systemd/man/systemd.service.xml
Christian Seiler d44efb621a man: systemd.service(5): add some simple examples
Add a couple of exampels, at least one for each service type that
include some explanations and pointers to various relevant options.
2015-01-27 22:18:35 +01:00

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<refentry id="systemd.service">
<refentryinfo>
<title>systemd.service</title>
<productname>systemd</productname>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<contrib>Developer</contrib>
<firstname>Lennart</firstname>
<surname>Poettering</surname>
<email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>systemd.service</refname>
<refpurpose>Service unit configuration</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsynopsisdiv>
<para><filename><replaceable>service</replaceable>.service</filename></para>
</refsynopsisdiv>
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
<para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
<filename>.service</filename> encodes information
about a process controlled and supervised by
systemd.</para>
<para>This man page lists the configuration options
specific to this unit type. See
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for the common options of all unit configuration
files. The common configuration items are configured
in the generic <literal>[Unit]</literal> and
<literal>[Install]</literal> sections. The service
specific configuration options are configured in the
<literal>[Service]</literal> section.</para>
<para>Additional options are listed in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
which define the execution environment the commands
are executed in, and in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
which define the way the processes of the service are
terminated, and in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
which configure resource control settings for the
processes of the service.</para>
<para>Unless <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname>
is set to <option>false</option>, service units will
implicitly have dependencies of type
<varname>Requires=</varname> and
<varname>After=</varname> on
<filename>basic.target</filename> as well as
dependencies of type <varname>Conflicts=</varname> and
<varname>Before=</varname> on
<filename>shutdown.target</filename>. These ensure
that normal service units pull in basic system
initialization, and are terminated cleanly prior to
system shutdown. Only services involved with early
boot or late system shutdown should disable this
option.</para>
<para>If a service is requested under a certain name
but no unit configuration file is found, systemd looks
for a SysV init script by the same name (with the
<filename>.service</filename> suffix removed) and
dynamically creates a service unit from that
script. This is useful for compatibility with
SysV. Note that this compatibility is quite
comprehensive but not 100%. For details about the
incompatibilities, see the <ulink
url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Incompatibilities">Incompatibilities
with SysV</ulink> document.
</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Options</title>
<para>Service files must include a
<literal>[Service]</literal> section, which carries
information about the service and the process it
supervises. A number of options that may be used in
this section are shared with other unit types. These
options are documented in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
and
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. The
options specific to the <literal>[Service]</literal>
section of service units are the following:</para>
<variablelist class='unit-directives'>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>Type=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configures the process
start-up type for this service
unit. One of <option>simple</option>,
<option>forking</option>,
<option>oneshot</option>,
<option>dbus</option>,
<option>notify</option> or
<option>idle</option>.</para>
<para>If set to
<option>simple</option> (the default
if neither
<varname>Type=</varname> nor
<varname>BusName=</varname>, but
<varname>ExecStart=</varname> are
specified), it is expected that the
process configured with
<varname>ExecStart=</varname> is the
main process of the service. In this
mode, if the process offers
functionality to other processes on
the system, its communication channels
should be installed before the daemon
is started up (e.g. sockets set up by
systemd, via socket activation), as
systemd will immediately proceed
starting follow-up units.</para>
<para>If set to
<option>forking</option>, it is
expected that the process configured
with <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
will call <function>fork()</function>
as part of its start-up. The parent process is
expected to exit when start-up is
complete and all communication
channels are set up. The child continues
to run as the main daemon
process. This is the behavior of
traditional UNIX daemons. If this
setting is used, it is recommended to
also use the
<varname>PIDFile=</varname> option, so
that systemd can identify the main
process of the daemon. systemd will
proceed with starting follow-up units
as soon as the parent process
exits.</para>
<para>Behavior of
<option>oneshot</option> is similar to
<option>simple</option>; however, it
is expected that the process has to
exit before systemd starts follow-up
units. <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname>
is particularly useful for this type
of service. This is the implied
default if neither
<varname>Type=</varname> or
<varname>ExecStart=</varname> are
specified.</para>
<para>Behavior of
<option>dbus</option> is similar to
<option>simple</option>; however, it is
expected that the daemon acquires a
name on the D-Bus bus, as configured
by
<varname>BusName=</varname>. systemd
will proceed with starting follow-up
units after the D-Bus bus name has been
acquired. Service units with this
option configured implicitly gain
dependencies on the
<filename>dbus.socket</filename>
unit. This type is the default if
<varname>BusName=</varname> is
specified.</para>
<para>Behavior of
<option>notify</option> is similar to
<option>simple</option>; however, it is
expected that the daemon sends a
notification message via
