[Nix-dev] systemd in initrd

[Alexander Zubkov]

 > Being simple is for year '90
It is hard to argue so strong opinion. :) By simple, I do not mean 
primitive. I mean using enough and appropriate tools to do the work, 
without extra unneeded stuff.

Initrd is not a generic system in my mind. It is just sequence of 
actions to mount root.
1) If this sequence needs to be sorted in some way - I think hand 
sorting is enough. More to say, any automatic "sorting application" will 
limit the use cases by those only supported by this "sorting 
application" logic.
2) There is no need to manage services or processes in initrd, only 
start it. So any management system is overkill here.
3) Do we need all the increasing capabilities of systemd in the initrd?
4) It should be examined if size of initrd will not grow too much. May 
be not an issue at all.


On 2014-08-21 19:43, Luca Bruno wrote:
> On 21/08/2014 17:35, Alexander Zubkov wrote:
>> etc, etc, ... and viola - we will not be needing root filesystem at all. :)
>>
>> My option is keep initrd as simple as possible and not to bound it to
>> particular init system. Because one day may be someone will make another
>> option for init system in nixos.
>>
>> Also, if somebody cares, I'm not a big fan of systemd, but nixos
>> interesting aspects and some sort of abstraction layer from systemd
>> allows this compromise. So please no more systemd. :)
> Nixos is already very tied to systemd. I'm not a fan of systemd either,
> however think of using systemd just for the dependencies part at initrd
> time. Being simple is for year '90, if you want it simple is perhaps
> because you don't have certain needs.
>
> I agree, nixos could have generic option for an init system, but it does
> not apply to this discussion. If there will be a generic interface to
> any init systems in nixos, then the initrd will be ported to it.
>
> If you have a more technical reason about not having systemd in initrd,
> please tell me.
>
> Best regards,
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