Dear systemd community,
I’m a sysadmin currently learning Linux and systemd, and I’m exploring
technologies that allow me to add and remove applications to my system’s root
filesystem in a plug-and-play fashion. I’m avoiding containers because I need a
higher level of integration with the system, and the abstraction containers
provide doesn’t align with my needs.
As I learn more about systemd, I came across systemd portable services and
systemd-sysext while researching solutions to my problem. From my
understanding, sysext leverages OverlayFS, while portable services seem to
function more like a chroot environment with additional functionality. Although
they appear to have similar use cases, I’m having trouble deciding between the
two.
Could anyone provide clarification on the specific scenarios where one solution
would be more appropriate than the other?
Thank you very much for your time and assistance!
Best regards,