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
or an equivalent call when it has finished
starting up. systemd will proceed with
starting follow-up units after this
notification message has been sent. If
this option is used,
<varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see
below) should be set to open access to
the notification socket provided by
systemd. If
<varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
not set, it will be implicitly set to
<option>main</option>. Note that
currently
<varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option>
will not work if used in combination with
<varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname><option>yes</option>.</para>
<para>Behavior of
<option>idle</option> is very similar
to <option>simple</option>; however,
actual execution of the service
binary is delayed until all jobs are
dispatched. This may be used to avoid
interleaving of output of shell
services with the status output on the
console.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes a boolean value
that specifies whether the service
shall be considered active even when
all its processes exited. Defaults to
<option>no</option>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>GuessMainPID=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes a boolean value
that specifies whether systemd should
try to guess the main PID of a service
if it cannot be determined
reliably. This option is ignored
unless <option>Type=forking</option>
is set and <option>PIDFile=</option>
is unset because for the other types
or with an explicitly configured PID
file, the main PID is always known. The
guessing algorithm might come to
incorrect conclusions if a daemon
consists of more than one process. If
the main PID cannot be determined,
failure detection and automatic
restarting of a service will not work
reliably. Defaults to
<option>yes</option>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>PIDFile=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes an absolute file
name pointing to the PID file of this
daemon. Use of this option is
recommended for services where
<varname>Type=</varname> is set to
<option>forking</option>. systemd will
read the PID of the main process of
the daemon after start-up of the
service. systemd will not write to the
file configured here.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>BusName=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes a D-Bus bus
name that this service is reachable
as. This option is mandatory for
services where
<varname>Type=</varname> is set to
<option>dbus</option>.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>BusPolicy=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>If specified, a custom
<ulink url="https://code.google.com/p/d-bus/">kdbus</ulink>
endpoint will be created and installed as the
default bus node for the service. Such a custom
endpoint can hold an own set of policy rules
that are enforced on top of the bus-wide ones.
The custom endpoint is named after the service
it was created for, and its node will be
bind-mounted over the default bus node
location, so the service can only access the
bus through its own endpoint. Note that custom
bus endpoints default to a 'deny all' policy.
Hence, if at least one
<varname>BusPolicy=</varname> directive is
given, you have to make sure to add explicit
rules for everything the service should be able
to do.</para>
<para>The value of this directive is comprised
of two parts; the bus name, and a verb to
specify to granted access, which is one of
<option>see</option>,
<option>talk</option>, or
<option>own</option>.
<option>talk</option> implies
<option>see</option>, and <option>own</option>
implies both <option>talk</option> and
<option>see</option>.
If multiple access levels are specified for the
same bus name, the most powerful one takes
effect.
</para>
<para>Examples:</para>
<programlisting>BusPolicy=org.freedesktop.systemd1 talk</programlisting>
<programlisting>BusPolicy=org.foo.bar see</programlisting>
<para>This option is only available on kdbus enabled systems.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>ExecStart=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Commands with their
arguments that are executed when this
service is started. The value is split
into zero or more command lines is
according to the rules described below
(see section "Command Lines" below).
</para>
<para>When <varname>Type</varname> is
not <option>oneshot</option>, only one
command may and must be given. When
<varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is
used, zero or more commands may be
specified. This can be specified by
providing multiple command lines in
the same directive, or alternatively,
this directive may be specified more
than once with the same effect. If the
empty string is assigned to this
option, the list of commands to start
is reset, prior assignments of this
option will have no effect. If no
<varname>ExecStart=</varname> is
specified, then the service must have
<varname>RemainAfterExit=yes</varname>
set.</para>
<para>For each of the specified
commands, the first argument must be
an absolute path to an executable.
Optionally, if this file name is
prefixed with <literal>@</literal>,
the second token will be passed as
<literal>argv[0]</literal> to the
executed process, followed by the
further arguments specified. If the
absolute filename is prefixed with
<literal>-</literal>, an exit code of
the command normally considered a
failure (i.e. non-zero exit status or
abnormal exit due to signal) is
ignored and considered success. If
both <literal>-</literal> and
<literal>@</literal> are used, they
can appear in either order.</para>
<para>If more than one command is
specified, the commands are invoked
sequentially in the order they appear
in the unit file. If one of the
commands fails (and is not prefixed
with <literal>-</literal>), other
lines are not executed, and the unit
is considered failed.</para>
<para>Unless
<varname>Type=forking</varname> is
set, the process started via this
command line will be considered the
main process of the daemon.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
<term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Additional commands
that are executed before or after
the command in
<varname>ExecStart=</varname>, respectively.
