Systemd 241 Release Candidate Now Available For Testing

Systemd doesn't tend to have tagged release candidates or any development releases aside from Git prior to issuing new stable releases, but that's different today with the systemd 241 RC1 debut.

Systemd 241 RC1 was just issued as part of a call for testing. While systemd doesn't tend to issue tagged RCs, in the case of systemd 241 it has the recent "system down" security fixes as the most prominent work since systemd 240 that was released at the end of December.

Systemd 241 takes care of those three vulnerabilities as well as a new stderr priority option for systemd-cat, an optional initrd file path can be passed to the kernel install script, PIE is made as a Meson build option, and other changes. For further upping the security, systemd 241 enables regular file and FIFO protection when paired with the Linux 4.19 kernel and newer.

Systemd 241 RC1 is available from GitHub.