Your Linux box is a-changin'. systemd has a huge new release; we'll get into the most impressive features, including the new sudo replacement. Plus, our thoughts on the new Linux Arm laptops that are just around the corner.
Announcing systemd v256 — In the weeks leading up to this release I have posted a series of serieses of posts to Mastodon about key new features in this release.
Lennart on systemd-vpick — Basically, you can now place multiple versions of the same resource in some dir of your choice, suffix that dir's name with .v/ and the you get some basic version management in place: delete or add new versions by just removing/adding new files, and the tools will find the newest item dropped in automatically.
Introduction to Portable Services — “Portable services” do not provide a fully isolated environment to the payload, like containers mostly intend to. Instead, they are more like regular system services, can be controlled with the same tools, are exposed the same way in all infrastructure, and so on. The main difference is that they use a different root directory than the rest of the system.
Trying out systemd's Portable Services — All in all, the core pieces are already in place for a very promising new technology that should make it easier for 3rd parties to provide Linux system-level software in a safe and convenient way, well done to the systemd team for a well executed concept. All it lacks is some polish around the tooling and integration.
systemd sleep — Putting a PC to sleep is complicated business and there are different mechanisms available to achieve this on Linux.
Lennart on run0 — There's a new tool in systemd, called run0. Or actually, it's not a new tool, it's actually the long existing tool systemd-run, but when invoked under the run0 name (via a symlink) it behaves a lot like a sudo clone. But with one key difference: it's not in fact SUID.
The Tragedy of systemd — Join me on a journey through the bootstrap process, the history of init, the reasons why change can be scary, and the discovery of a part of your OS you may not even know existed.