Syntax is the same as for
<varname>ExecStart=</varname>, except
that multiple command lines are allowed
and the commands are executed one
after the other, serially.</para>
<para>If any of those commands (not
prefixed with <literal>-</literal>)
fail, the rest are not executed and
the unit is considered failed.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>ExecReload=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Commands to execute to
trigger a configuration reload in the
service. This argument takes multiple
command lines, following the same
scheme as described for
<varname>ExecStart=</varname>
above. Use of this setting is
optional. Specifier and environment
variable substitution is supported
here following the same scheme as for
<varname>ExecStart=</varname>.</para>
<para>One additional, special
environment variable is set: if known,
<varname>$MAINPID</varname> is set to
the main process of the daemon, and
may be used for command lines like the
following:</para>
<programlisting>/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID</programlisting>
<para>Note however that reloading a
daemon by sending a signal (as with
the example line above) is usually not
a good choice, because this is an
asynchronous operation and hence not
suitable to order reloads of multiple
services against each other. It is
strongly recommended to set
<varname>ExecReload=</varname> to a
command that not only triggers a
configuration reload of the daemon,
but also synchronously waits for it to
complete.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>ExecStop=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Commands to execute to
stop the service started via
<varname>ExecStart=</varname>. This
argument takes multiple command lines,
following the same scheme as described
for <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
above. Use of this setting is
optional. After the commands configured
in this option are run, all processes
remaining for a service are
terminated according to the
<varname>KillMode=</varname> setting
(see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>). If
this option is not specified, the
process is terminated immediately when
service stop is requested. Specifier
and environment variable substitution
is supported (including
<varname>$MAINPID</varname>, see
above).</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Additional commands
that are executed after the service
was stopped. This includes cases where
the commands configured in
<varname>ExecStop=</varname> were used,
where the service does not have any
<varname>ExecStop=</varname> defined, or
where the service exited unexpectedly. This
argument takes multiple command lines,
following the same scheme as described
for <varname>ExecStart</varname>. Use
of these settings is
optional. Specifier and environment
variable substitution is
supported.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>RestartSec=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configures the time to
sleep before restarting a service (as
configured with
<varname>Restart=</varname>). Takes a
unit-less value in seconds, or a time
span value such as "5min
20s". Defaults to
100ms.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configures the time to
wait for start-up. If a
daemon service does not signal
start-up completion within the
configured time, the service will be
considered failed and will be shut
down again.
Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a
time span value such as "5min
20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to
disable the timeout logic. Defaults to
<varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname> from
the manager configuration file, except
when <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is
used, in which case the timeout
is disabled by default
(see <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configures the time to
wait for stop. If a service is asked
to stop, but does not terminate in the
specified time, it will be terminated
forcibly via <constant>SIGTERM</constant>,
and after another timeout of equal duration
with <constant>SIGKILL</constant> (see
<varname>KillMode=</varname>
in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a
time span value such as "5min
20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to disable
the timeout logic. Defaults to
<varname>DefaultTimeoutStopSec=</varname> from the
manager configuration file
(see <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>A shorthand for configuring
both <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname>
and <varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname>
to the specified value.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>WatchdogSec=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configures the
watchdog timeout for a service. The
watchdog is activated when the start-up is
completed. The service must call
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
regularly with <literal>WATCHDOG=1</literal>
(i.e. the "keep-alive ping"). If the time
between two such calls is larger than
the configured time, then the service
is placed in a failed state and it will
be terminated with <varname>SIGABRT</varname>.
By setting <varname>Restart=</varname> to
<option>on-failure</option> or
<option>always</option>, the service
will be automatically restarted. The
time configured here will be passed to
the executed service process in the
<varname>WATCHDOG_USEC=</varname>
environment variable. This allows
daemons to automatically enable the
keep-alive pinging logic if watchdog
support is enabled for the service. If
this option is used,
<varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see
below) should be set to open access to
the notification socket provided by
systemd. If
<varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
not set, it will be implicitly set to
<option>main</option>. Defaults to 0,
which disables this
feature.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>Restart=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configures whether the
service shall be restarted when the
service process exits, is killed,
or a timeout is reached. The service
process may be the main service
process, but it may also be one of the
processes specified with
<varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>, or
<varname>ExecReload=</varname>.
