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8 Copyright 2010 Lennart Poettering
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23
24<refentry id="systemd.service">
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25 <refentryinfo>
26 <title>systemd.service</title>
27 <productname>systemd</productname>
28
29 <authorgroup>
30 <author>
31 <contrib>Developer</contrib>
32 <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
33 <surname>Poettering</surname>
34 <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
35 </author>
36 </authorgroup>
37 </refentryinfo>
38
39 <refmeta>
40 <refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle>
41 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
42 </refmeta>
43
44 <refnamediv>
45 <refname>systemd.service</refname>
46 <refpurpose>Service unit configuration</refpurpose>
47 </refnamediv>
48
49 <refsynopsisdiv>
50 <para><filename><replaceable>service</replaceable>.service</filename></para>
51 </refsynopsisdiv>
52
53 <refsect1>
54 <title>Description</title>
55
56 <para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
57 <filename>.service</filename> encodes information about a process
58 controlled and supervised by systemd.</para>
59
60 <para>This man page lists the configuration options specific to
61 this unit type. See
62 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
63 for the common options of all unit configuration files. The common
64 configuration items are configured in the generic
65 <literal>[Unit]</literal> and <literal>[Install]</literal>
66 sections. The service specific configuration options are
67 configured in the <literal>[Service]</literal> section.</para>
68
69 <para>Additional options are listed in
70 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
71 which define the execution environment the commands are executed
72 in, and in
73 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
74 which define the way the processes of the service are terminated,
75 and in
76 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
77 which configure resource control settings for the processes of the
78 service.</para>
79
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80 <para>If a service is requested under a certain name but no unit
81 configuration file is found, systemd looks for a SysV init script
82 by the same name (with the <filename>.service</filename> suffix
83 removed) and dynamically creates a service unit from that script.
84 This is useful for compatibility with SysV. Note that this
85 compatibility is quite comprehensive but not 100%. For details
86 about the incompatibilities, see the <ulink
87 url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Incompatibilities">Incompatibilities
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88 with SysV</ulink> document.</para>
89 </refsect1>
90
91 <refsect1>
92 <title>Automatic Dependencies</title>
93
94 <para>Services with <varname>Type=dbus</varname> set automatically
95 acquire dependencies of type <varname>Requires=</varname> and
96 <varname>After=</varname> on
97 <filename>dbus.socket</filename>.</para>
98
99 <para>Socket activated service are automatically ordered after
100 their activated <filename>.socket</filename> units via an
101 automatic <varname>After=</varname> dependency.</para>
102
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103 <para>Unless <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> in the <literal>[Unit]</literal> is set to
104 <option>false</option>, service units will implicitly have dependencies of type <varname>Requires=</varname> and
105 <varname>After=</varname> on <filename>sysinit.target</filename>, a dependency of type <varname>After=</varname> on
106 <filename>basic.target</filename> as well as dependencies of type <varname>Conflicts=</varname> and
107 <varname>Before=</varname> on <filename>shutdown.target</filename>. These ensure that normal service units pull in
108 basic system initialization, and are terminated cleanly prior to system shutdown. Only services involved with early
109 boot or late system shutdown should disable this option.</para>
c129bd5d 110
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111 <para>Instanced service units (i.e. service units with an <literal>@</literal> in their name) are assigned by
112 default a per-template slice unit (see
113 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.slice</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>), named after the
114 template unit, containing all instances of the specific template. This slice is normally stopped at shutdown,
115 together with all template instances. If that is not desired, set <varname>DefaultDependencies=no</varname> in the
116 template unit, and either define your own per-template slice unit file that also sets
117 <varname>DefaultDependencies=no</varname>, or set <varname>Slice=system.slice</varname> (or another suitable slice)
118 in the template unit. Also see
119 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
120
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121 <para>Additional implicit dependencies may be added as result of
122 execution and resource control parameters as documented in
123 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
124 and
125 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
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126 </refsect1>
127
128 <refsect1>
129 <title>Options</title>
130
131 <para>Service files must include a <literal>[Service]</literal>
132 section, which carries information about the service and the
133 process it supervises. A number of options that may be used in
134 this section are shared with other unit types. These options are
135 documented in
136 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
137 and
138 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
139 The options specific to the <literal>[Service]</literal> section
140 of service units are the following:</para>
141
142 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
143 <varlistentry>
144 <term><varname>Type=</varname></term>
145
146 <listitem><para>Configures the process start-up type for this
147 service unit. One of
148 <option>simple</option>,
149 <option>forking</option>,
150 <option>oneshot</option>,
151 <option>dbus</option>,
152 <option>notify</option> or
153 <option>idle</option>.</para>
154
155 <para>If set to <option>simple</option> (the default if
156 neither <varname>Type=</varname> nor
157 <varname>BusName=</varname>, but <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
158 are specified), it is expected that the process configured
159 with <varname>ExecStart=</varname> is the main process of the
160 service. In this mode, if the process offers functionality to
161 other processes on the system, its communication channels
162 should be installed before the daemon is started up (e.g.
163 sockets set up by systemd, via socket activation), as systemd
164 will immediately proceed starting follow-up units.</para>
165
166 <para>If set to <option>forking</option>, it is expected that
167 the process configured with <varname>ExecStart=</varname> will
168 call <function>fork()</function> as part of its start-up. The
169 parent process is expected to exit when start-up is complete
170 and all communication channels are set up. The child continues
171 to run as the main daemon process. This is the behavior of
172 traditional UNIX daemons. If this setting is used, it is
173 recommended to also use the <varname>PIDFile=</varname>
174 option, so that systemd can identify the main process of the
175 daemon. systemd will proceed with starting follow-up units as
176 soon as the parent process exits.</para>
177
178 <para>Behavior of <option>oneshot</option> is similar to
179 <option>simple</option>; however, it is expected that the
180 process has to exit before systemd starts follow-up units.
