Olaf Meeuwissen via Dng said on Sun, 13 Jun 2021 19:41:28 +0900

>Hi,
>
>dng@??? writes:
>

>> Not hindered by any knowledge about system programming I am wondering
>> how much work it would be to implement a socket activation interface
>> without systemd. Although what I read about its design it is
>> unnecessary complicated. Using a tinylog component in systemd until
>> syslogd is loaded is one example of such complicating solution.
>>
>> Has anyone invested some time in analyzing systemd's socket
>> activation and mind to share it on this list or in email?

In my debates with various systemd fanboiz, I found that the major
benefit of systemd socket activation is: "Greybeard, this isn't 1998,
today we live in a plug-in world where when you plug in a new device
the OS must respond!"

OK fine, for sure for sure, now we know the supposed benefit, so we
needn't analyze how *systemd* accomplishes the benefit, we need only
accomplish the benefit for ourselves.

So some time in, as I remember, early 2015, as a proof of concept, I
made a shellscript based on inotifywait that would automount on plugin
and autodismount on removal. It took me 90 minutes to do it. The design
was based on an article that I wrote in The Manjaro Experiments New
Years Eve, 2014:

http://www.troubleshooters.com/linux/init/manjaro_experiments.htm#inotifywait_m_e_createdelete_devusb

There's no reason this functionality should be placed in PID1, and it
would be pretty easy to make a standalone daemon to do it.


>
>When I read[1]
>
> Cockpit itself doesn’t eat resources or even run in the background
> when you’re not using it. It runs on demand, thanks to systemd socket
> activation.
>
>all I could think of was that inetd and xinetd have been doing that job
>for a (couple of) decade(s) already.

The Poetteristas had a ready made answer for that: "xinetd is so old
and [insert insult here]." My view of that is that's just more of their
modus operandi: If you can't win the debate on logic, always go for the
good old Ad Hominem logical fallacy.

SteveT

Steve Litt
Spring 2021 featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful
Technologist http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques