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Stats Open Source Programming Linux

Systemd's Growth Over 2022 (phoronix.com) 236

Phoronix checks systemd's Git activity in 2022 (and compares it to previous years): If measuring a open-source project's progress by the commity activity per year, while not the most practical indicator, systemd had a very good year. In 2022 there were 6,271 commits which is under 2021's all-time-high of 6,787 commits. But this year's activity count effectively ties 2018 for second place with the most commits in a given calendar year.

This year saw 201k lines of new code added to systemd and 110k lines removed, or just under one hundred thousand lines added in total to systemd in 2022....

Systemd continues to grow and is closing out 2022 at around 1,715,111 lines within its Git repository.

Also interesting: "[W]hen it comes to the most commits overall to systemd over its history, Lennart Poettering easily wins the race and there is no competition. As a reminder, this year Lennart joined Microsoft as one of the surprises for 2022."
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Systemd's Growth Over 2022

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  • by Dagmar d'Surreal ( 5939 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @10:37AM (#63170318) Journal

    If a doctor spotted something on your leg that was growing like this, everyone would know exactly what to do about it.

  • Get 503. Lol.

  • Too big (Score:5, Insightful)

    by GPLHost-Thomas ( 1330431 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @10:53AM (#63170334)
    Should we be happy that Systemd is 1.7 Million lines? Of course not. Its size is one of its design problem: it's too big, and doing too many things.
    • Of course not. Its size is one of its design problem: it's too big, and doing too many things.

      No. The "problem" here is people looking at the main systemd repo and declaring it to be too big and doing too many things. In reality it's a system made up of many modules. Some grew. some didn't. Each module does what it needs.

      You're just upset at the name of the package, and likely the programmer involved.

      In other news the Linux kernel is 8million lines. It needs to be thrown out because number of lines is the only important metric amirite?

      • Take out one module, and the whole system collapses. So, no, systemd is not modular at all. The Linux kernel contains many modules which can be left out completely, and it will still cheerfully boot.

        Try, for example, deleting journald (this means: actually removing it from the system's disk) and replacing it with something else, like syslog-ng.

        Systemd will crash and take down the entire system with it.

  • Inside job (Score:5, Insightful)

    by awwshit ( 6214476 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @10:57AM (#63170336)

    I'm pretty sure that Lennart has worked for Microsoft the entire time...

    • by AnonCowardSince1997 ( 6258904 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @11:16AM (#63170360)

      Yep.

      Embrace, Extend, Extinguish has always been Microsoft's plan.

      • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @11:39AM (#63170402)

        Next step: A Microsoft signed UKI.

        Next, next step: systemd-boot only runs in a VM under Windows.

      • It has been the plan of Redhat, GNU, and many other players. M.s. is simply the only one who named it so.

        It is what players do regardless of it being a plan to begin with. Standards only cover a bare minimum. The GHC has always embraced and extended the Haskell standard, and extinguished most competitors due to simply offering more.

      • Does Microsoft really have a shot of "extinguishing" Linux in the year of our lord 2023 when Linux in it's various forms runs on like 70% or some shit of the worlds computing devices?

        Just because Linux will never compete in the general desktop space does not mean MS will ever be able to take the server crown from Linux. It's too efficent, too adaptable and too entrenched.

        • MS really doesn't have to bother doing much with Linux. If they can get people running Linux in Azure, they get their money. In fact, MS makes a ton of money on every single Android device sold due to patents, so Linux is a cash cow for them.

          The desktop isn't a major revenue stream anymore, so they don't really care about Linux on the desktop, or even in the server room. They make their money on backend apps, and cloud support. For example, Exchange is likely to all but disappear to be replaced by M365.

          • I think this is spot on. This ain't the Ballmer/Gates Microsoft from the late 90's and 2000's

            We don't have to think MS is "good" today but they are different and their position on Linux is an acknowledgement of that and of Linux's success.

            Microsoft can make money with the first 2 "E"s, they don't need the 3rd, it's actually detrimental to their model now.

    • ahhhhhh .... conspiracy theory !!!!

      just kidding

      you are right

      • by HiThere ( 15173 )

        You can't be sure. He might just really think that's the proper way to do things. That I disagree, doesn't really mean he actually has malign purposes.

    • I'm pretty sure that Lennart has worked for Microsoft the entire time...

      By producing a product that people (distribution maintainers) were asking for? That doesn't sound like a sane conspiracy to me.