181 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname> is particularly useful for
182 this type of service. This is the implied default if neither
183 <varname>Type=</varname> or <varname>ExecStart=</varname> are
184 specified.</para>
185
186 <para>Behavior of <option>dbus</option> is similar to
187 <option>simple</option>; however, it is expected that the
188 daemon acquires a name on the D-Bus bus, as configured by
189 <varname>BusName=</varname>. systemd will proceed with
190 starting follow-up units after the D-Bus bus name has been
191 acquired. Service units with this option configured implicitly
192 gain dependencies on the <filename>dbus.socket</filename>
193 unit. This type is the default if <varname>BusName=</varname>
194 is specified.</para>
195
196 <para>Behavior of <option>notify</option> is similar to
197 <option>simple</option>; however, it is expected that the
198 daemon sends a notification message via
199 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
200 or an equivalent call when it has finished starting up.
201 systemd will proceed with starting follow-up units after this
202 notification message has been sent. If this option is used,
203 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see below) should be set to
204 open access to the notification socket provided by systemd. If
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205 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is missing or set to
206 <option>none</option>, it will be forcibly set to
207 <option>main</option>. Note that currently
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208 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> will not work
209 if used in combination with
210 <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname><option>yes</option>.</para>
211
212 <para>Behavior of <option>idle</option> is very similar to
213 <option>simple</option>; however, actual execution of the
214 service binary is delayed until all jobs are dispatched. This
215 may be used to avoid interleaving of output of shell services
216 with the status output on the console.</para>
217 </listitem>
218 </varlistentry>
219
220 <varlistentry>
221 <term><varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname></term>
222
223 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value that specifies whether
224 the service shall be considered active even when all its
225 processes exited. Defaults to <option>no</option>.</para>
226 </listitem>
227 </varlistentry>
228
229 <varlistentry>
230 <term><varname>GuessMainPID=</varname></term>
231
232 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value that specifies whether
233 systemd should try to guess the main PID of a service if it
234 cannot be determined reliably. This option is ignored unless
235 <option>Type=forking</option> is set and
236 <option>PIDFile=</option> is unset because for the other types
237 or with an explicitly configured PID file, the main PID is
238 always known. The guessing algorithm might come to incorrect
239 conclusions if a daemon consists of more than one process. If
240 the main PID cannot be determined, failure detection and
241 automatic restarting of a service will not work reliably.
242 Defaults to <option>yes</option>.</para>
243 </listitem>
244 </varlistentry>
245
246 <varlistentry>
247 <term><varname>PIDFile=</varname></term>
248
249 <listitem><para>Takes an absolute file name pointing to the
250 PID file of this daemon. Use of this option is recommended for
251 services where <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
252 <option>forking</option>. systemd will read the PID of the
253 main process of the daemon after start-up of the service.
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254 systemd will not write to the file configured here, although
255 it will remove the file after the service has shut down if it
256 still exists.
257 </para>
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258 </listitem>
259 </varlistentry>
260
261 <varlistentry>
262 <term><varname>BusName=</varname></term>
263
264 <listitem><para>Takes a D-Bus bus name that this service is
265 reachable as. This option is mandatory for services where
266 <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
267 <option>dbus</option>.</para>
268 </listitem>
269 </varlistentry>
270
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271 <varlistentry>
272 <term><varname>ExecStart=</varname></term>
273 <listitem><para>Commands with their arguments that are
274 executed when this service is started. The value is split into
a8eaaee7 275 zero or more command lines according to the rules described
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276 below (see section "Command Lines" below).
277 </para>
278
22065311 279 <para>When <varname>Type=</varname> is not
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280 <option>oneshot</option>, only one command may and must be
281 given. When <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is used, zero or
282 more commands may be specified. This can be specified by
283 providing multiple command lines in the same directive, or
284 alternatively, this directive may be specified more than once
285 with the same effect. If the empty string is assigned to this
286 option, the list of commands to start is reset, prior
287 assignments of this option will have no effect. If no
288 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> is specified, then the service
289 must have <varname>RemainAfterExit=yes</varname> set.</para>
290
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291 <para>For each of the specified commands, the first argument must be an absolute path to an
292 executable. Optionally, if this file name is prefixed with <literal>@</literal>, the second token will be
293 passed as <literal>argv[0]</literal> to the executed process, followed by the further arguments specified. If
294 the absolute filename is prefixed with <literal>-</literal>, an exit code of the command normally considered a
295 failure (i.e. non-zero exit status or abnormal exit due to signal) is ignored and considered success. If the
296 absolute path is prefixed with <literal>+</literal> then it is executed with full
297 privileges. <literal>-</literal>, <literal>@</literal>, and <literal>+</literal> may be used together and they
298 can appear in any order.</para>
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299
300 <para>If more than one command is specified, the commands are
301 invoked sequentially in the order they appear in the unit
302 file. If one of the commands fails (and is not prefixed with
303 <literal>-</literal>), other lines are not executed, and the
304 unit is considered failed.</para>
305
306 <para>Unless <varname>Type=forking</varname> is set, the
307 process started via this command line will be considered the
308 main process of the daemon.</para>
309 </listitem>
310 </varlistentry>
311
312 <varlistentry>
313 <term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
314 <term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
315 <listitem><para>Additional commands that are executed before
316 or after the command in <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
317 respectively. Syntax is the same as for
318 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, except that multiple command
319 lines are allowed and the commands are executed one after the
320 other, serially.</para>
321
322 <para>If any of those commands (not prefixed with
323 <literal>-</literal>) fail, the rest are not executed and the
324 unit is considered failed.</para>
b481de3b 325
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326 <para><varname>ExecStart=</varname> commands are only run after
327 all <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> commands that were not prefixed
328 with a <literal>-</literal> exit successfully.</para>
329
330 <para><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname> commands are only run after
1917c8ca 331 the service has started successfully, as determined by <varname>Type=</varname>
a8eaaee7 332 (i.e. the process has been started for <varname>Type=simple</varname>
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333 or <varname>Type=idle</varname>, the process exits successfully for
334 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname>, the initial process exits successfully
335 for <varname>Type=forking</varname>, <literal>READY=1</literal> is sent
336 for <varname>Type=notify</varname>, or the <varname>BusName=</varname>
337 has been taken for <varname>Type=dbus</varname>).</para>
338
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339 <para>Note that <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> may not be
340 used to start long-running processes. All processes forked
341 off by processes invoked via <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> will