When the death of the process is a
result of systemd operation (e.g. service
stop or restart), the service will not be
restarted. Timeouts include missing
the watchdog "keep-alive ping"
deadline and a service start, reload,
and stop operation timeouts.</para>
<para>Takes one of
<option>no</option>,
<option>on-success</option>,
<option>on-failure</option>,
<option>on-abnormal</option>,
<option>on-watchdog</option>,
<option>on-abort</option>, or
<option>always</option>. If set to
<option>no</option> (the default), the
service will not be restarted. If set
to <option>on-success</option>, it
will be restarted only when the
service process exits cleanly. In
this context, a clean exit means an
exit code of 0, or one of the signals
<constant>SIGHUP</constant>,
<constant>SIGINT</constant>,
<constant>SIGTERM</constant> or
<constant>SIGPIPE</constant>, and
additionally, exit statuses and
signals specified in
<varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname>.
If set to <option>on-failure</option>,
the service will be restarted when the
process exits with a non-zero exit
code, is terminated by a signal
(including on core dump, but excluding
the aforementiond four signals), when
an operation (such as service reload)
times out, and when the configured
watchdog timeout is triggered. If set
to <option>on-abnormal</option>, the
service will be restarted when the
process is terminated by a signal
(including on core dump, excluding the
aforementioned four signals), when an
operation times out, or when the
watchdog timeout is triggered. If set
to <option>on-abort</option>, the
service will be restarted only if the
service process exits due to an
uncaught signal not specified as a
clean exit status. If set to
<option>on-watchdog</option>, the
service will be restarted only if the
watchdog timeout for the service
expires. If set to
<option>always</option>, the service
will be restarted regardless of
whether it exited cleanly or not, got
terminated abnormally by a signal, or
hit a timeout.</para>
<table>
<title>Exit causes and the effect of the <varname>Restart=</varname> settings on them</title>
<tgroup cols='2'>
<colspec colname='path' />
<colspec colname='expl' />
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Restart settings/Exit causes</entry>
<entry><option>no</option></entry>
<entry><option>always</option></entry>
<entry><option>on-success</option></entry>
<entry><option>on-failure</option></entry>
<entry><option>on-abnormal</option></entry>
<entry><option>on-abort</option></entry>
<entry><option>on-watchdog</option></entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry>Clean exit code or signal</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
<entry/>
<entry/>
<entry/>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Unclean exit code</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
<entry/>
<entry/>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Unclean signal</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Timeout</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
<entry/>
</row>
<row>
<entry>Watchdog</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry>X</entry>
<entry/>
<entry>X</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>As exceptions to the setting
above the service will not be
restarted if the exit code or signal
is specified in
<varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>
(see below). Also, the services will
always be restarted if the exit code
or signal is specified in
<varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname>
(see below).</para>
<para>Setting this to
<option>on-failure</option> is the
recommended choice for long-running
services, in order to increase
reliability by attempting automatic
recovery from errors. For services
that shall be able to terminate on
their own choice (and avoid
immediate restarting),
<option>on-abnormal</option> is an
alternative choice.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
status definitions that when returned
by the main service process will be
considered successful termination, in
addition to the normal successful exit
code 0 and the signals <constant>SIGHUP</constant>, <constant>SIGINT</constant>,
<constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>. Exit status
definitions can either be numeric exit
codes or termination signal names,
separated by spaces. For example:
<programlisting>SuccessExitStatus=1 2 8 SIGKILL</programlisting>
ensures that exit codes 1, 2, 8 and
the termination signal
<constant>SIGKILL</constant> are
considered clean service terminations.
</para>
<para>Note that if a process has a
signal handler installed and exits by
calling
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>_exit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
in response to a signal, the
information about the signal is lost.
