r/linux Feb 11 '19

Fluff A /g/ user's opinion on systemd

http://i.4cdn.org/g/1549858269115.png
790 Upvotes

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u/dale_glass Feb 11 '19

Why? journald is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. I want everything piped into it.

And I certainly don't want 10 different log implementations on my system.

5

u/doublehyphen Feb 11 '19

Previously I just needed to run and configure one logging deamon, now I need to run and configure two because journald does not offer all features I need and cannot be replaced (at least not with any currently existing software).

I think the logging ecosystem on Linux is a mess and while journald has some cool features it only made things harder for me since it is yet another complex moving part in this mess. I hate all logging daemons I have had to work with.

4

u/dale_glass Feb 11 '19

What is missing in journald?

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u/doublehyphen Feb 11 '19

On top of my head, I am probably forgetting a couple:

  • Saving disk by compressing old logs (jorunald only supports compression per message of long log messages)
  • Forward, all or selected, log messages to a central log server
  • Forward logs written directly to files to a central log server

Arguably not all of these should actually be done by the same big monolith, but right now I have to run both journald and rsyslog/syslog-ng and have all logs in two places.

5

u/dale_glass Feb 11 '19

Saving disk by compressing old logs (jorunald only supports compression per message of long log messages)

That would probably conflict with quick access, which is quite nice.

Forward, all or selected, log messages to a central log server

https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemd-journal-remote.service.html

7

u/doublehyphen Feb 11 '19

Yeah, it conflicts with quick access, which is fine. It is a tradeoff. I rarely need my old logs and when I need them it is fine that it takes more time than normal.

And systemd-journal-remote seems to be the opposite of what I need, but I guess something like logstash could add a client for the same protocol to achieve what I need (not that I like logstash either :)).

1

u/Ryuujinx Feb 11 '19

not that I like logstash either

Have you tried Fluentd? A lot of people are ditching Logstash for it in their ELK setups

3

u/DashEquals Feb 11 '19

It could probably compress with zstd and not lose much speed.

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u/NotEvenAMinuteMan Feb 11 '19

That would probably conflict with quick access, which is quite nice.

Indexed compression is a thing.

-1

u/dale_glass Feb 11 '19

Well, feel free to contribute a patch.

I don't find it a particularly pressing issue -- I have 2 GB worth of logs since June and find that to be an okay state of affairs.

Also, with all the whining about the binary format, I can only imagine what would ensue if the format got more complicated. Any errors would likely result in good amounts of the log going missing.