342 be killed before the next service process is run.</para>
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343
344 <para>Note that if any of the commands specified in <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
345 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, or <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname> fail (and are not prefixed with
346 <literal>-</literal>, see above) or time out before the service is fully up, execution continues with commands
347 specified in <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>, the commands in <varname>ExecStop=</varname> are skipped.</para>
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348 </listitem>
349 </varlistentry>
350
351 <varlistentry>
352 <term><varname>ExecReload=</varname></term>
353 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to trigger a configuration
354 reload in the service. This argument takes multiple command
355 lines, following the same scheme as described for
356 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> above. Use of this setting is
357 optional. Specifier and environment variable substitution is
358 supported here following the same scheme as for
359 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>.</para>
360
361 <para>One additional, special environment variable is set: if
362 known, <varname>$MAINPID</varname> is set to the main process
363 of the daemon, and may be used for command lines like the
364 following:</para>
365
366 <programlisting>/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID</programlisting>
367
368 <para>Note however that reloading a daemon by sending a signal
369 (as with the example line above) is usually not a good choice,
370 because this is an asynchronous operation and hence not
371 suitable to order reloads of multiple services against each
372 other. It is strongly recommended to set
373 <varname>ExecReload=</varname> to a command that not only
374 triggers a configuration reload of the daemon, but also
375 synchronously waits for it to complete.</para>
376 </listitem>
377 </varlistentry>
378
379 <varlistentry>
380 <term><varname>ExecStop=</varname></term>
381 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to stop the service
382 started via <varname>ExecStart=</varname>. This argument takes
383 multiple command lines, following the same scheme as described
384 for <varname>ExecStart=</varname> above. Use of this setting
385 is optional. After the commands configured in this option are
386 run, all processes remaining for a service are terminated
387 according to the <varname>KillMode=</varname> setting (see
388 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
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389 If this option is not specified, the process is terminated by
390 sending the signal specified in <varname>KillSignal=</varname>
391 when service stop is requested. Specifier and environment
392 variable substitution is supported (including
393 <varname>$MAINPID</varname>, see above).</para>
394
395 <para>Note that it is usually not sufficient to specify a
396 command for this setting that only asks the service to
b938cb90 397 terminate (for example, by queuing some form of termination
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398 signal for it), but does not wait for it to do so. Since the
399 remaining processes of the services are killed using
400 <constant>SIGKILL</constant> immediately after the command
b938cb90 401 exited, this would not result in a clean stop. The specified
cceb20c7 402 command should hence be a synchronous operation, not an
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403 asynchronous one.</para>
404
405 <para>Note that the commands specified in <varname>ExecStop=</varname> are only executed when the service
07ff561c 406 started successfully first. They are not invoked if the service was never started at all, or in case its
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407 start-up failed, for example because any of the commands specified in <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
408 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> or <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname> failed (and weren't prefixed with
409 <literal>-</literal>, see above) or timed out. Use <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> to invoke commands when a
410 service failed to start up correctly and is shut down again.</para>
411
412 <para>It is recommended to use this setting for commands that communicate with the service requesting clean
413 termination. When the commands specified with this option are executed it should be assumed that the service is
414 still fully up and is able to react correctly to all commands. For post-mortem clean-up steps use
415 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> instead.</para></listitem>
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416 </varlistentry>
417
418 <varlistentry>
419 <term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
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420 <listitem><para>Additional commands that are executed after the service is stopped. This includes cases where
421 the commands configured in <varname>ExecStop=</varname> were used, where the service does not have any
422 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> defined, or where the service exited unexpectedly. This argument takes multiple
423 command lines, following the same scheme as described for <varname>ExecStart=</varname>. Use of these settings
424 is optional. Specifier and environment variable substitution is supported. Note that – unlike
425 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> – commands specified with this setting are invoked when a service failed to start
426 up correctly and is shut down again.</para>
427
428 <para>It is recommended to use this setting for clean-up operations that shall be executed even when the
429 service failed to start up correctly. Commands configured with this setting need to be able to operate even if
430 the service failed starting up half-way and left incompletely initialized data around. As the service's
431 processes have been terminated already when the commands specified with this setting are executed they should
432 not attempt to communicate with them.</para></listitem>
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433 </varlistentry>
434
435 <varlistentry>
436 <term><varname>RestartSec=</varname></term>
437 <listitem><para>Configures the time to sleep before restarting
438 a service (as configured with <varname>Restart=</varname>).
439 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
440 as "5min 20s". Defaults to 100ms.</para></listitem>
441 </varlistentry>
442
443 <varlistentry>
444 <term><varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname></term>
445 <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for start-up. If a
446 daemon service does not signal start-up completion within the
447 configured time, the service will be considered failed and
448 will be shut down again. Takes a unit-less value in seconds,
449 or a time span value such as "5min 20s". Pass
2c29d332 450 <literal>infinity</literal> to disable the timeout logic. Defaults to
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451 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the manager
452 configuration file, except when
453 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is used, in which case the
454 timeout is disabled by default (see
455 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
456 </para></listitem>
457 </varlistentry>
458
459 <varlistentry>
460 <term><varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname></term>
461 <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for stop. If a
462 service is asked to stop, but does not terminate in the
463 specified time, it will be terminated forcibly via
464 <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and after another timeout of
465 equal duration with <constant>SIGKILL</constant> (see
466 <varname>KillMode=</varname> in
467 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
468 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
2c29d332 469 as "5min 20s". Pass <literal>infinity</literal> to disable the
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470 timeout logic. Defaults to
471 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStopSec=</varname> from the manager
472 configuration file (see
473 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
474 </para></listitem>
475 </varlistentry>
476
477 <varlistentry>
478 <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
479 <listitem><para>A shorthand for configuring both
480 <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> and
481 <varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname> to the specified value.
