[ale] for all you systemd haters...

[Alex Carver]

On 2018-02-16 12:16, Solomon Peachy via Ale wrote:
> On Fri, Feb 16, 2018 at 02:20:38PM -0500, leam hall via Ale wrote:
>> That makes me wonder; what does systemd do that non-systemd mechanisms
>> cannot? Granted, it may make some things easier or more to someone's
>> liking, but what does it do well that cannot be replicated otherwise?
> 
> Given that systemd uses public Linux (and/or glibc) APIs, there's 
> nothing it does that another tool (or set of tools) couldn't also 
> accomplish.
> 
> An example of something that systemd does well is logind.  Sure, you can 
> recreate the external service API, but replicating the functionality 
> "well" might be impossible without also replicating much of the systemd 
> functionality that logind relies upon.  Consequently, anything that 
> seeks to replicate logind's underlying functionality (ie session 
> management using Linux's cgroup features) is likely to end up looking 
> subtantially similar to systemd's implementation.
> 

What exactly is logind supposed to handle?  I've already searched
multiple times and most sites regurgitate the manual without really
discussing what it's supposed to be doing and how it's different or
better than other implementations.  I've not come across anything that
explains it well.

I ask in all seriousness because the few things I've been able to find
are worded in ways suggesting that logind has abilities that have never
existed before.  For example, one site says that logind provides the
ability to track user logins but that was already possible for both
individual machines and for central authentication (Kerberos and more
recently Active Directory).  Again, in context (with paragraphs before
and after) it extends the claim of an ability to "this has not been
possible before" (paraphrased).