Bug#727708: systemd vs. binfmt-support
]] Colin Watson
> On Thu, Dec 26, 2013 at 08:49:11AM +0100, Tollef Fog Heen wrote:
> > > As I explain in the bug [1], I think that the facilities provided by
> > > binfmt-support are objectively superior; and even if they were broadly
> > > equivalent, I'd still question the utility of converting packages from
> > > an interface that's been well-established in Debian for over ten years.
> > >
> > > What is the systemd maintainers' position on this bug? I bring it up
> > > here mainly because it's an interesting example of integration. Tollef
> > > said during the committee's last meeting on IRC that he hadn't thought
> > > much about binfmt before, so perhaps this is just a loose end.
> >
> > binfmt-support is, AFAIK, only used in Debian and derivatives and in
> > general, I think having tools that are used across the ecosystem is more
> > valuable than having tools that are only used for parts of the
> > ecosystem.
>
> Arch uses binfmt-support as well, I believe (and now I search for it I
> see that it also ships systemd configuration for it, which will be
> useful). I admit that I haven't put much effort into evangelising it,
> but there's nothing especially Debian-specific about binfmt-support and
> it ought to be trivial to make it work elsewhere.
Correction wrt Arch accepted, and I wasn't trying to imply it was
Debian-specific, merely that it is used in Debian and derivatives.
[...]
> Given that binfmt-support is doing a better job, my preference would be
> to put a small amount of work into making it more clearly an independent
> upstream project, and simply get more distributions using it. Doing
> Fedora, Gentoo, and openSUSE would cover most of the bases. Now that
> I'm aware of the effort being wasted on reinvention, I can move that
> sort of thing further up my list.
Great, if it becomes the standard in all those distros, I'm fairly sure
systemd will deprecate or drop the binfmt support there. I'll hold off
on asking upstream for any support for the more advanced features that
binfmt-support offers, then.
--
Tollef Fog Heen
UNIX is user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are
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