482 </para></listitem>
483 </varlistentry>
484
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485 <varlistentry>
486 <term><varname>RuntimeMaxSec=</varname></term>
487
488 <listitem><para>Configures a maximum time for the service to run. If this is used and the service has been
489 active for longer than the specified time it is terminated and put into a failure state. Note that this setting
490 does not have any effect on <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> services, as they terminate immediately after
491 activation completed. Pass <literal>infinity</literal> (the default) to configure no runtime
492 limit.</para></listitem>
493 </varlistentry>
494
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495 <varlistentry>
496 <term><varname>WatchdogSec=</varname></term>
497 <listitem><para>Configures the watchdog timeout for a service.
498 The watchdog is activated when the start-up is completed. The
499 service must call
500 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
501 regularly with <literal>WATCHDOG=1</literal> (i.e. the
502 "keep-alive ping"). If the time between two such calls is
503 larger than the configured time, then the service is placed in
504 a failed state and it will be terminated with
22065311 505 <constant>SIGABRT</constant>. By setting
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506 <varname>Restart=</varname> to <option>on-failure</option>,
507 <option>on-watchdog</option>, <option>on-abnormal</option> or
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508 <option>always</option>, the service will be automatically
509 restarted. The time configured here will be passed to the
510 executed service process in the
511 <varname>WATCHDOG_USEC=</varname> environment variable. This
512 allows daemons to automatically enable the keep-alive pinging
513 logic if watchdog support is enabled for the service. If this
514 option is used, <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see below)
515 should be set to open access to the notification socket
516 provided by systemd. If <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
517 not set, it will be implicitly set to <option>main</option>.
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518 Defaults to 0, which disables this feature. The service can
519 check whether the service manager expects watchdog keep-alive
520 notifications. See
521 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_watchdog_enabled</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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522 for details.
523 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_event_set_watchdog</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
524 may be used to enable automatic watchdog notification support.
582f2fcb 525 </para></listitem>
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526 </varlistentry>
527
528 <varlistentry>
529 <term><varname>Restart=</varname></term>
530 <listitem><para>Configures whether the service shall be
531 restarted when the service process exits, is killed, or a
532 timeout is reached. The service process may be the main
533 service process, but it may also be one of the processes
534 specified with <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
535 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
536 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
537 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>, or
538 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>. When the death of the process
539 is a result of systemd operation (e.g. service stop or
540 restart), the service will not be restarted. Timeouts include
541 missing the watchdog "keep-alive ping" deadline and a service
542 start, reload, and stop operation timeouts.</para>
543
544 <para>Takes one of
545 <option>no</option>,
546 <option>on-success</option>,
547 <option>on-failure</option>,
548 <option>on-abnormal</option>,
549 <option>on-watchdog</option>,
550 <option>on-abort</option>, or
551 <option>always</option>.
552 If set to <option>no</option> (the default), the service will
553 not be restarted. If set to <option>on-success</option>, it
554 will be restarted only when the service process exits cleanly.
555 In this context, a clean exit means an exit code of 0, or one
556 of the signals
557 <constant>SIGHUP</constant>,
558 <constant>SIGINT</constant>,
559 <constant>SIGTERM</constant> or
560 <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>, and
561 additionally, exit statuses and signals specified in
562 <varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname>. If set to
563 <option>on-failure</option>, the service will be restarted
564 when the process exits with a non-zero exit code, is
565 terminated by a signal (including on core dump, but excluding
ff9b60f3 566 the aforementioned four signals), when an operation (such as
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567 service reload) times out, and when the configured watchdog
568 timeout is triggered. If set to <option>on-abnormal</option>,
569 the service will be restarted when the process is terminated
570 by a signal (including on core dump, excluding the
571 aforementioned four signals), when an operation times out, or
572 when the watchdog timeout is triggered. If set to
573 <option>on-abort</option>, the service will be restarted only
574 if the service process exits due to an uncaught signal not
575 specified as a clean exit status. If set to
576 <option>on-watchdog</option>, the service will be restarted
577 only if the watchdog timeout for the service expires. If set
578 to <option>always</option>, the service will be restarted
579 regardless of whether it exited cleanly or not, got terminated
580 abnormally by a signal, or hit a timeout.</para>
581
582 <table>
583 <title>Exit causes and the effect of the <varname>Restart=</varname> settings on them</title>
584
585 <tgroup cols='2'>
586 <colspec colname='path' />
587 <colspec colname='expl' />
588 <thead>
589 <row>
590 <entry>Restart settings/Exit causes</entry>
591 <entry><option>no</option></entry>
592 <entry><option>always</option></entry>
593 <entry><option>on-success</option></entry>
594 <entry><option>on-failure</option></entry>
595 <entry><option>on-abnormal</option></entry>
596 <entry><option>on-abort</option></entry>
597 <entry><option>on-watchdog</option></entry>
598 </row>
599 </thead>
600 <tbody>
601 <row>
602 <entry>Clean exit code or signal</entry>
603 <entry/>
604 <entry>X</entry>
605 <entry>X</entry>
606 <entry/>
607 <entry/>
608 <entry/>
609 <entry/>
610 </row>
611 <row>
612 <entry>Unclean exit code</entry>
613 <entry/>
614 <entry>X</entry>
615 <entry/>
616 <entry>X</entry>
617 <entry/>
618 <entry/>
619 <entry/>
620 </row>
621 <row>
622 <entry>Unclean signal</entry>
623 <entry/>
624 <entry>X</entry>
625 <entry/>
626 <entry>X</entry>
627 <entry>X</entry>
628 <entry>X</entry>
629 <entry/>
630 </row>
631 <row>
632 <entry>Timeout</entry>
633 <entry/>
634 <entry>X</entry>
635 <entry/>
636 <entry>X</entry>
637 <entry>X</entry>
638 <entry/>
639 <entry/>
640 </row>
641 <row>
642 <entry>Watchdog</entry>
643 <entry/>
644 <entry>X</entry>
645 <entry/>
646 <entry>X</entry>
647 <entry>X</entry>
648 <entry/>
649 <entry>X</entry>
650 </row>
651 </tbody>
652 </tgroup>
653 </table>
654
b938cb90 655 <para>As exceptions to the setting above, the service will not
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656 be restarted if the exit code or signal is specified in
657 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname> (see below).
