Systemd Documentation

Fedora 15 is out. Get it while it is hot! It is probably the biggest distribution release of a all time with being first in shipping both GNOME 3 and systemd.

Since this is the first distribution release based on systemd, it might be interesting to read up on what it is all about. Here's a little compilation of the available documentation for systemd.

The Manual Pages

• systemd(1), covering general concepts of systemd.
• systemctl(1), covering the client control utility of systemd.
• systemd-cgls(1), on a tool to show the systemd cgroup tree.
• systemd.unit(5), systemd.exec(5), systemd.service(5), systemd.socket(5), systemd.target(5), systemd.timer(5), systemd.swap(5), systemd.snapshot(5), systemd.path(5), systemd.mount(5), systemd.device(5), systemd.automount(5), for writing systemd unit files.
• systemd-nspawn(1), on a tool for running simple containers.
• systemd-notify(1), on a tool for sending notifications to systemd.
• systemd.special(5), with a list of systemd's special units.
• daemon(7), on writing daemons.
• pam_systemd(8), on configuring user session settings.
• sd-daemon(7), sd_listen_fds(3), sd_notify(3), sd_is_fifo(3), sd_booted(3), sd-readahead(7), sd_readahead(3), covering the systemd API.
• systemd-ask-password(1), describing a tool for querying system passwords.
• systemd-tmpfiles(8), describing a tool for creating, deleting and cleaning up volatile and temporary files and directories.
• systemd.conf(5), describing the systemd main configuration file.
• binfmt.d(5), hostname(5), locale.conf(5), machine-id(5), machine-info(5), modules-load.d(5), os-release(5), sysctl.d, tmpfiles.d(5), vconsole.conf(5), for the configuration files systemd standardizes.
• halt(8), runlevel(8), shutdown(8), telinit(8), covering the SysV compatibility tools.

Here's the full list of all man pages.

The Blog Stories

• The original announcement blog story, lining out the ideas of systemd in much detail.
• The two status updates since then.
• systemd for Administrators #1: Verifying Bootup
• systemd for Administrators #2: Which Service Owns Which Processes?
• systemd for Administrators #3: How Do I Convert A SysV Init Script Into A systemd Service File?
• systemd for Administrators #4: Killing Services
• systemd for Administrators #5: The Three Levels of "Off"
• systemd for Administrators #6: Changing Roots
• systemd for Administrators #7: The Blame Game
• systemd for Administrators #8: The New Configuration Files
• Why systemd?, exploring why distributions should choose (and are choosing) systemd.
• systemd for Developers #1: Socket Activation

Some of the systemd for Administrators blog posts are available in Russian language, too.

Other Documentation

• Tips & Tricks
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Interface Stability Promise, covering what you need to know when developing against systemd interfaces.
• Writing Password Agents, in case you want to add a systemd compatible password agent to the desktop of your preference.
• On hostnamed, in case you want to add hostname changing UIs to your favourite desktop environment.

Fedora Documentation

• General Overview
• SysVInit to systemd Cheatsheet
• How to Debug systemd Problems
• systemd Packaging Guidelines

In The Press

• The original LWN article
• Bê-á-bá do systemd
• Press articles after the original announcement

Other Distributions' Documentation

• OpenSUSE
• Debian
• Ubuntu
• Gentoo
• Arch

And, if you still have questions after all of this, please join our mailing list, or our IRC channel #systemd on irc.freenode.org. Alternatively, if you are looking for paid consulting services for systemd contact our friends at ProFUSION.