Re: Please say it isn't so

On Tue, Jul 11, 2017 at 9:51 PM, Steve Litt <slitt(at)troubleshooters(dot)com>
wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> Please tell me this is a mistake:
>
> https://wiki.postgresql.org/wiki/Systemd
>
> Why a database system should care about how processes get started is
> beyond me. Systemd is an entangled mess that every year subsumes more
> and more of the operating system, in a very non-cooperative way.
>
> There are almost ten init systems. In every one of those init systems,
> one can run a process supervisor, such as runit or s6 or
> daemontools-encore, completely capable of starting the postgres server.
>
> Every year, systemd further hinders interoperability, further erodes
> interchangeability of parts, and continues to address problems with
> WONTFIX. In the long run, you do your users no favor by including
> init-system specific code in Postgres or its makefiles. If systemd
> can't correctly start Postgres, I guarantee you that s6 or runit,
> running on top of systemd, can.
>
> Postgres doesn't care which language makes a query to it. Why
> should Postgres care which init system started it? I hope you can free
> Postgres of init-specific code, and if for some reason you can't do
> that, at least don't recommend init-specific code.
>
>
Take a deep breath...

You are looking at a page about PostgreSQL with specifics surrounding
installation on a machine running systemd. In that case it is naturally
recommended to compile using the --with-systemd option to better integrate
with systemd.

As the docs about that option say, "...This improves integration if the
server binary is started under systemd but has no impact otherwise..." You
are no more required to use systemd than you are to run PostgreSQL on
Windows but the options are available to you.

Cheers,
Steve