658 Also, the services will always be restarted if the exit code
659 or signal is specified in
660 <varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname> (see below).</para>
661
662 <para>Setting this to <option>on-failure</option> is the
663 recommended choice for long-running services, in order to
664 increase reliability by attempting automatic recovery from
665 errors. For services that shall be able to terminate on their
666 own choice (and avoid immediate restarting),
667 <option>on-abnormal</option> is an alternative choice.</para>
668 </listitem>
669 </varlistentry>
670
671 <varlistentry>
672 <term><varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname></term>
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673 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that,
674 when returned by the main service process, will be considered
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675 successful termination, in addition to the normal successful
676 exit code 0 and the signals <constant>SIGHUP</constant>,
677 <constant>SIGINT</constant>, <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and
678 <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>. Exit status definitions can
679 either be numeric exit codes or termination signal names,
680 separated by spaces. For example:
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681
682 <programlisting>SuccessExitStatus=1 2 8 SIGKILL</programlisting>
683
684 ensures that exit codes 1, 2, 8 and
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685 the termination signal <constant>SIGKILL</constant> are
686 considered clean service terminations.
687 </para>
688
689 <para>Note that if a process has a signal handler installed
690 and exits by calling
691 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>_exit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
692 in response to a signal, the information about the signal is
693 lost. Programs should instead perform cleanup and kill
694 themselves with the same signal instead. See
695 <ulink url="http://www.cons.org/cracauer/sigint.html">Proper
696 handling of SIGINT/SIGQUIT — How to be a proper
697 program</ulink>.</para>
698
699 <para>This option may appear more than once, in which case the
700 list of successful exit statuses is merged. If the empty
701 string is assigned to this option, the list is reset, all
702 prior assignments of this option will have no
703 effect.</para></listitem>
704 </varlistentry>
705
706 <varlistentry>
707 <term><varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname></term>
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708 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that,
709 when returned by the main service process, will prevent
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710 automatic service restarts, regardless of the restart setting
711 configured with <varname>Restart=</varname>. Exit status
712 definitions can either be numeric exit codes or termination
713 signal names, and are separated by spaces. Defaults to the
714 empty list, so that, by default, no exit status is excluded
715 from the configured restart logic. For example:
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716
717 <programlisting>RestartPreventExitStatus=1 6 SIGABRT</programlisting>
718
719 ensures that exit codes 1 and 6 and the termination signal
720 <constant>SIGABRT</constant> will not result in automatic
721 service restarting. This option may appear more than once, in
722 which case the list of restart-preventing statuses is
723 merged. If the empty string is assigned to this option, the
724 list is reset and all prior assignments of this option will
725 have no effect.</para></listitem>
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726 </varlistentry>
727
728 <varlistentry>
729 <term><varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname></term>
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730 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that,
731 when returned by the main service process, will force automatic
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732 service restarts, regardless of the restart setting configured
733 with <varname>Restart=</varname>. The argument format is
734 similar to
735 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>.</para></listitem>
736 </varlistentry>
737
738 <varlistentry>
739 <term><varname>PermissionsStartOnly=</varname></term>
740 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, the
741 permission-related execution options, as configured with
742 <varname>User=</varname> and similar options (see
743 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
744 for more information), are only applied to the process started
745 with
746 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not to the various other
747 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
748 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
749 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
750 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
751 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
752 commands. If false, the setting is applied to all configured
753 commands the same way. Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
754 </varlistentry>
755
756 <varlistentry>
757 <term><varname>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</varname></term>
758 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, the root
759 directory, as configured with the
760 <varname>RootDirectory=</varname> option (see
761 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
762 for more information), is only applied to the process started
763 with <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not to the various
764 other <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
765 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
766 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>, <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
767 and <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> commands. If false, the
768 setting is applied to all configured commands the same way.
769 Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
770 </varlistentry>
771
772 <varlistentry>
773 <term><varname>NonBlocking=</varname></term>
774 <listitem><para>Set the <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag
775 for all file descriptors passed via socket-based activation.
