Hendrik Boom <hendrik@???> wrote:

>> An experienced sysadmin who has to do this type of thing several times a
>> day would have designed this syntax for ease of use. The systemd
>> developers did not do this, presumably because they do not have to type
>> these commands several times a day.
>
> I would normally have edited the configuration file andd *then* sent a
> sighup. /etc/init.d/someservice restart.
>
> Is there some reason, som
> e corner case, why what I'm doing is wrong?
> Aside from not using systemd, of course.

For config files, editing /etc/network/interfaces before downing an I/F can cause issues when the definition doesn't match what's running.
But there are other files which are written to by the process, but may need editing. Examples I know of are BIND zone files when dynamic updates are in use*, and ISC DHCP lease files.

* And you don't want all the typing, and looking up because you can't remember the syntax, of using "rndc freeze ..." and "rndc unfreeze ..."