System XVI – BSD licensed replacement for systemd

vasili111 · Sep 14, 2015

I found that in one of the news website and thought that it will be interesting for forum members:

A note: please be aware that System XVI is not yet a usable system.

System XVI is a modern take on service management. It aims to incorporate useful functionality while maintaining a modular design in the UNIX tradition.

IRC channel; find it at irc://irc.freenode.net/systemxvi

This project is still under heavy development. It is not yet possible to boot with S16; indeed, the init subdirectory is a placeholder. All effort is currently focused on bringing the various components up to a level where they are able to act as a service supervisor tool capable of running simple, forking, and oneshot systemd units.

https://github.com/ServiceManager/ServiceManager

tingo · Sep 14, 2015

Question: do FreeBSD need this? What problem does it attempt to solve?

Cthulhux · Sep 14, 2015

Why this and not (launchd|runit|minit|.*)?

kpa · Sep 14, 2015

Cthulhux said:
Why this and not (launchd|runit|minit|.*)?

Because nothing is more important than re-inventing stuff just to get your name on it.

Cthulhux · Sep 14, 2015

Ah, I see. OK, I'll stick with sysutils/runit then. According to the flowchart posted above, it even does the same (with less SNAFU risk).

protocelt · Sep 14, 2015

I don't see this as much of anything to be concerned with in relation to FreeBSD. Given this project is GPLv3 licensed, it will never be in the base system and in a best case scenario, would be added as a port.

It is nice to see people seriously thinking about and attempting to implement alternatives to systemd however.

vasili111 · Sep 14, 2015

protocelt said:
Given this project is GPLv3 licensed, it will never be in the base system and in a best case scenario, would be added as a port.

From project Github: "System XVI is free software. You may use it and its source code under the terms of the Revised BSD licence"

protocelt · Sep 14, 2015

I read differently previously, though I admit I didn't check to verify what I read. Just checked and it is in fact a BSD license. Interesting...

vasili111 · Sep 14, 2015

protocelt said:
I read differently previously, though I admit I didn't check to verify what I read. Just checked and it is in fact a BSD license. Interesting...

I checked the commits and found that it was previously GPL3 but after was changed to Revised BSD. Here is commit that changes license https://github.com/ServiceManager/ServiceManager/commit/043b756a717bfac89ee50c6e4cf9d80c53fb6e15 . So you read it right.

protocelt · Sep 14, 2015

Looks like this project borrows ideas from SMF (Solaris Service Management Facility). I'm not familiar with Solaris at all, but might be interested enough to read up on SMF a bit.

vasili111 · Sep 15, 2015

protocelt said:
Looks like this project borrows ideas from SMF (Solaris Service Management Facility). I'm not familiar with Solaris at all, but might be interested enough to read up on SMF a bit.

From first comment from here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10212770
"...the author (David Mackay)..."
"...He's a former Solaris/illumos committer ..."
"...SystemXVI, the design is quite interesting. The closest equivalent would probably be Solaris SMF, but it's still different...."

Beastie7 · Sep 15, 2015

kpa said:
Because nothing is more important than re-inventing stuff just to get your name on it.

This.

I give it a few months and the novelty will die off.