23 ms·

> Exactly. > “Idempotent” is one of the key words used as a cudgel in this way. It’s great for the bullshit artist, as to a layman the dictionary definition is

• tremon 5y ago
  If we're going to be pedantic, "idempotent" (or rather non-idempotent) as used in the description is rather vapid and meaningless. Idempotency is a quality that describes the result of an action; as such, only actions can be thought of as idempotent. Applying the word idempotent to any noun that does not describe an action (such as "dataflow" in this case) is meaningless. What does it mean for a dataflow to be idempotent in the first place? What purpose does it then serve to describe a dataflow as non-idempotent? What they meant to say, I guess, is that the dataflow may contain multiple actions for the same unit, and that systemd makes no guarantees about the end state of the unit in such a case. But even then, it is the execution which should be described as non-idempotent, and not the dataflow.
  • int_19h 5y ago
    That feels unnecessarily pedantic. If the sole job of entity X is to perform action Y, and it always performs this action idempotently, then why not describe X as idempotent? It's shorter, and it's clear enough. It might not be precisely accurate in the dictionary definition of the word - but natural languages also have DSLs, and those DSLs evolve to adapt to their use cases. Saying "thing that performs an idempotent action" over and over again is a waste of everybody's time.
• Spooky23 5y ago
  In the context used, it’s fluff.