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https://www.theregister.com/2024/06/20/systemd_2561_data_wipe_fix/
Following closely after the release of version 256, version 256.1 fixes a handful of bugs. One of these is emphatically not systemd-tmpfiles recursively deleting your entire home directory. That's a feature.
The 256.1 release is now out, containing some 38 minor changes and bugfixes. Among these are some changes to the help text around the systemd-tmpfiles command, which describes itself as a tool to "Create, delete, and clean up files and directories." Red Hat's RHEL documentation describes it as a tool for managing and cleaning up your temporary files.
That sounds innocuous enough, right?
It isn't, as Github user jedenastka discovered on Friday. He filed bug #33349 and the description makes for harrowing reading, not just because of the tool's entirely intended behavior, but also because of the systemd maintainers' response, which could be summarized as "you're doing it wrong".
(Score: 4, Insightful) by DrkShadow on Sunday June 23 2024, @12:13AM (7 children)
Debian adopted Systemd because it was an init system that made things faster, and in their view better.
However, now they're slotting a shit-ton of things into systemd that Debian *did not* review or accept. Still... Debian just keeps "taking it" (however you want to think of them taking it, they just keep taking it. Now they're taking it from Microsoft.)
How does this change the discussion? are the same parties still saying the same things? There was apparently strife internally in the Debian project over systemd originally, back before it had all of this additional attack surface, ..
Anyway, with Systemd inserting tools, utilities, inserting itself into opensshd, creating a whole-new user-land (as far as the /usr/bin, /bin combination?) that Debian didn't discuss or agree to -- what's the likelihood that these projects are going to reconsider their systemd dependency? (or fork it into something more reasonable, drastically more stable and predictable?)
In my view "all the other distros" adopted Systemd because.. they're all based on either Debian or Redhat. That's why it's infected "all" of the distros. (I can't explain Arch, and Gentoo has a split - because so much depends on systemd. Unsure about alpine.)
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Sunday June 23 2024, @02:31AM (3 children)
Debian adopted systemd in a vote where there were a variety of accusations of shenanigans in the voting. It was controversial enough that Devuan forked off soon after as a result.
I did find it interesting that Lennart seemed to actually be the voice of reason on the bug report, which is a bit unusual given the number of times he's been told off for treating bug reports as not a bug. But I guess his own career is pretty secure at this point, which was really the point of the whole systemd exercise, so he now doesn't have to be as much of a jerk about things.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 2) by DrkShadow on Sunday June 23 2024, @06:16AM (1 child)
honestly, a lot of things are docker-oriented now-adays. Docker and kubernetes.
So instead of basing all of my projects on an Ubuntu image, or even a Debian image any more, I'm going to start basing them on a Devuan image. Let those usage metrics RISE!!!
It looks like Alpine Linux is also *not* systemd-corrupted. So that really leaves only Redhat, Debian, and Arch(???) (and things based on them).
(Score: 3, Informative) by owl on Sunday June 23 2024, @03:39PM
Slackware is also blissfully systemd free.
(Score: 4, Touché) by gtomorrow on Sunday June 23 2024, @06:21AM
When in the history of the world have you ever had a jerk of position become less so when higher up in the hierarchy?
Just askin' ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
(Score: 4, Interesting) by rleigh on Sunday June 23 2024, @08:26AM (1 child)
Yep. Quite a few of us in Debian at the time pointed out the folly of adopting something which was continually changing its scope, and that it was the thin edge of the wedge. Obviously this viewpoint did not win out but clearly wasn't wrong.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Unixnut on Sunday June 23 2024, @10:54AM
Not only was it clearly not wrong, the pro-systemd Debian voices actually made the point themselves during the debate that eventually systemd would subsume so much stuff that running it would be mandatory.
That was their entire argument for not allowing any alternative inits, something akin to "why waste resources offering other init systems when eventually systemd will be mandatory for all".
It is not for naught that the line modified from LOTR: "One Init to bring them all and in the darkness bind them" came to be as a result of systemd
(Score: 1) by Runaway1956 on Monday June 24 2024, @02:07AM
We're gonna be able to vacation in Gaza, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran and maybe Minnesota soon. Incredible times.