776 If true, all file descriptors >= 3 (i.e. all except stdin,
777 stdout, and stderr) will have the
778 <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag set and hence are in
779 non-blocking mode. This option is only useful in conjunction
780 with a socket unit, as described in
781 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
782 Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
783 </varlistentry>
784
785 <varlistentry>
786 <term><varname>NotifyAccess=</varname></term>
787 <listitem><para>Controls access to the service status
788 notification socket, as accessible via the
789 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
790 call. Takes one of <option>none</option> (the default),
791 <option>main</option> or <option>all</option>. If
792 <option>none</option>, no daemon status updates are accepted
793 from the service processes, all status update messages are
794 ignored. If <option>main</option>, only service updates sent
795 from the main process of the service are accepted. If
796 <option>all</option>, all services updates from all members of
797 the service's control group are accepted. This option should
798 be set to open access to the notification socket when using
799 <varname>Type=notify</varname> or
800 <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> (see above). If those options
801 are used but <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is not
802 configured, it will be implicitly set to
803 <option>main</option>.</para></listitem>
804 </varlistentry>
805
806 <varlistentry>
807 <term><varname>Sockets=</varname></term>
808 <listitem><para>Specifies the name of the socket units this
809 service shall inherit socket file descriptors from when the
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810 service is started. Normally, it should not be necessary to use
811 this setting, as all socket file descriptors whose unit shares
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812 the same name as the service (subject to the different unit
813 name suffix of course) are passed to the spawned
814 process.</para>
815
816 <para>Note that the same socket file descriptors may be passed
817 to multiple processes simultaneously. Also note that a
818 different service may be activated on incoming socket traffic
819 than the one which is ultimately configured to inherit the
b938cb90 820 socket file descriptors. Or, in other words: the
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821 <varname>Service=</varname> setting of
822 <filename>.socket</filename> units does not have to match the
823 inverse of the <varname>Sockets=</varname> setting of the
824 <filename>.service</filename> it refers to.</para>
825
826 <para>This option may appear more than once, in which case the
827 list of socket units is merged. If the empty string is
828 assigned to this option, the list of sockets is reset, and all
829 prior uses of this setting will have no
830 effect.</para></listitem>
831 </varlistentry>
832
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833 <varlistentry>
834 <term><varname>FailureAction=</varname></term>
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835 <listitem><para>Configure the action to take when the service enters a failed state. Takes the same values as
836 the unit setting <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname> and executes the same actions (see
837 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>). Defaults to
838 <option>none</option>. </para></listitem>
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839 </varlistentry>
840
841 <varlistentry>
842 <term><varname>FileDescriptorStoreMax=</varname></term>
843 <listitem><para>Configure how many file descriptors may be
844 stored in the service manager for the service using
845 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_pid_notify_with_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
846 <literal>FDSTORE=1</literal> messages. This is useful for
847 implementing service restart schemes where the state is
848 serialized to <filename>/run</filename> and the file
849 descriptors passed to the service manager, to allow restarts
850 without losing state. Defaults to 0, i.e. no file descriptors
851 may be stored in the service manager by default. All file
852 descriptors passed to the service manager from a specific
853 service are passed back to the service's main process on the
854 next service restart. Any file descriptors passed to the
855 service manager are automatically closed when POLLHUP or
856 POLLERR is seen on them, or when the service is fully stopped
857 and no job queued or being executed for it.</para></listitem>
858 </varlistentry>
859
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860 <varlistentry>
861 <term><varname>USBFunctionDescriptors=</varname></term>
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862 <listitem><para>Configure the location of a file containing
863 <ulink
864 url="https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/usb/functionfs.txt">USB
865 FunctionFS</ulink> descriptors, for implementation of USB
a8eaaee7 866 gadget functions. This is used only in conjunction with a
3d314510 867 socket unit with <varname>ListenUSBFunction=</varname>
a8eaaee7 868 configured. The contents of this file are written to the
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869 <filename>ep0</filename> file after it is
870 opened.</para></listitem>
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871 </varlistentry>
872
873 <varlistentry>
874 <term><varname>USBFunctionStrings=</varname></term>
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875 <listitem><para>Configure the location of a file containing
876 USB FunctionFS strings. Behavior is similar to
877 <varname>USBFunctionDescriptors=</varname>
878 above.</para></listitem>
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879 </varlistentry>
880
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881 </variablelist>
882
883 <para>Check
884 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
885 and
886 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
887 for more settings.</para>
888
889 </refsect1>
890
891 <refsect1>
892 <title>Command lines</title>
893
894 <para>This section describes command line parsing and
ff9b60f3 895 variable and specifier substitutions for
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896 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
897 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
898 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
899 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
900 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
901 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> options.</para>
902
903 <para>Multiple command lines may be concatenated in a single
904 directive by separating them with semicolons (these semicolons
905 must be passed as separate words). Lone semicolons may be escaped
906 as <literal>\;</literal>.</para>
907
908 <para>Each command line is split on whitespace, with the first
909 item being the command to execute, and the subsequent items being
910 the arguments. Double quotes ("...") and single quotes ('...') may
911 be used, in which case everything until the next matching quote
912 becomes part of the same argument. C-style escapes are also
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913 supported. The table below contains the list of allowed escape
914 patterns. Only patterns which match the syntax in the table are
915 allowed; others will result in an error, and must be escaped by
916 doubling the backslash. Quotes themselves are removed after
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917 parsing and escape sequences substituted. In addition, a trailing
918 backslash (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to merge lines.
919 </para>
920
921 <para>This syntax is intended to be very similar to shell syntax,
922 but only the meta-characters and expansions described in the
923 following paragraphs are understood. Specifically, redirection
924 using
925 <literal>&lt;</literal>,
926 <literal>&lt;&lt;</literal>,
927 <literal>&gt;</literal>, and
928 <literal>&gt;&gt;</literal>, pipes using
929 <literal>|</literal>, running programs in the background using
930 <literal>&amp;</literal>, and <emphasis>other elements of shell
931 syntax are not supported</emphasis>.</para>
932
388a91b0 933 <para>The command to execute must be an absolute path name. It may
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934 contain spaces, but control characters are not allowed.</para>
935
936 <para>The command line accepts <literal>%</literal> specifiers as
937 described in
938 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
939 Note that the first argument of the command line (i.e. the program
940 to execute) may not include specifiers.</para>
941
942 <para>Basic environment variable substitution is supported. Use
943 <literal>${FOO}</literal> as part of a word, or as a word of its
944 own, on the command line, in which case it will be replaced by the
945 value of the environment variable including all whitespace it
946 contains, resulting in a single argument. Use
947 <literal>$FOO</literal> as a separate word on the command line, in
948 which case it will be replaced by the value of the environment
b938cb90 949 variable split at whitespace, resulting in zero or more arguments.
3faf145d 950 For this type of expansion, quotes are respected when splitting
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951 into words, and afterwards removed.</para>
952
953 <para>Example:</para>
954
955 <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
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956ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
957
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958 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
959 arguments: <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two</literal>,
960 <literal>two</literal>, and <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
5d9a2698 961
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962 <para>Example:</para>
963 <programlisting>Environment=ONE='one' "TWO='two two' too" THREE=
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964ExecStart=/bin/echo ${ONE} ${TWO} ${THREE}
965ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO $THREE</programlisting>
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966 <para>This results in <filename>echo</filename> being
967 called twice, the first time with arguments
968 <literal>'one'</literal>,
969 <literal>'two two' too</literal>, <literal></literal>,
970 and the second time with arguments
971 <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two two</literal>,
972 <literal>too</literal>.
