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Operating systems · #archlinux
Arch Linux delegates local authentication to PAM, where pam_unix reads /etc/shadow . Two shadow fields matter here: password expiry, configured with chage -M , which forces a change at next authentication, and account expiration, set with chage -E , which denies access after the given date. OpenSSH can run with UsePAM yes , yet public-key authentication does
Integration boundary between systemd-resolved and NetworkManager DNS stub resolvers The goal is to maintain a stable DNS configuration that prevents intermittent resolution delays which can exhaust application connection pools under load. When both services are active, they may alternately rewrite /etc/resolv.conf between the systemd-resolved stub (127.0.0.5
Goal Determine if installing a new package immediately after running pacman -Sy —without a subsequent pacman -Syu —can trigger dependency mismatches or system instability. Constraints & Uncertainty Testing must be performed in an isolated environment to avoid affecting production credentials. The behavior is documented but not fully verified across all A
Goal Maintain a minimal Arch Linux system while deciding whether to install a frequently updated application that is only available in the AUR. Constraints Security: Official repositories provide signed binaries, whereas AUR packages rely on user‑audited PKGBUILDs. Speed: Official packages install instantly; AUR requires compilation or helper automation. Res
Goal: Silent Failure Alerts We want to receive actionable alerts for service failures without desktop pop‑ups in Arch Linux. Constraints systemd OnFailure= only reacts to service unit failures. Alerts must be delivered via email or journal, not via notification daemons. Package‑related events are outside service scope. Unresolved Decision Arch Linux lacks cl
Arch Linux follows the standard convention of maintaining the hardware time clock (RTC) in UTC. This configuration is managed via timedatectl , but conflicts frequently arise when the system dual-boots with Windows, which typically expects the RTC to be set to local time. While timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 allows the kernel to interpret the hardware clock as
pacman.conf NetworkTimeout: Uncertain behavior on abrupt cancellation Administrators often tune pacman’s NetworkTimeout to avoid hanging on stalled downloads during system updates. However, when a transaction is interrupted—typically with Ctrl+C —pacman does not provide a documented rollback or safe‑abort mechanism. The package database can be left in a part
Goal Determine why a systemd-managed deployment service fails to start after a routine pacman system upgrade, yet journalctl -u returns no visible error messages for the unit. Constraints The service unit is enabled and was running before the upgrade. Pacman's transaction log confirms the relevant packages were updated. Journal persistence is configured with
Archlinux’s pacman --paginate limits query output to a fixed 1000‑entry page size, which can cause high memory consumption when many large package descriptions are displayed. Should a tunable page size option be added to pacman, and what default size would balance performance and memory use for typical workloads?