[forinti]

I had no opinion on systemd until I found out I could configure the mount points in fstab to magically mount themselves whenever they were needed.

I have a lot of network shares and some of them caused real trouble when they failed for whatever reason.

Now I really appreciate it.

[pi-e-sigma]

Various automount tools have been available since the 90s.

[mariusor]

Indeed, why use Dropbox, when FTP existed for decades?

[pi-e-sigma]

Except these automount tools provided exactly the same functionality that is currently provided by systemd. And did it better

[bravetraveler]

I contest 'better'. What's the difference? It's mounted... no?

Allowing 'systemd' to be aware of mounts lets you create dependencies between your mounts and services.

For example: 'Requires=mnt-myfs.mount' (and 'After').

Use 'PartOf' if you want the service to get restarted during an unmount/re-mount.

This integration is mint! Anything not systemd [when it's already managing your services] trying to orchestrate is, by nature, second-rate

One may note the removal of the fstab generator. It's overblown. Any distribution including systemd vendors it.

[pi-e-sigma]

You obviously haven't used any of them and I have a feeling that in fact you haven't used anything but systemd because your remarks about systemd ability to create dependencies between mounts and services as something amazing is just hilarious.

[bravetraveler]

Sigh.

I was hoping to be a bit more productive. I haven't used them, obviously, I asked - 'what's the difference'.

They haven't even been named. Is this a troll?

You obviously miss my point. In this hypothetical I'm picturing a systemd system with services and mounts.

The recommendation appeared to be... have another service [or something] try to provide something that 'systemd', which is already present, can handle completely fine.

So, I repeat, what's the difference? What am I missing? What's better than having the thing managing your services also manage your mounts?

Between the lines I'm saying this isn't fancy work. I want these mounted and useful relationships and that's it. They serve a purpose; I need a compelling reason to replace init.

[znpy]

Agree, but tou had to