3 ms·

Maybe a good way to get competition is to give someone a possibly dubious (but fun!) goal of writing a systemd compatible alternative in rust. Reimplementing s

Maybe a good way to get competition is to give someone a possibly dubious (but fun!) goal of writing a systemd compatible alternative in rust. Reimplementing such a massive piece of infrastructure is pretty daunting. I don't think many people who are not being paid to would embark on it and then keep up the momentum to actually cover all those edge cases and maintain a community around it. Rewriting things in rust seems to be pretty motivating though, so maybe it could be a force for good here

nerdponx 3y ago
If you're just looking for init and service management, the S6 system (and its wrapper 66suite) are pretty good. It's the only alternative that seems to match Systemd for feeling like a modern tool in my opinion, rather than a relic of the old days.
- generalizations 3y ago
  Been watching that for a couple years now. At one point there were plans to integrate with alpine Linux, but it wasn’t ready yet. Has there been progress towards that?
  - awilfox 3y ago
    Yes, there is some progress it seems: https://skarnet.com/projects/service-manager.html https://skarnet.com/projects/service-manager.html
- throwaway7356 3y ago
  Don't want s6 as it brings with it a binary configuration database (Windows registry). systemd at least has text files for config.
  - egberts1 3y ago
    My sole resistance to s6, binary config AND default-all privilege for spawned daemon. Better to stick with INI v1.4 format. https://cloanto.com/specs/ini/#escapesequences https://cloanto.com/specs/ini/#escapesequences
  - yencabulator 3y ago
    Sorry, where's the binary configuration database in S6? The config looked like a collection of directories with scripts to run to start things. EDIT: Ah, you might mean https://skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/s6-rc-compile.html https://skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/s6-rc-compile.html -- that indeed is getting to be weirdly complex.
milliams 3y ago
There's a willingness from the systemd devs to start incorporating Rust into it, possibly quite soon: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/19598 https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/19598
- habitue 3y ago
  From 2021?
  - notamy 3y ago
    The original PR is from 2021, but there's been activity on it that's less than a month old indicating that it's still wanted, especially as the kernel starts to integrate Rust.
- dwattttt 3y ago
  Ah, because while systemd is divisive, couldn't it be _more_ divisive?
  - bmicraft 3y ago
    This choice literally only affects contributors and packagers for distros. If you even notice it at all as a user, it should only be through a very slight reduction in crashes.
KillingSpark 3y ago
I'm Just going to plug myself here: https://github.com/KillingSpark/rustysd https://github.com/KillingSpark/rustysd Rustysd is a reimplantation of the core features of the systemd service manager with a deliberate focus on less features so it can work on more platforms (e.g. BSD) It's been a while since I actively progressed on the project but it works and would probably be a good starting point for anyone wanting to do further work in this direction.

nerdponx 3y ago

If you're just looking for init and service management, the S6 system (and its wrapper 66suite) are pretty good. It's the only alternative that seems to match Systemd for feeling like a modern tool in my opinion, rather than a relic of the old days.

generalizations 3y ago
Been watching that for a couple years now. At one point there were plans to integrate with alpine Linux, but it wasn’t ready yet. Has there been progress towards that?
- awilfox 3y ago
  Yes, there is some progress it seems: https://skarnet.com/projects/service-manager.html https://skarnet.com/projects/service-manager.html
throwaway7356 3y ago
Don't want s6 as it brings with it a binary configuration database (Windows registry). systemd at least has text files for config.
- egberts1 3y ago
  My sole resistance to s6, binary config AND default-all privilege for spawned daemon. Better to stick with INI v1.4 format. https://cloanto.com/specs/ini/#escapesequences https://cloanto.com/specs/ini/#escapesequences
- yencabulator 3y ago
  Sorry, where's the binary configuration database in S6? The config looked like a collection of directories with scripts to run to start things. EDIT: Ah, you might mean https://skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/s6-rc-compile.html https://skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/s6-rc-compile.html -- that indeed is getting to be weirdly complex.

milliams 3y ago

There's a willingness from the systemd devs to start incorporating Rust into it, possibly quite soon: https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/19598 https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/19598

habitue 3y ago
From 2021?
- notamy 3y ago
  The original PR is from 2021, but there's been activity on it that's less than a month old indicating that it's still wanted, especially as the kernel starts to integrate Rust.
dwattttt 3y ago
Ah, because while systemd is divisive, couldn't it be _more_ divisive?
- bmicraft 3y ago
  This choice literally only affects contributors and packagers for distros. If you even notice it at all as a user, it should only be through a very slight reduction in crashes.

KillingSpark 3y ago

I'm Just going to plug myself here: https://github.com/KillingSpark/rustysd https://github.com/KillingSpark/rustysd Rustysd is a reimplantation of the core features of the systemd service manager with a deliberate focus on less features so it can work on more platforms (e.g. BSD) It's been a while since I actively progressed on the project but it works and would probably be a good starting point for anyone wanting to do further work in this direction.