systemd-networkd — Network configuration
Network Daemon
© Lead Image © Giedrius Zaleckas, 123RF.com
The new networkd component of the systemd project supports basic network configuration. Despite its early stage of development, one thing is clear: This is a daemon with brains.
The systemd system management daemon appeared in 2010 as a potential replacement for the venerable but outdated init. System management daemons like systemd and init perform the important role of launching necessary services when the system boots, and they listen for requests for other services while the system is running.
Systemd seems to have won the contest as the next-generation init replacement, stepping ahead of Ubuntu's Upstart project. Fedora has used systemd since version 15; other supporters include the new RHEL 7, openSUSE since 12.1, Mandriva 2011, Debian 8, Mageia 2, Gentoo, Arch Linux, and Tizen [1] [2]. Recently, even Ubuntu announced that they were moving to systemd.
In the spirit of Free Software, the recent upsurge in attention for systemd has brought in new energy from community developers working on their own innovations. Norwegian developer Tom Gundersen has added basic network functionality to the systemd project. The imaginatively named daemon systemd-networkd [3] officially became part of the systemd project in release 210. The goal of systemd-networkd is to add a means for managing network configuration through systemd. According to the developers, systemd-networkd "detects and configures network devices as they appear, as well as creating virtual network devices" [4].
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