In this series, the author aims to understand systemd by creating small containerized examples. They admit to initially finding systemd overwhelming due to the large number of units and lack of clarity on their importance. They discovered an article on running systemd in a container, which allowed them to experiment without the risk of breaking their live system. The author starts with a minimal systemd example, explaining the different unit types (targets, services, and sockets) and how they interact. They then guide readers through building a minimal systemd setup in a container, covering starting, stopping, and logging functionalities. This setup serves as a foundation for future exploration of systemd.
https://seb.jambor.dev/posts/systemd-by-example-part-1-minimization/