      • by rastos1 ( 601318 )
        Distribution maintainers is a group that may be distinct from the group of administrators. What if the later group's opinions were not taken into account?
  • Nice, a New Years entertainment thread for me while I am doing system support tonight.

    If you want to avoid systemd, there are distros out there. I am a Slackware user, *not* because it does not have systemd but because on the whole I like Slackware better then others.

  • How about growth in system resources utilization?
  • by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @11:04AM (#63170354) Homepage
    More bloat this year.
  • by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @11:24AM (#63170384)

    No real shock he took a job at Microsoft. Eventually the not invented here crowd is going to dislike the many plain text files in /etc and come up with a new solution. Maybe put them all in a flat database file. Oh no you won't be able to edit it yourself of course. You'll need a graphical interface. This interface must be run from a docker container because it's impossible to build outside of the author's dev environment.

    • Completely agree
    • by dpilot ( 134227 )

      To me systemd looks like an artifact of Linux growth. New users and programmers came to Linux from Windows and found things unfamiliar. My opinion is that systemd makes Linux look more like Windows, more familiar, and therefore "better". (I'm largely ignorant on this, but in terms of function and form, how far is systemd from "svchost.exe"?)

      What I dislike about systemd is its appropriation of already operational function and the attitude behind it. As I was reading news tidbits on Phoronix over the past

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by vadim_t ( 324782 )

        No, systemd exists because lots of Unix is frankly obsolete crap.

        The old way of doing things worked back when a computer was a thing that sat in a server room, resources were scarce, the world was static, and the usage model was that the sysadmin owned the system, and the user was allowed to use it.

        So for instance stuff like /etc/resolv.conf being a text file that root had to modify by hand made perfect sense -- right up to when laptops were invented, and a computer suddenly had to expect to dynamically rec

        • Re:Poettering (Score:5, Interesting)

          by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Saturday December 31, 2022 @03:00PM (#63170808) Homepage Journal

          No, systemd exists because lots of Unix is frankly obsolete crap.

          What's funny is that you know little enough about computing to think that this is true, but still think you have something to teach us about Unix. Doing everything in flat files was an advance, in fact a strength, over more structured file formats. You can still read and write them with APIs, but you can also do it with shell scripts. Those init scripts people always complain about are core system functionality, not some hacky addition.

          Now a program had to overwrite your config files, so sucks to be you if that deletes some valuable comment, or it causes you to lose some manual configuration. It's effectively the worst of both worlds.

          We moved to config dirs with flat files in them to augment the flat files, which made use of another core Unix feature, the hierarchical filesystem. A lot of them weren't back then.

          Systemd in good part represents realizing that the old way of doing things just doesn't really cut it anymore.

          Systemd is basically just a lame-assed layer on top of the old things, it's still just doing things the old way, but with more obfuscation on top of it.

          • by vadim_t ( 324782 )

            What's funny is that you know little enough about computing to think that this is true, but still think you have something to teach us about Unix. Doing everything in flat files was an advance, in fact a strength, over more structured file formats.

            Times change, get used to it. It was an advance until it wasn't anymore.

            Those init scripts people always complain about are core system functionality, not some hacky addition.

            No, init scripts are a horrible hack. I've worked with enough of them, that I'll be very

        • by rastos1 ( 601318 )

          The old way of doing things worked back when a computer was a thing that sat in a server room,...

          My workstation in the office is sitting in the same place for 20 years (if we ignore HW upgrades). The same is true for my home machine. So why is a thing designed for mobile devices shoven down my throat?

          If you use a notebook and take it to a different place 10 times a week, you travel, you move between a showroom, your desk and the conference room, you need to connect in the train and airport ... be my guest a

          • by vadim_t ( 324782 )

            My workstation in the office is sitting in the same place for 20 years (if we ignore HW upgrades). The same is true for my home machine. So why is a thing designed for mobile devices shoven down my throat?\

            Because your use case isn't considered the primary one anymore. Your use case was solved decades ago.

            Modern distributions sell themselves to users who use laptops, and VPNs, and virtualization setups where machines come and go. They also want more users, which means removing all possible roadblocks a new

        • No, systemd exists because lots of Unix is frankly obsolete crap.

          "Those who don't understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly" applies to systemd.

  • by stanbrown ( 724448 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @11:56AM (#63170426) Homepage
    This piece of software is the worst thing that has EVER happened to Linux. First there is not much of a reason for it in the first place. There are well established, workable methods for start up of various daemons on system boot, or level change. Second it is the mounter that is trying to take over all system functionality. For example it wants to replace ntpd! It is trying to move Linux back to old windoze ways.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      It is trying to move Linux back to old windoze ways.

