Linux's SystemV Filesystem Support Being Orphaned

Tolkem

Tolkem

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Hi, everyone! Hope you're all having a nice life! :)
I just bumped into while checking my feed:

Linux's SystemV Filesystem Support Being Orphaned - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com www.phoronix.com
An excerpt:
Linux developer Christoph Hellwig who had been listed as the maintainer of the SystemV file-system code has decided to orphan it so within the kernel source tree it will now be marked as being unmaintained.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure tho if they're talking about whole SysV init system or just some part of it.
 


Does this have anything to do with sysV init ? I hope not.
All my old clunkers run so slow with systemd.
 
I'm not sure what this means, but reading through the comments, looks like "SystemV file-system" is part of the SysV code, just not the whole thing, I think, and it won't be maintained anymore.
 
ML_113 said:
Does this have anything to do with sysV init ? I hope not.
All my old clunkers run so slow with systemd.
Click to expand...
Devuan doesn't use systemd.

Welcome to devuan.org | Devuan GNU+Linux Free Operating System

Free GNU+Linux base OS. Devuan is a fork of Debian without systemd. Devuan provides a safe upgrade path from Debian, to ensure the right to Init Freedom and avoid entanglement.
www.devuan.org www.devuan.org

I'm trying to find out when systemV init will no longer be supported in the kernel.
 
Mr. Hellwig said:

For now this file-system support is staying put in the kernel -- albeit stale -- but without someone willing to maintain it runs the risk of further code rot and removal in the future. He didn't give an end of support date.

If systemv init will not be maintained any more the system may fail to boot.
Because it communicates with inittab that is the config file for init that get's direction on what programs and scripts to run when entering a specific runlevel.

I learned this with running Slackware.
The inittab file in Slackware has to be edited in order to boot to the desktop GUI log in. The default runlevel is 3. In order to have a GUI log the runlevel has to be set to 4 otherwise the user has to keep typing startx to get to the desktop.

I'm not sure if reading through the Linux Kernel archives log's or change log's will show when support ends?

SysVinit - ArchWiki

wiki.archlinux.org wiki.archlinux.org
 
I'm not a developer either, but can surmise that if systemV is not maintained then eventually it will be dead and removed from the kernel. I think the hand writing is on the wall so to speak :(
 
I got this from the MX-Linux forum on this:
The code being orphaned is to support 3 very old (1980s era) Unix filesystems. We don't use any of them, and few Linux users since the ext2 filesystem was introduced in 1993 have ever used them. There are very few machines left running Xenix, Coherent (a Unix clone) or System V Unix and the maintainer doesn't have access to any of them so he can't actually test any changes in the code.
This change has nothing to do with the SysVinit system we use in MX. That code is still maintained.
Click to expand...
 
SysV is an implementation of the SystemV/Coherent filesystem for Linux. It implements all of Xenix FS, SystemV/386 FS, and Coherent FS. Just to prevent inevitable confusion, (SystemV filesystem) is different than (SystemV init) which you may be thinking of. SysV init isn't part of the kernel and while it's been replaced with systemd in many distributions, it's not impacted by this change.

Being orphaned doesn’t mean it’s being removed. It maybe hoped that someone else will pick it up and run with but if not eventually in the not so distant future it will go by the wayside
 
Lord Boltar said:
SysV is an implementation of the SystemV/Coherent filesystem for Linux. It implements all of Xenix FS, SystemV/386 FS, and Coherent FS. Just to prevent inevitable confusion, (SystemV filesystem) is different than (SystemV init) which you may be thinking of. SysV init isn't part of the kernel and while it's been replaced with systemd in many distributions, it's not impacted by this change.

Being orphaned doesn’t mean it’s being removed. It maybe hoped that someone else will pick it up and run with but if not eventually in the not so distant future it will go by the wayside
Click to expand...
Thanks for confirming that SysV init isn't part of the kernel:-

IF SysV init isn't part of the kernel then what is it a part of?
The boot process?
 
Lord Boltar said:
SysVinit, init is the first process that is executed once the Linux kernel loads.
Click to expand...
Thanks for answering my question, very helpful.
Enjoy the weekend!
 
Lord Boltar said:
Just to prevent inevitable confusion, (SystemV filesystem) is different than (SystemV init) which you may be thinking of.
Click to expand...
Ah, that's very helpful. Yeah, I was confused. Thanks.
 
Lord Boltar said:
Just to prevent inevitable confusion, (SystemV filesystem) is different than (SystemV init) which you may be thinking of.
Click to expand...
Thanks to you guys I am getting smarter every day.:)

I gave up Linux (Mint) in 2015, came back on 2019 and adopted MX. I knew nothing about these things until my VPN crapped out. The support guy gave me instructions that did not work. Finally he told me to switch to systemd :(, luckily MX has a choice of sysV init or systemd booting. As long as things work I don't care, but my old computers take long time to boot with systemd, that's the reason I hate it. Disable services not required in systemd is not my cup of tea.
 
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