systemd: Is it wrong?

[Przemek Klosowski]

On 07/10/2011 05:35 PM, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> On Sun, Jul 10, 2011 at 03:56:25PM -0500, Chris Adams wrote:

>> This is a small, light-weight daemon, and doesn't need a configuration
>> file parser.  This is a valid way that Unix daemons have run for
>> decades, and you are saying that should be removed.  I guess every small
>> daemon now needs to include its own config file parser, replacing the
>> already-existing getopt() call?  How is this "better"?
>
> Nobody's said it should be removed. Lennart's said that it sucks, and I
> agree. But all of this would still be better with a simple config parser
> that's shared between any daemons that want it.

Some programs get their arguments through commandline and getopt(). 
Others, presumably with more complex configuration needs, use config 
files with ad-hoc syntax. Each individual one is easy enough to deal 
with, but together, they result in a divergent mess.

This comes in play when people tried to write sysadmin tools dealing 
with all those formats---it was a nightmare (I remember trying and bein 
frustraded by one that 'almost worked' in the late 90s, written by a 
French/Candadian dude---sorry, can't recall the name at the moment).

I for one welcome the new standard configuration format---yes, you have 
to adapt, but it unifies the configuration and configuration tools 
across the entire system.