Programs should instead perform cleanup and kill themselves with the same signal instead. See
<ulink url="http://www.cons.org/cracauer/sigint.html">Proper handling of SIGINT/SIGQUIT — How to be a proper program</ulink>.</para>
<para>This option may appear more than once,
in which case the list of successful
exit statuses is merged. If the empty
string is assigned to this option, the
list is reset, all prior assignments
of this option will have no
effect.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
status definitions that when returned
by the main service process will
prevent automatic service restarts,
regardless of the restart setting
configured with
<varname>Restart=</varname>. Exit
status definitions can either be
numeric exit codes or termination
signal names, and are separated by
spaces. Defaults to the empty list, so
that, by default, no exit status is
excluded from the configured restart
logic. For example:
<programlisting>RestartPreventExitStatus=1 6 SIGABRT</programlisting> ensures that exit
codes 1 and 6 and the termination
signal <constant>SIGABRT</constant> will
not result in automatic service
restarting. This
option may appear more than once, in
which case the list of restart-preventing
statuses is merged. If the empty
string is assigned to this option, the
list is reset and all prior assignments
of this option will have no
effect.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
status definitions that when returned
by the main service process will force
automatic service restarts, regardless
of the restart setting configured with
<varname>Restart=</varname>. The
argument format is similar to
<varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>PermissionsStartOnly=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes a boolean
argument. If true, the permission-related
execution options, as
configured with
<varname>User=</varname> and similar
options (see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for more information), are only applied
to the process started with
<varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not
to the various other
<varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
<varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
<varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
commands. If false, the setting is
applied to all configured commands the
same way. Defaults to
false.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Takes a boolean
argument. If true, the root directory,
as configured with the
<varname>RootDirectory=</varname>
option (see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for more information), is only applied
to the process started with
<varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not
to the various other
<varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
<varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
<varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
commands. If false, the setting is
applied to all configured commands the
same way. Defaults to
false.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>NonBlocking=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Set the
<constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag
for all file descriptors passed via
socket-based activation. If true, all
file descriptors >= 3 (i.e. all except
stdin, stdout, and stderr) will have
the <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag
set and hence are in
non-blocking mode. This option is only
useful in conjunction with a socket
unit, as described in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Defaults
to false.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>NotifyAccess=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Controls access to the
service status notification socket, as
accessible via the
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
call. Takes one of
<option>none</option> (the default),
<option>main</option> or
<option>all</option>. If
<option>none</option>, no daemon status
updates are accepted from the service
processes, all status update messages
are ignored. If <option>main</option>,
only service updates sent from the
main process of the service are
accepted. If <option>all</option>, all
services updates from all members of
the service's control group are
accepted. This option should be set to
open access to the notification socket
when using
<varname>Type=notify</varname> or
<varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> (see
above). If those options are used but
<varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is not
configured, it will be implicitly set
to
<option>main</option>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>Sockets=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Specifies the name of
the socket units this service shall
inherit socket file descriptors
from when the service is
started. Normally it should not be
necessary to use this setting as all
socket file descriptors whose unit
shares the same name as the service
(subject to the different unit name
suffix of course) are passed to the
spawned process.</para>
<para>Note that the same socket file
descriptors may be passed to multiple
processes simultaneously. Also note
that a different service may be
activated on incoming socket traffic
than the one which is ultimately
configured to inherit the socket file
descriptors. Or in other words: the
<varname>Service=</varname> setting of
<filename>.socket</filename> units
does not have to match the inverse of
the <varname>Sockets=</varname>
setting of the
<filename>.service</filename> it
refers to.</para>
<para>This option may appear more than
once, in which case the list of socket
units is merged. If the empty string
is assigned to this option, the list of
sockets is reset, and all prior uses of
this setting will have no
effect.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname></term>
<term><varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configure service
start rate limiting. By default,
services which are started more
than 5 times within 10 seconds are not
permitted to start any more times
until the 10 second interval ends. With
these two options, this rate limiting
may be modified. Use
<varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
to configure the checking interval (defaults to
<varname>DefaultStartLimitInterval=</varname> in
manager configuration file, set to 0 to disable
any kind of rate limiting). Use
<varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to
configure how many starts per interval
are allowed (defaults to
<varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in
manager configuration file). These
configuration options are particularly
useful in conjunction with
<varname>Restart=</varname>; however,
they apply to all kinds of starts
(including manual), not just those
triggered by the
<varname>Restart=</varname> logic.
