Systemd Fixes Bug While Facing New Challenger in GNU Shepherd
The systemd developers have fixed a really nasty bug amid the release of the new GNU Shepherd init system.
The version of systemd that was released back in June included a bug that could lead to everything in /home being deleted if the systemd command is run incorrectly to delete temporary files. This happened because systemd-tmpfiles (originally created to manage temporary files) evolved into something much bigger. Well, that bigger something wound up causing a pretty serious issue.
To fix this issue, the systemd developers made a change to the format of a config file (that isn't backward-compatible) making it less likely /home will be deleted. It's not an ideal fix, but it works.
The systemd v256.1 contains the fix (which should be installed via a standard update). If you're running version 256.0, no patch has been applied, and you should be careful when running the systemd-tmpfiles --purge command.
At the same time, a new challenger, GNU Shepherd, has arrived to give systemd a run for its money Okay, GNU Shepherd isn't actually new, as it was first developed over 20 years ago. What's important is that it has finally, after 20 years, reached its first stabile release (version 1.0). The biggest difference between GNU Shepherd and systemd is that GNU Shepherd is developed with Guile Scheme and serves as the default init system for the GNU Guix distribution.
There's little to no chance that GNU Shepherd will be replacing systemd anytime soon, but at least there's more competition in the market, which always leads to more innovation.
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