973 </para>
974
975 <para>To pass a literal dollar sign, use <literal>$$</literal>.
976 Variables whose value is not known at expansion time are treated
977 as empty strings. Note that the first argument (i.e. the program
978 to execute) may not be a variable.</para>
979
980 <para>Variables to be used in this fashion may be defined through
981 <varname>Environment=</varname> and
982 <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>. In addition, variables listed
983 in the section "Environment variables in spawned processes" in
984 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
985 which are considered "static configuration", may be used (this
986 includes e.g. <varname>$USER</varname>, but not
987 <varname>$TERM</varname>).</para>
988
989 <para>Note that shell command lines are not directly supported. If
990 shell command lines are to be used, they need to be passed
991 explicitly to a shell implementation of some kind. Example:</para>
992 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
993
994 <para>Example:</para>
995
996 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"</programlisting>
997
998 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> two times,
999 each time with one argument: <literal>one</literal> and
1000 <literal>two two</literal>, respectively. Because two commands are
1001 specified, <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must be used.</para>
1002
1003 <para>Example:</para>
1004
1005 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / &gt;/dev/null &amp; \; \
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1006/bin/ls</programlisting>
1007
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1008 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
1009 with five arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
1010 <literal>&gt;/dev/null</literal>,
1011 <literal>&amp;</literal>, <literal>;</literal>, and
1012 <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
1013
1014 <table>
1015 <title>C escapes supported in command lines and environment variables</title>
1016 <tgroup cols='2'>
1017 <colspec colname='escape' />
1018 <colspec colname='meaning' />
1019 <thead>
1020 <row>
1021 <entry>Literal</entry>
1022 <entry>Actual value</entry>
1023 </row>
1024 </thead>
1025 <tbody>
1026 <row>
1027 <entry><literal>\a</literal></entry>
1028 <entry>bell</entry>
1029 </row>
1030 <row>
1031 <entry><literal>\b</literal></entry>
1032 <entry>backspace</entry>
1033 </row>
1034 <row>
1035 <entry><literal>\f</literal></entry>
1036 <entry>form feed</entry>
1037 </row>
1038 <row>
1039 <entry><literal>\n</literal></entry>
1040 <entry>newline</entry>
1041 </row>
1042 <row>
1043 <entry><literal>\r</literal></entry>
1044 <entry>carriage return</entry>
1045 </row>
1046 <row>
1047 <entry><literal>\t</literal></entry>
1048 <entry>tab</entry>
1049 </row>
1050 <row>
1051 <entry><literal>\v</literal></entry>
1052 <entry>vertical tab</entry>
1053 </row>
1054 <row>
1055 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
1056 <entry>backslash</entry>
1057 </row>
1058 <row>
1059 <entry><literal>\"</literal></entry>
1060 <entry>double quotation mark</entry>
1061 </row>
1062 <row>
1063 <entry><literal>\'</literal></entry>
1064 <entry>single quotation mark</entry>
1065 </row>
1066 <row>
1067 <entry><literal>\s</literal></entry>
1068 <entry>space</entry>
1069 </row>
1070 <row>
1071 <entry><literal>\x<replaceable>xx</replaceable></literal></entry>
1072 <entry>character number <replaceable>xx</replaceable> in hexadecimal encoding</entry>
1073 </row>
1074 <row>
1075 <entry><literal>\<replaceable>nnn</replaceable></literal></entry>
1076 <entry>character number <replaceable>nnn</replaceable> in octal encoding</entry>
1077 </row>
1078 </tbody>
1079 </tgroup>
1080 </table>
1081 </refsect1>
1082
1083 <refsect1>
1084 <title>Examples</title>
1085
1086 <example>
1087 <title>Simple service</title>
1088
1089 <para>The following unit file creates a service that will
1090 execute <filename>/usr/sbin/foo-daemon</filename>. Since no
1091 <varname>Type=</varname> is specified, the default
1092 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> will be assumed.
1093 systemd will assume the unit to be started immediately after the
1094 program has begun executing.</para>
1095
1096 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1097Description=Foo
1098
1099[Service]
1100ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
1101
1102[Install]
1103WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1104
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1105 <para>Note that systemd assumes here that the process started by
1106 systemd will continue running until the service terminates. If
1107 the program daemonizes itself (i.e. forks), please use
1108 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> instead.</para>
1109
1110 <para>Since no <varname>ExecStop=</varname> was specified,
1111 systemd will send SIGTERM to all processes started from this
1112 service, and after a timeout also SIGKILL. This behavior can be
1113 modified, see
1114 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1115 for details.</para>
1116
1117 <para>Note that this unit type does not include any type of
1118 notification when a service has completed initialization. For
1119 this, you should use other unit types, such as
1120 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> if the service
1121 understands systemd's notification protocol,
1122 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> if the service
1123 can background itself or
1124 <varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option> if the unit
1125 acquires a DBus name once initialization is complete. See
1126 below.</para>
1127 </example>
1128
1129 <example>
1130 <title>Oneshot service</title>
1131
b938cb90 1132 <para>Sometimes, units should just execute an action without
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1133 keeping active processes, such as a filesystem check or a
1134 cleanup action on boot. For this,
1135 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> exists. Units
1136 of this type will wait until the process specified terminates
1137 and then fall back to being inactive. The following unit will
ff9b60f3 1138 perform a cleanup action:</para>
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1139
1140 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1141Description=Cleanup old Foo data
1142
1143[Service]
1144Type=oneshot
1145ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-cleanup
1146
1147[Install]
1148WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1149
798d3a52 1150 <para>Note that systemd will consider the unit to be in the
b938cb90 1151 state "starting" until the program has terminated, so ordered
798d3a52 1152 dependencies will wait for the program to finish before starting
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1153 themselves. The unit will revert to the "inactive" state after
1154 the execution is done, never reaching the "active" state. That
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1155 means another request to start the unit will perform the action
1156 again.</para>
1157
1158 <para><varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> are the
1159 only service units that may have more than one
1160 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> specified. They will be executed
1161 in order until either they are all successful or one of them
1162 fails.</para>
1163 </example>
1164
1165 <example>
1166 <title>Stoppable oneshot service</title>
1167
1168 <para>Similarly to the oneshot services, there are sometimes
1169 units that need to execute a program to set up something and
1170 then execute another to shut it down, but no process remains
b938cb90 1171 active while they are considered "started". Network
798d3a52 1172 configuration can sometimes fall into this category. Another use
a8eaaee7 1173 case is if a oneshot service shall not be executed each time
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1174 when they are pulled in as a dependency, but only the first