Note that units which are configured
for <varname>Restart=</varname> and
which reach the start limit are not
attempted to be restarted anymore;
however, they may still be restarted
manually at a later point, from which
point on, the restart logic is again
activated. Note that
<command>systemctl
reset-failed</command> will cause the
restart rate counter for a service to
be flushed, which is useful if the
administrator wants to manually start
a service and the start limit
interferes with
that.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configure the action
to take if the rate limit configured
with
<varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
and
<varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is
hit. Takes one of
<option>none</option>,
<option>reboot</option>,
<option>reboot-force</option>,
<option>reboot-immediate</option>,
<option>poweroff</option>,
<option>poweroff-force</option> or
<option>poweroff-immediate</option>. If
<option>none</option> is set, hitting
the rate limit will trigger no action
besides that the start will not be
permitted. <option>reboot</option>
causes a reboot following the normal
shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to
<command>systemctl reboot</command>).
<option>reboot-force</option> causes a
forced reboot which will terminate all
processes forcibly but should cause no
dirty file systems on reboot
(i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl
reboot -f</command>) and
<option>reboot-immediate</option>
causes immediate execution of the
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
system call, which might result in
data loss. Similar,
<option>poweroff</option>,
<option>poweroff-force</option>,
<option>poweroff-immediate</option>
have the effect of powering down the
system with similar
semantics. Defaults to
<option>none</option>.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>FailureAction=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configure the action
to take when the service enters a failed
state. Takes the same values as
<varname>StartLimitAction=</varname>
and executes the same actions.
Defaults to <option>none</option>.
</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>RebootArgument=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configure the optional
argument for the
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
system call if
<varname>StartLimitAction=</varname>
or <varname>FailureAction=</varname>
is a reboot action. This works just
like the optional argument to
<command>systemctl reboot</command>
command.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term><varname>FileDescriptorStoreMax=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Configure how many
file descriptors may be stored in the
service manager for the service using
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_pid_notify_with_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
<literal>FDSTORE=1</literal>
messages. This is useful for
implementing service restart schemes
where the state is serialized to
<filename>/run</filename> and the file
descriptors passed to the service
manager, to allow restarts without
losing state. Defaults to 0, i.e. no
file descriptors may be stored in the
service manager by default. All file
descriptors passed to the service
manager from a specific service are
passed back to the service's main
process on the next service
restart. Any file descriptors passed
to the service manager are
automatically closed when POLLHUP or
POLLERR is seen on them, or when the
service is fully stopped and no job
queued or being executed for
it.</para></listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>Check
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
and
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for more settings.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Command lines</title>
<para>This section describes command line parsing and
variable and specifier substitions for
<varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
<varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
<varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> options.</para>
<para>Multiple command lines may be concatenated in a
single directive by separating them with semicolons
(these semicolons must be passed as separate words).
Lone semicolons may be escaped as
<literal>\;</literal>.</para>
<para>Each command line is split on whitespace, with
the first item being the command to execute, and the
subsequent items being the arguments. Double quotes
("...") and single quotes ('...') may be used, in
which case everything until the next matching quote
becomes part of the same argument. C-style escapes are
also supported, see table below. Quotes themselves are
removed after parsing and escape sequences
substituted. In addition, a trailing backslash
(<literal>\</literal>) may be used to merge lines.
</para>
<para>This syntax is intended to be very similar to
shell syntax, but only the meta-characters and
expansions described in the following paragraphs are
understood. Specifically, redirection using
<literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;&lt;</literal>,
<literal>&gt;</literal>, and
<literal>&gt;&gt;</literal>, pipes using
<literal>|</literal>, running programs in the
background using <literal>&amp;</literal>, and
<emphasis>other elements of shell syntax are not
supported</emphasis>.</para>
<para>The command to execute must an absolute path
name. It may contain spaces, but control characters
are not allowed.</para>
<para>The command line accepts <literal>%</literal>
specifiers as described in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
Note that the first argument of the command line
(i.e. the program to execute) may not include
specifiers.</para>
<para>Basic environment variable substitution is
supported. Use <literal>${FOO}</literal> as part of a
word, or as a word of its own, on the command line, in
which case it will be replaced by the value of the
environment variable including all whitespace it
contains, resulting in a single argument. Use
<literal>$FOO</literal> as a separate word on the
command line, in which case it will be replaced by the
value of the environment variable split at whitespace
resulting in zero or more arguments. For this type of
expansion, quotes and respected when splitting into
words, and afterwards removed.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
<para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
with four arguments: <literal>one</literal>,
<literal>two</literal>, <literal>two</literal>, and
<literal>two two</literal>.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<programlisting>Environment=ONE='one' "TWO='two two' too" THREE=
ExecStart=/bin/echo ${ONE} ${TWO} ${THREE}
ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO $THREE</programlisting>
<para>This results in <filename>echo</filename> being
called twice, the first time with arguments
<literal>'one'</literal>,
<literal>'two two' too</literal>, <literal></literal>,
and the second time with arguments
<literal>one</literal>, <literal>two two</literal>,
<literal>too</literal>.
