#systemd #linux #kludge
I have no one else who will find this interesting so might as well yell it out into the ether.

You can create a hacky mutex in systemd to prevent units from starting if there is an extant unit that "holds" the mutex.

Why would you do this? Well, I needed to run a process in a very specific network namespace and running it via a container within that context was a royal pain.

I got a python service running which would receive request via websocket or HTTP and spawn a systemd transient unit which would survive the python service dying or being restarted. Awesome!

Then a few months later, I get the idea of a web UI and realize that dbus is slow if you are trying to poke it for properties for every unit in the `foo@*.service` glob-space.

I really only needed a start timestamp from systemd and the python service could remain gloriously stateless. Lets say that at this point, it was less about what's good and more about getting it to work as I wanted it. I wanted to be able to just list all the systemd units and derive the frontend from that.

So I ended up configuring the systemd transient unit to be named `foo@$id-$startTime.service` and I set two properties, `Type=exec` and `BusName=$id`.

Now systemd supports notification via dbus as an exec type, it also can grab the dbus bus interface name for a service and hold it so no one else can grab it. But if you just use `BusName=` then systemd will wait for the unit until it actually notifies dbus. Which cool, but I'm running ffmpeg!

Then I just tried `Type=exec` and `BusName=$id` and it worked! I could stick both $id and $startTime into the unit name *and* have any subsequent units fail to launch because they couldn't grab the dbus bus interface name (because the first one grabbed it).

What's super nice is that since the units transient, when it finishes or fails, it'll be GC'd and the BusName will be freed.

Thank you for coming to my talk. 😅

Oh how loudly we elevate the virtues of elegance and simplicity
in deafening tomes and curricula of art and architecture!
Nature skipped those lessons,
fudged all designs,
from your million base pairs of apparently unused DNA
to your messy, sludgy internals -
we are kludges, hacks, permanently on evolution’s drawing board..

Maybe this is exactly why humanity
desires simplicity
so much?

#kludge #MastoPrompt

disparate hallmarks
comprise all parts of that kludge
(not a bug! feature!)

#Haiku #Writing #Poetry #WritingCommunity #PoetryCommunity

#MastoPrompt #Kludge
@stevencudahy

The #MastoPrompt for Sunday 26 October 2025 is:

#kludge

The poem or story can include the prompt word or be about the prompt word.

@ me, if you like, or just include the #MastoPrompt tag (to allow people to follow or filter their feeds), or keep your work to yourself - all the options are good as long as you're writing.

If you're including an image please do include alt-text if you’re able to.

#Writing #SmallPoem #Poetry #Fiction #MicroFiction #SmallStories

Hack achievement of the day: for both a proper animation keyframe triggering system missing from the in-house game engine, and purely out of curiosity, I decided to try out a Time Modulator (shareset in Wwise) to then sync trigger sounds from within a Blend Container. Video cap from game with a sine beep on zero frame, read timecode from Reaper project. But it works! (Mua-ha-ha!)

It is nothing but cumbersome, yet a fun hack 🥳

#Kludge #GameAudio #Wwise #AudioDesign

BleepingComputer: "Microsoft: Windows 'inetpub' folder created by security fix, don’t delete"

"...Microsoft told BleepingComputer on Thursday that this empty folder had been intentionally created and should not be removed.."

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-windows-inetpub-folder-created-by-security-fix-dont-delete/ #cybersecurity #kludge