Re: systemd as external dependency

[Matthias Clasen <matthias clasen gmail com>]

On Wed, May 18, 2011 at 6:51 PM, Federico Mena Quintero
<federico ximian com> wrote:
> On Wed, 2011-05-18 at 21:50 +0100, Bastien Nocera wrote:
>
>> Which is why I've asked Lennart to add a flag to systemd's configure to
>> install only the little servicey bits, for Linux distros, and the docs
>> would serve as basis for implementation of other OSes.
>
> That's fine.  I still think other distros/systems may be feel it to be a
> little onerous to have to download a "big system-level package" (even if
> it's just perception) to install random services like that.
>
> (Maybe a "system-services" tarball, if you really don't like the name of
> AdminKit?) :)

There's several problems with the 'AdminKit/system-services' approach:

- It tends to slip into the 'just a wrapper around native mechanisms'
mold, which is problematic. At best, it just adds an unnecessary extra
layer, at worst, it adds mismatches, latency, loss of functionality.
We really should be talking to the native services directly, if they
are available and suitable.

- The 'all services in one kit' approach tends to enforce a uniformity
that really is not there and is limiting. The old ximian setup tools
or system-tools-backends with their 'one service for each file in
/etc' approach come to mind. Really, each service should have the API
thats best suited to the tasks it deals with.


Matthias