Fedora 15 is out. (https://fedoraproject.org/get-fedora) 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 (http://gnome3.org/) and systemd (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/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) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.html), covering general concepts of systemd.

• systemctl(1) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemctl.html), covering the client control utility of systemd.

• systemd-cgls(1) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd-cgls.html), on a tool to show the systemd cgroup tree.

• systemd.unit(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.unit.html), systemd.exec(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.exec.html), systemd.service(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.service.html), systemd.socket(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.socket.html), systemd.target(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.target.html), systemd.timer(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.timer.html), systemd.swap(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.swap.html), systemd.snapshot(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.snapshot.html), systemd.path(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.path.html), systemd.mount(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.mount.html), systemd.device(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.device.html), systemd.automount(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.automount.html), for writing systemd unit files.

• systemd-nspawn(1) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd-nspawn.html), on a tool for running simple containers.

• systemd-notify(1) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd-notify.html), on a tool for sending notifications to systemd.

• systemd.special(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.special.html), with a list of systemd’s special units.

• daemon(7) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/daemon.html), on writing daemons.

• pam_systemd(8) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/pam_systemd.html), on configuring user session settings.

• sd-daemon(7) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/sd-daemon.html), sd_listen_fds(3) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/sd_listen_fds.html), sd_notify(3) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/sd_notify.html), sd_is_fifo(3) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/sd_is_fifo.html), sd_booted(3) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/sd_booted.html), sd-readahead(7) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/sd-readahead.html), sd_readahead(3) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/sd_readahead.html), covering the systemd API.

• systemd-ask-password(1) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd-ask-password.html), describing a tool for querying system passwords.

• systemd-tmpfiles(8) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd-tmpfiles.html), describing a tool for creating, deleting and cleaning up volatile and temporary files and directories.

• systemd.conf(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/systemd.conf.html), describing the systemd main configuration file.

• binfmt.d(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/binfmt.d.html), hostname(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/hostname.html), locale.conf(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/locale.conf.html), machine-id(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/machine-id.html), machine-info(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/machine-info.html), modules-load.d(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/modules-load.d.html), os-release(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/os-release.html), sysctl.d (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/sysctl.d.html), tmpfiles.d(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/tmpfiles.d.html), vconsole.conf(5) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/vconsole.conf.html), for the configuration files systemd standardizes.

• halt(8) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/halt.html), runlevel(8) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/runlevel.html), shutdown(8) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/shutdown.html), telinit(8) (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/telinit.html), covering the SysV compatibility tools.

Here’s the full list of all man pages. (http://0pointer.de/public/systemd-man/)

The Blog Stories

• The original announcement blog story (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html), lining out the ideas of systemd in much detail.

• The two status updates (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-update.html) since then (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-update-2.html).

• systemd for Administrators #1: Verifying Bootup (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-for-admins-1.html)

• systemd for Administrators #2: Which Service Owns Which Processes? (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-for-admins-2.html)

• systemd for Administrators #3: How Do I Convert A SysV Init Script Into A systemd Service File? (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-for-admins-3.html)

• systemd for Administrators #4: Killing Services (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-for-admins-4.html)

• systemd for Administrators #5: The Three Levels of “Off” (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/three-levels-of-off)

• systemd for Administrators #6: Changing Roots (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/changing-roots.html)

• systemd for Administrators #7: The Blame Game (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/blame-game.html)

• systemd for Administrators #8: The New Configuration Files (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/the-new-configuration-files)

• Why systemd? (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/why.html), exploring why distributions should choose (and are choosing) systemd.

• systemd for Developers #1: Socket Activation (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activation.html)

Some of the systemd for Administrators blog posts are available in Russian language, too. (http://wiki.opennet.ru/Systemd_%D0%B4%D0%BB%D1%8F_%D0%B0%D0%B4%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%81%D1%82%D1%80%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%B2)

Other Documentation

• Tips & Tricks (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/TipsAndTricks)

• Frequently Asked Questions (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/FrequentlyAskedQuestions)

• Interface Stability Promise (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/InterfaceStabilityPromise), covering what you need to know when developing against systemd interfaces.

• Writing Password Agents (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/PasswordAgents), in case you want to add a systemd compatible password agent to the desktop of your preference.

• On hostnamed (http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/hostnamed), in case you want to add hostname changing UIs to your favourite desktop environment.

Fedora Documentation

• General Overview (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Systemd)

• SysVInit to systemd Cheatsheet (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/SysVinit_to_Systemd_Cheatsheet)

• How to Debug systemd Problems (http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_debug_Systemd_problems)

• systemd Packaging Guidelines (https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Packaging:Guidelines:Systemd)

In The Press

• The original LWN article (http://lwn.net/Articles/389149/)

• Bê-á-bá do systemd (https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/mydeveloperworks/blogs/752a690f-8e93-4948-b7a3-c060117e8665/entry/systemd_parte_1?lang=pt_br)

• Press articles after the original announcement (http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-in-the-news.html)

Other Distributions’ Documentation

• OpenSUSE (http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Systemd)

• Debian (http://wiki.debian.org/systemd)

• Ubuntu (https://wiki.ubuntu.com/systemd)

• Gentoo (http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Systemd)

• Arch (https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd)

And, if you still have questions after all of this, please join our mailing list (http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel), 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 (http://profusion.mobi/).