this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2025
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systemd has been a complete, utter, unmitigated success (blog.tjll.net)
submitted 2 weeks ago by cm0002@programming.dev to c/linux@programming.dev
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[–] Quik@infosec.pub 75 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

One thing the author probably hasn't done yet or just doesn't mention is that you can configure .container services with systemd-podman units (often called quadlets), e.g. a simple MariaDB container would look like this:

[Unit]
Description=MariaDB container

[Container]
Image=docker.io/mariadb:latest
Environment=MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=rootpassword
Environment=MYSQL_USER=testuser
Environment=MYSQL_PASSWORD=testpassword
Environment=MYSQL_DATABASE=testdb

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Short intro Full reference

This is superb, because it means your containers finally feel well-integrated with the rest of the OS and you can use systemctl, journalctl, etc. just like you would with other services.

Personally, I use this as an alternative to Podman/Docker compose and have been very happy with it running rootless containers from Nextcloud, Pufferpanel, Forgejo, Authentik, etc. (ask me for .container files if you need any help, I'm currently working on a small repo with a collection)

[–] Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Excuse me, peasant crontab enjoyer here, but what?! I could write a (mostly) declarative system without having to learn Nix?! I should probably be learning systemd anyway, it's looking more and more like the present, let alone the future.

I run a bunch of remote reverse proxies that are functionally identical, but for having a different Cloudflare key and calling for a different static IP

Could I write the entire config to a self hosted Git > pull that repo > change those two variables and have a running machine?

Remote updates have been kicking my ass, I either can't wrap my head around Screen or it isn't fit for my need. Being able to pull the new config from Git over Tailscale and then run it would be game changing for me.

[–] Botzo@lemmy.world 12 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

If you need a half step on your journey, convert your crontab to systemd timers first.

[–] Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 8 points 2 weeks ago

In fact, I do need a half step. Legend, thank you.

[–] rutrum@programming.dev 4 points 2 weeks ago

Most compiled output of NixOS configuration (besides packages, perhaps) is just systemd units anyway. I found out quickly when learning nix that my lack of systemd prowess was going to cap how well I could understand NixOS.

[–] sip@programming.dev 12 points 2 weeks ago

awesome!

[–] monomon@programming.dev 5 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

It's amazing, the gitea container supports this. Autostarts on machine restart, etc.

[–] Quik@infosec.pub 2 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah, it's great that Gitea/Forgejo has a copy-paste snippet in the docs, but you can actually use that with pretty much every container.

There is this useful tool to convert containers, podman commands or even compose files to podman-systemd units: https://github.com/containers/podlet

[–] renegadespork@lemmy.jelliefrontier.net 4 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

That’s neat! There’s so many advanced features of systemd I swear I learn something new every time it comes up.

[–] JadedBlueEyes@programming.dev 2 points 2 weeks ago

This is due to systems generators allowing Podman to plug in to that system

[–] Feyd@programming.dev 4 points 2 weeks ago

TIL. That's pretty useful!

[–] BarbecueCowboy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

That idea feels very useful but I also distrust it and it makes me angry for reasons I can't articulate.

[–] Quik@infosec.pub 3 points 2 weeks ago

Your distrust is kind of reasonable: I've been using this a lot for the past year and there definitely were two or three moments where it was a bit annoying, too little transparent on what commands will be run, etc.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 0 points 1 week ago

Do the reasons include gate keeping?

[–] dwt@feddit.org 0 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I like this, but even though pod man runs perfect rootless, quadlets can only run as root for now :-(

[–] mholiv@lemmy.world 4 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Not true. I run them rootless on my server as we speak. :)

[–] Quik@infosec.pub 3 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Same here; Rootless Podman Quadlets gang unite (there is two of us in total)

[–] Botzo@lemmy.world 3 points 2 weeks ago

Make that 3!

[–] dwt@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

How do you do that? Please link a description. This has been a major stumbling block for me

[–] mholiv@lemmy.world 1 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

Are you placing your service files in ~/.config/containers/systemd of the home dir of the user you want them to run as?

Here is a link: https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-run-podman-containers-under-systemd-with-quadlet

[–] dwt@feddit.org 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Yeah, that works, but it means the services cannot be managed by systemctl as root anymore. Or am I missing something?

[–] mholiv@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You can if you want to. But I don’t think that is best practice. The idea of quadlets is the bring Linux norms to containers. You contain and manage all permissions for that container in that user.

I personally have completely separated users and selinux mls contexts for each container group (formerly docker compose file) and I manage them thusly. It’s more annoying but it substantially more secure.

This being said I think you can do it as root. I think this might work but I am not certain sudo systemctl --user -M theuser@ status myunit.service

[–] Quik@infosec.pub 2 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Just place your Quadlets in the $HOME/.config/containers/systemd/ directory for this ;)

The reference I linked to earlier also contains more information on rootless.

[–] dwt@feddit.org 1 points 2 weeks ago

While that is true, that is not how I would run services normally with SystemD. Those would be defined globally, but run as a user.

Definitiv then in the user home, means that I dint see them with systemctl which is very annoying.