7y ago
Good question! A great introduction that was written while the author was still building systemd can be found here: http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html Also, the "systemd for administrators" series: https://gist.github.com/bcremer/8cdf6900c35dda65f387 https://gist.github.com/bcremer/8cdf6900c35dda65f387
heinrichhartman 7y ago
I found the man pages to be a pretty good read. Use `man -t systemctl` to produce a pdf version. There are a couple of files you want to read, e.g. systemd.service, systemd.unit, systemd, deamon etc. But those are linked at the `SEE ALSO` section.
jolmg 7y ago
The Archlinux Wiki is my go-to for that kind of thing: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd Also, check the related articles on the right sidebar on the top of the article. It doesn't document everything, but it quickly gets you to learning the overview, the basics, and what's most important for general usage of systemd. If you really want absolutely everything the references are the man-pages. Excluding those that document C functions, there seems to be 256 systemd man-pages in total. 36 are regular commands (section 1; like systemctl), 64 are file formats (section 5; like systemd.service), 139 are system administration commands (section 8; like daemons like systemd-networkd), and 17 are miscellaneous topics (section 7; like bootup). I would consider the manpages of section 1 and 5 to be the important ones, and just section 1 is enough if you never intend to read or write a service or other unit file yourself. Here's an online index of the manpages: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/index.html https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/index.html

by nnq 7y ago

otterley 7y ago

Good question! A great introduction that was written while the author was still building systemd can be found here: http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html Also, the "systemd for administrators" series: https://gist.github.com/bcremer/8cdf6900c35dda65f387 https://gist.github.com/bcremer/8cdf6900c35dda65f387

heinrichhartman 7y ago

I found the man pages to be a pretty good read. Use `man -t systemctl` to produce a pdf version. There are a couple of files you want to read, e.g. systemd.service, systemd.unit, systemd, deamon etc. But those are linked at the `SEE ALSO` section.

jolmg 7y ago

The Archlinux Wiki is my go-to for that kind of thing: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd Also, check the related articles on the right sidebar on the top of the article. It doesn't document everything, but it quickly gets you to learning the overview, the basics, and what's most important for general usage of systemd. If you really want absolutely everything the references are the man-pages. Excluding those that document C functions, there seems to be 256 systemd man-pages in total. 36 are regular commands (section 1; like systemctl), 64 are file formats (section 5; like systemd.service), 139 are system administration commands (section 8; like daemons like systemd-networkd), and 17 are miscellaneous topics (section 7; like bootup). I would consider the manpages of section 1 and 5 to be the important ones, and just section 1 is enough if you never intend to read or write a service or other unit file yourself. Here's an online index of the manpages: https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/index.html https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/index.html