      Pretty much. And a lot of idiots are cheering it onwards.

    • by vadim_t ( 324782 )

      There are lots and lots of reasons for systemd existing, mostly solving various wrinkles in the unix model, which was built for large boxes that sat forever in the same place, and which is unsuitable for a laptop used by a normal person.

      And why would you want a full blown ntpd on most systems? 99% of people want a simple, foolproof way of synchronizing time. In fact due to SSL accurate time is now a requirement and no longer optional.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by war4peace ( 1628283 )

        It's called "resistance to change".
        People have learned things a certain way and are kicking and screaming while being dragged against their will towards something new.
        Now, I am not knowledgeable enough to lean either way and bring well-documented arguments about whether X is better than Y, just analyzing reactions here and elsewhere, and most if not all negative comments are akin to pearl clutching: "oh, there's warnings in this and that conf file".

      • There's a simple project out there called sntpd, all it does is fetch the time, and set the system clock accordingly, from a ntp server. It's not 1.7 million lines of spaghetti code with root privileges, so it's also not a security disaster waiting to happen.

    • First there is not much of a reason for it in the first place. There are well established, workable methods

      Anonymous horse carriage driver about automobiles, cca 1905

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      This piece of software is the worst thing that has EVER happened to Linux. First there is not much of a reason for it in the first place. There are well established, workable methods for start up of various daemons on system boot, or level change. Second it is the mounter that is trying to take over all system functionality. For example it wants to replace ntpd! It is trying to move Linux back to old windoze ways.

      If that's true, then why was it adopted so quickly by so many major distributions? Either IBM d

    • "The way we always did it" - the lowest IQ form of dismissing an argument.

      Hint: Your "established" way of doing it spawned close to 20 projects to address its flaws and deficiencies, some of which were adopted by major distributions before systemd came along (e.g. Upstart), and some of which still are in use today (e.g. OpenRC).

      The single dumbest thing about this entire debate is people like you suggesting it's bad for Linux for more choice to exist in the market. You don't like systemd? Use one of the dist

  • Ugh. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by rlwinm ( 6158720 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @12:07PM (#63170450)
    I tolerate systemd on production servers because almost all modern Linux distros include it. I have a number of custom daemons all written in C that I had to write systemd "unit files" for. Just pure garbage syntax - a script is so much more elegant. Everything about systemd annoys me to no end. I have been moving more and more to FreeBSD because of it.

    I can't say I know anyone who likes systemd. Everything systemd does could have been done by a few small programs that the init scripts call to support desktop environments. Everything about systemd is the wrong way.
    • by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @12:33PM (#63170500)

      Indeed. My take is that people that "like" systemd have never really worked with it. I took a look and stayed away. There is just too many things done the wrong way, starting with the architecture.

    • use devuan.org

      • Re:Ugh. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Big Hairy Gorilla ( 9839972 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @01:14PM (#63170608)
        I'm running lots of production boxes on Devuan. Love it. Running email, web, jabber, dnscrypt-proxy, and a few other things in 512M RAM. Super clean machines, low disk footprint, low RAM footprint, init transparency. There is no use case for systemd. Your mileage won't vary.
    • Just pure garbage syntax - a script is so much more elegant.

      I wouldn't describe an average of 100+ lines of script being replaced by a 3 line unit file as "elegant". It's quite ironic that people complain about systemd's complexity and at the same time complain about unit files compared to long scripts.

      Don't like it, don't use it.

  • I like that systemd has dependency management, log aggregation, a cron scheduler and users can manage their own services. I'm not sure how that all requires so much code though
    • by gweihir ( 88907 )

      It is a sign of incompetence. Reliable and secure code is lean and mean. Systemd is complex and bloated.

      • Sounds like marketing bs. I seriously doubt every major distribution would move to systemd needlessly unless there were a clear advantage. If you're a small time system admin or an individual user I can see the reason you don't like it. I like that it has normalized a lot of behavior that was hand coded in each init script. E.g. tracking my service process ID, return code, logs, and ordering the dependency startup
        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          It is what actual engineers get taught. Unfortunately we still do not have many of those in the software space. Hence atrocities like systemd and a lot of morons that cheer for it. Calling it "marketing BS" just marks you as utterly clueless. I guess you have never heard of the KISS principle either. Or of the Second System Effect of which systemd is a stellar example.

