this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2024
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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I think in *nix, shell-configured init systems came first and the non-shell config file init systems are a more recent development. The real question is why the non-shell-configured init systems decided to change it up.
I'm far from an expert in init systems, but there are some benefits to declarative approaches for configuration. It's one of the main reasons yaml and toml are as popular as they are. The short version is, declarative configuration tends to be less verbose, and the declarative contract defines what state you want things to be in, not how to get there which makes it easier on the person writing the unit file, and on the implementers of systemd in that there's a smaller surface-area to test
Generally declarative:
The declarative approach also allows for better composability - user tweaks can just be the relevant lines on top of the packaged default config.