1175 time.</para>
1176
1177 <para>For this, systemd knows the setting
1178 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>yes</option>, which
1179 causes systemd to consider the unit to be active if the start
1180 action exited successfully. This directive can be used with all
1181 types, but is most useful with
1182 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> and
1183 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>. With
b938cb90 1184 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option>, systemd waits
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1185 until the start action has completed before it considers the
1186 unit to be active, so dependencies start only after the start
1187 action has succeeded. With
b938cb90 1188 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>, dependencies
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1189 will start immediately after the start action has been
1190 dispatched. The following unit provides an example for a simple
1191 static firewall.</para>
1192
1193 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1194Description=Simple firewall
1195
1196[Service]
1197Type=oneshot
1198RemainAfterExit=yes
1199ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-start
1200ExecStop=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-stop
1201
1202[Install]
1203WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1204
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1205 <para>Since the unit is considered to be running after the start
1206 action has exited, invoking <command>systemctl start</command>
1207 on that unit again will cause no action to be taken.</para>
1208 </example>
1209
1210 <example>
1211 <title>Traditional forking services</title>
1212
1213 <para>Many traditional daemons/services background (i.e. fork,
1214 daemonize) themselves when starting. Set
1215 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> in the
1216 service's unit file to support this mode of operation. systemd
1217 will consider the service to be in the process of initialization
1218 while the original program is still running. Once it exits
1219 successfully and at least a process remains (and
1220 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>no</option>), the
1221 service is considered started.</para>
1222
b938cb90 1223 <para>Often, a traditional daemon only consists of one process.
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1224 Therefore, if only one process is left after the original
1225 process terminates, systemd will consider that process the main
1226 process of the service. In that case, the
1227 <varname>$MAINPID</varname> variable will be available in
1228 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>, <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
1229 etc.</para>
1230
1231 <para>In case more than one process remains, systemd will be
1232 unable to determine the main process, so it will not assume
1233 there is one. In that case, <varname>$MAINPID</varname> will not
1234 expand to anything. However, if the process decides to write a
1235 traditional PID file, systemd will be able to read the main PID
1236 from there. Please set <varname>PIDFile=</varname> accordingly.
1237 Note that the daemon should write that file before finishing
b938cb90 1238 with its initialization. Otherwise, systemd might try to read the
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1239 file before it exists.</para>
1240
1241 <para>The following example shows a simple daemon that forks and
1242 just starts one process in the background:</para>
1243
1244 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1245Description=Some simple daemon
1246
1247[Service]
1248Type=forking
1249ExecStart=/usr/sbin/my-simple-daemon -d
1250
1251[Install]
1252WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1253
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1254 <para>Please see
1255 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1256 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1257 the service.</para>
1258 </example>
1259
1260 <example>
1261 <title>DBus services</title>
1262
1263 <para>For services that acquire a name on the DBus system bus,
1264 use <varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option> and set
1265 <varname>BusName=</varname> accordingly. The service should not
1266 fork (daemonize). systemd will consider the service to be
1267 initialized once the name has been acquired on the system bus.
1268 The following example shows a typical DBus service:</para>
1269
1270 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1271Description=Simple DBus service
1272
1273[Service]
1274Type=dbus
1275BusName=org.example.simple-dbus-service
1276ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
1277
1278[Install]
1279WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1280
7ca41557 1281 <para>For <emphasis>bus-activatable</emphasis> services, do not
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1282 include a <literal>[Install]</literal> section in the systemd
1283 service file, but use the <varname>SystemdService=</varname>
1284 option in the corresponding DBus service file, for example
1285 (<filename>/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.example.simple-dbus-service.service</filename>):</para>
d44efb62 1286
798d3a52 1287 <programlisting>[D-BUS Service]
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1288Name=org.example.simple-dbus-service
1289Exec=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
1290User=root
1291SystemdService=simple-dbus-service.service</programlisting>
1292
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1293 <para>Please see
1294 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1295 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1296 the service.</para>
1297 </example>
1298
1299 <example>
1300 <title>Services that notify systemd about their initialization</title>
1301
1302 <para><varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> services
1303 are really easy to write, but have the major disadvantage of
1304 systemd not being able to tell when initialization of the given
1305 service is complete. For this reason, systemd supports a simple
1306 notification protocol that allows daemons to make systemd aware
1307 that they are done initializing. Use
1308 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> for this. A
1309 typical service file for such a daemon would look like
1310 this:</para>
1311
1312 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1313Description=Simple notifying service
1314
1315[Service]
1316Type=notify
1317ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-notifying-service
1318
1319[Install]
1320WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1321
798d3a52 1322 <para>Note that the daemon has to support systemd's notification
7ca41557 1323 protocol, else systemd will think the service has not started yet
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1324 and kill it after a timeout. For an example of how to update
1325 daemons to support this protocol transparently, take a look at
1326 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1327 systemd will consider the unit to be in the 'starting' state
1328 until a readiness notification has arrived.</para>
1329
1330 <para>Please see
1331 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1332 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1333 the service.</para>
1334 </example>
1335 </refsect1>
1336
1337 <refsect1>
1338 <title>See Also</title>
1339 <para>
1340 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1341 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1342 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1343 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1344 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1345 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1346 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1347 </para>
1348 </refsect1>
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1349
1350</refentry>