      • It is a sign of incompetence. Reliable and secure code is lean and mean. Systemd is complex and bloated.

        Reliable and secure code also has a ridiculous amount of error checking.

        Not to mention how many of those lines are comments? Examples? Unit tests? Random configs or whatever you call this [github.com]?

        I'm not sure line count is that useful as a metric.

        Years ago I heard a story how at an open source conference in Australia someone pointed out how autoconf had 3x as much code to deal with Linux as it did to deal with OpenBSD. A prominent (I forget the name) OpenBSD hacker claimed this was evidence that Linux was complex a

        • by gweihir ( 88907 )

          It is a sign of incompetence. Reliable and secure code is lean and mean. Systemd is complex and bloated.

          Reliable and secure code also has a ridiculous amount of error checking.

          Only when done by amateurs. Or rather bloody amateurs. Regular amateurs may have heard of KISS. Of course that "ridiculous amount of error checking" does lead neither to security nor to reliability. And that insight is not even from the sofware age. It is far older. There is no replacement for simplicity in engineering and anybody trying to get reliability (or security) by increasing complexity significantly will fail.

    • by PPH ( 736903 )

      I like that systemd has dependency management,

      Good.

      log aggregation,

      Not so good. Logs in other than text format are useless if you are trying to repair a system without the requisite binary log tools.

      a cron scheduler

      Already have one of those. It couldn't be simpler to use. Anyone who can't figure it out needs to put the computer back in the box and return it to the store from which it was purchased.

      and users can manage their own services.

      What sort of services? Network facing? On any competently administrated system, this should attract the attention (and rage) of the admins responsible for system security. You may just have

  • As a reminder, this year Lennart joined Microsoft as one of the surprises for 2022."

    And sadly, he didn't take systemd with him.

  • In a central OS component the absolute last thing you want is lots of changes and growth of the codebase. Apparently, Poettering is determined to drag systemd down to the level of MS windows were things are never reliable and change all the time.

    Fortunately, I have still managed to avoid this crap and I have yet to find any problems with SysVinit and OpenRC. All the "arguments" given by the useful idiots cheering systemd onwards are simply bogus.

  • A couple of years back I would have predicted that all the ranting and raving over systemd would have been over by 2023. But apparently not, and the same old same old complaints in forums show up over and over and over again.

    It's bloated. It's taking over everything. It's buggy. Logs not in text. I hate systemctl. It isn't the way I do things!

    Yeah, right. Those /etc/rc* skills you got were hard won decades ago and you ain't giving them up for no reason nohow. True bootstrappy individualism should

  • by buzz_mccool ( 549976 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @12:33PM (#63170502)
    Major bugs like the systemd journal dropping lines go unfixed for over a half decade.

    Log line dropping behavior has been reported for:

    journalctl --user-unit=XXXX
    journalctl --unit=XXXX
    systemctl status XXXX

    and suggested workarounds like removing the above journalctl options and changing

    systemctl status XXXX

    to not output any log lines is not heeded. So basic features are currently unreliable and cause developers/administrators considerable confusion when debugging/administering unit files.

    See https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/2913 [github.com]

  • Maybe then I will appreciate it. Like I wrote a daemon and a shell script that handles its start and stop, where stop writes a special command to its socket and waits for process to exit. How will systemd improve on what I have?

    Or I want to run a command to index my photos to thumbnails once a day. What benefit do I get compared to cron?

    Or logging - do I get splunk like search tools for everything logged in the system and a simple way to configure what I want to keep and for how long?

    If I don't get anything

  • by Schoenlepel ( 1751646 ) on Saturday December 31, 2022 @05:47PM (#63171060)

    There are various distributions which do not have systemd, I'll list some of them for you guys:

    * Gentoo Linux (well... ok, it's possible to install systemd, but you can also perfectly live without) -> openrc (huge and friendly community)
    * Artix -> openrc, runit, s6: take your pick (also: take your pick what desktop you want), Arch based.
    * Void Linux -> runit, really stable too. As if that's not enough it also has a small memory footprint.
    * PCLinuxOS -> openrc(?), desktop (kde) really small footprint (built for old machines, desktop)
    * Devuan -> fork of Debian, sysvinit
    * Tiny Core Linux -> ok, your potato from 20 years ago (that somehow survived) should still be able to run this... with some performance.
    * Venom Linux -> no systemd smell, ever.

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