</para>
<para>To pass a literal dollar sign, use
<literal>$$</literal>. Variables whose value is not
known at expansion time are treated as empty
strings. Note that the first argument (i.e. the
program to execute) may not be a variable.</para>
<para>Variables to be used in this fashion may be
defined through <varname>Environment=</varname> and
<varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>. In addition,
variables listed in the section "Environment variables
in spawned processes" in
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
which are considered "static configuration", may be
used (this includes e.g. <varname>$USER</varname>, but
not <varname>$TERM</varname>).</para>
<para>Note that shell command lines are not directly
supported. If shell command lines are to be used, they
need to be passed explicitly to a shell implementation
of some kind. Example:</para>
<programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
<para>Example:</para>
<programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"</programlisting>
<para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
two times, each time with one argument:
<literal>one</literal> and <literal>two two</literal>,
respectively. Because two commands are specified,
<varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must be used.</para>
<para>Example:</para>
<programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / &gt;/dev/null &amp; \; \
/bin/ls</programlisting>
<para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
with five arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
<literal>&gt;/dev/null</literal>,
<literal>&amp;</literal>, <literal>;</literal>, and
<literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
<table>
<title>C escapes supported in command lines and environment variables</title>
<tgroup cols='2'>
<colspec colname='escape' />
<colspec colname='meaning' />
<thead>
<row>
<entry>Literal</entry>
<entry>Actual value</entry>
</row>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row>
<entry><literal>\a</literal></entry>
<entry>bell</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\b</literal></entry>
<entry>backspace</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\f</literal></entry>
<entry>form feed</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\n</literal></entry>
<entry>newline</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\r</literal></entry>
<entry>carriage return</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\t</literal></entry>
<entry>tab</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\v</literal></entry>
<entry>vertical tab</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
<entry>backslash</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\"</literal></entry>
<entry>double quotation mark</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\'</literal></entry>
<entry>single quotation mark</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\s</literal></entry>
<entry>space</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\x<replaceable>xx</replaceable></literal></entry>
<entry>character number <replaceable>xx</replaceable> in hexadecimal encoding</entry>
</row>
<row>
<entry><literal>\<replaceable>nnn</replaceable></literal></entry>
<entry>character number <replaceable>nnn</replaceable> in octal encoding</entry>
</row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Examples</title>
<example>
<title>Simple service</title>
<para>The following unit file creates a service
that will execute
<filename>/usr/sbin/foo-daemon</filename>.
Since no <varname>Type=</varname> is specified,
the default
<varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>
will be assumed. systemd will assume the unit
to be started immediately after the program has
begun executing.</para>
<programlisting>[Unit]
Description=Foo
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
<para>Note that systemd assumes here that the
process started by systemd will continue
running until the service terminates. If the
program daemonizes itself (i.e. forks), please
use
<varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option>
instead.</para>
<para>Since no <varname>ExecStop=</varname> was
specified, systemd will send SIGTERM to all
processes started from this service, and after
a timeout also SIGKILL. This behavior can be
modified, see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for details.</para>
<para>Note that this unit type does not include
any type of notification when a service has
completed initialization. For this, you should
use other unit types, such as
<varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option>
if the service understands systemd's
notification protocol,
<varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option>
if the service can background itself or
<varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option>
if the unit acquires a DBus name once
initialization is complete. See below.</para>
</example>
<example>
<title>Oneshot service</title>
<para>Sometimes units should just execute an
action without keeping active processes, such
as a filesystem check or a cleanup action on
boot. For this,
<varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option>
exists. Units of this type will wait until the
process specified terminates and then fall back
to being inactive. The following unit will
perform a clenaup action:</para>
<programlisting>[Unit]
Description=Cleanup old Foo data
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-cleanup
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
<para>Note that systemd will consider the unit
to be in the state 'starting' until the program
has terminated, so ordered dependencies will
wait for the program to finish before starting
themselves. The unit will revert to the
'inactive' state after the execution is
done, never reaching the 'active' state. That
means another request to start the unit will
perform the action again.</para>
<para><varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option>
are the only service units that may have more
than one <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
specified. They will be executed in order until
either they are all successful or one of them
fails.</para>
</example>
<example>
<title>Stoppable oneshot service</title>
<para>Similarly to the oneshot services, there
are sometimes units that need to execute a
program to set up something and then execute
another to shut it down, but no process remains
active while they are considered
'started'. Network configuration can sometimes
fall into this category. Another use case is if
a oneshot service shall not be executed a
each time when they are pulled in as a
dependency, but only the first time.</para>
<para>For this, systemd knows the setting
<varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>yes</option>,
which causes systemd to consider the unit to be
active if the start action exited successfully.
This directive can be used with all types, but
is most useful with
<varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option>
and
<varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>.
With
<varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option>
systemd waits until the start action has
completed before it considers the unit to be
active, so dependencies start only after the
start action has succeeded. With
<varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>
dependencies will start immediately after the
start action has been dispatched. The following
unit provides an example for a simple static
firewall.</para>
<programlisting>[Unit]
Description=Simple firewall
[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=yes
ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-start
ExecStop=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-stop
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
<para>Since the unit is considered to be
running after the start action has exited,
invoking <command>systemctl start</command> on
that unit again will cause no action to be
taken.</para>
</example>
<example>
<title>Traditional forking services</title>
<para>Many traditional daemons/services
background (i.e. fork, daemonize) themselves
when starting. Set
<varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option>
in the service's unit file to support this mode
of operation. systemd will consider the service
to be in the process of initialization while
the original program is still running. Once
it exits successfully and at least a process
remains (and
<varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>no</option>),
the service is considered started.</para>
<para>Often a traditional daemon only consists
of one process. Therefore, if only one process
is left after the original process terminates,
systemd will consider that process the main
process of the service. In that case, the
<varname>$MAINPID</varname> variable will be
available in <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
<varname>ExecStop=</varname>, etc.</para>
<para>In case more than one process remains,
systemd will be unable to determine the main
process, so it will not assume there is one.
In that case, <varname>$MAINPID</varname> will
not expand to anything. However, if the process
decides to write a traditional PID file,
systemd will be able to read the main PID from
there. Please set <varname>PIDFile=</varname>
accordingly. Note that the daemon should write
that file before finishing with its
initialization, otherwise systemd might try to
read the file before it exists.</para>
<para>The following example shows a simple
daemon that forks and just starts one process
in the background:</para>
<programlisting>[Unit]
Description=Some simple daemon
[Service]
Type=forking
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/my-simple-daemon -d
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
<para>Please see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for details on how you can influence the way
systemd terminates the service.</para>
</example>
<example>
<title>DBus services</title>
<para>For services that acquire a name on the
DBus system bus, use
<varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option>
and set <varname>BusName=</varname>
accordingly. The service should not fork
(daemonize). systemd will consider the service
to be initialized once the name has been
acquired on the system bus. The following
example shows a typical DBus service:</para>
<programlisting>[Unit]
Description=Simple DBus service
[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=org.example.simple-dbus-service
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
<para>For <emphasis>bus-activatable</emphasis>
services, don't include a
<literal>[Install]</literal> section in the
systemd service file, but use the
<varname>SystemdService=</varname> option in
the corresponding DBus service file, for
example
(<filename>/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.example.simple-dbus-service.service</filename>):</para>
<programlisting>[D-BUS Service]
Name=org.example.simple-dbus-service
Exec=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
User=root
SystemdService=simple-dbus-service.service</programlisting>
<para>Please see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for details on how you can influence the way
systemd terminates the service.</para>
</example>
<example>
<title>Services that notify systemd about their initialization</title>
<para><varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>
services are really easy to write, but have the
major disadvantage of systemd not being able to
tell when initialization of the given service
is complete. For this reason, systemd supports
a simple notification protocol that allows
daemons to make systemd aware that they are
done initializing. Use
<varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option>
for this. A typical service file for such a
daemon would look like this:</para>
<programlisting>[Unit]
Description=Simple notifying service
[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-notifying-service
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
<para>Note that the daemon has to support
systemd's notification protocol, else systemd
will think the service hasn't started yet and
kill it after a timeout. For an example of how
to update daemons to support this protocol
transparently, take a look at
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
systemd will consider the unit to be in the
'starting' state until a readiness notification
has arrived.</para>
<para>Please see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for details on how you can influence the way
systemd terminates the service.</para>
</example>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>