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514094f9 1<?xml version='1.0'?>
3a54a157 2<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
798d3a52 3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
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4<!ENTITY % entities SYSTEM "custom-entities.ent" >
5%entities;
6]>
db9ecf05 7<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
d1ab0ca0 8
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9<refentry id="systemd.unit"
10 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
d1ab0ca0 11
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12 <refentryinfo>
13 <title>systemd.unit</title>
14 <productname>systemd</productname>
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15 </refentryinfo>
16
17 <refmeta>
18 <refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle>
19 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
20 </refmeta>
21
22 <refnamediv>
23 <refname>systemd.unit</refname>
24 <refpurpose>Unit configuration</refpurpose>
25 </refnamediv>
26
27 <refsynopsisdiv>
28 <para><filename><replaceable>service</replaceable>.service</filename>,
29 <filename><replaceable>socket</replaceable>.socket</filename>,
30 <filename><replaceable>device</replaceable>.device</filename>,
31 <filename><replaceable>mount</replaceable>.mount</filename>,
32 <filename><replaceable>automount</replaceable>.automount</filename>,
33 <filename><replaceable>swap</replaceable>.swap</filename>,
34 <filename><replaceable>target</replaceable>.target</filename>,
35 <filename><replaceable>path</replaceable>.path</filename>,
36 <filename><replaceable>timer</replaceable>.timer</filename>,
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37 <filename><replaceable>slice</replaceable>.slice</filename>,
38 <filename><replaceable>scope</replaceable>.scope</filename></para>
39
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40 <refsect2>
41 <title>System Unit Search Path</title>
42
43 <para><literallayout><filename>/etc/systemd/system.control/*</filename>
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44<filename>/run/systemd/system.control/*</filename>
45<filename>/run/systemd/transient/*</filename>
46<filename>/run/systemd/generator.early/*</filename>
47<filename>/etc/systemd/system/*</filename>
e4d54220 48<filename>/etc/systemd/system.attached/*</filename>
13219b7f 49<filename>/run/systemd/system/*</filename>
e4d54220 50<filename>/run/systemd/system.attached/*</filename>
b82f27e7 51<filename>/run/systemd/generator/*</filename>
f8b68539 52<filename index='false'>…</filename>
b82f27e7 53<filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/*</filename>
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54<filename>/run/systemd/generator.late/*</filename></literallayout></para>
55 </refsect2>
13219b7f 56
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57 <refsect2>
58 <title>User Unit Search Path</title>
59 <para><literallayout><filename>~/.config/systemd/user.control/*</filename>
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60<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user.control/*</filename>
61<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/transient/*</filename>
62<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.early/*</filename>
aa96ef86 63<filename>~/.config/systemd/user/*</filename>
e3820eea 64<filename>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/systemd/user/*</filename>
12b42c76 65<filename>/etc/systemd/user/*</filename>
aa08982d 66<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user/*</filename>
13219b7f 67<filename>/run/systemd/user/*</filename>
b82f27e7 68<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator/*</filename>
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69<filename>$XDG_DATA_HOME/systemd/user/*</filename>
70<filename>$XDG_DATA_DIRS/systemd/user/*</filename>
f8b68539 71<filename index='false'>…</filename>
b82f27e7 72<filename>/usr/lib/systemd/user/*</filename>
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73<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.late/*</filename></literallayout></para>
74 </refsect2>
75
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76 </refsynopsisdiv>
77
78 <refsect1>
79 <title>Description</title>
80
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81 <para>A unit file is a plain text ini-style file that encodes information about a service, a
82 socket, a device, a mount point, an automount point, a swap file or partition, a start-up
83 target, a watched file system path, a timer controlled and supervised by
84 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, a
85 resource management slice or a group of externally created processes. See
675fa6ea 86 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.syntax</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
0f943ae4 87 for a general description of the syntax.</para>
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88
89 <para>This man page lists the common configuration options of all
90 the unit types. These options need to be configured in the [Unit]
91 or [Install] sections of the unit files.</para>
92
93 <para>In addition to the generic [Unit] and [Install] sections
94 described here, each unit may have a type-specific section, e.g.
95 [Service] for a service unit. See the respective man pages for
96 more information:
97 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
98 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
99 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
100 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
101 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
102 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.swap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
103 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
104 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
105 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.timer</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
36b4a7ba 106 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.slice</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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107 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.scope</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
108 </para>
109
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110 <para>Unit files are loaded from a set of paths determined during compilation, described in the next
111 section.</para>
112
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113 <para>Valid unit names consist of a "unit name prefix", and a suffix specifying the unit type which
114 begins with a dot. The "unit name prefix" must consist of one or more valid characters (ASCII letters,
115 digits, <literal>:</literal>, <literal>-</literal>, <literal>_</literal>, <literal>.</literal>, and
116 <literal>\</literal>). The total length of the unit name including the suffix must not exceed 255
117 characters. The unit type suffix must be one of <literal>.service</literal>, <literal>.socket</literal>,
118 <literal>.device</literal>, <literal>.mount</literal>, <literal>.automount</literal>,
119 <literal>.swap</literal>, <literal>.target</literal>, <literal>.path</literal>,
120 <literal>.timer</literal>, <literal>.slice</literal>, or <literal>.scope</literal>.</para>
121
122 <para>Unit names can be parameterized by a single argument called the "instance name". The unit is then
13dcc96f 123 constructed based on a "template file" which serves as the definition of multiple services or other
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124 units. A template unit must have a single <literal>@</literal> at the end of the unit name prefix (right
125 before the type suffix). The name of the full unit is formed by inserting the instance name between
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126 <literal>@</literal> and the unit type suffix. In the unit file itself, the instance parameter may be
127 referred to using <literal>%i</literal> and other specifiers, see below.</para>
75695fb7 128
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129 <para>Unit files may contain additional options on top of those listed here. If systemd encounters an
130 unknown option, it will write a warning log message but continue loading the unit. If an option or
131 section name is prefixed with <option>X-</option>, it is ignored completely by systemd. Options within an
132 ignored section do not need the prefix. Applications may use this to include additional information in
133 the unit files. To access those options, applications need to parse the unit files on their own.</para>
798d3a52 134
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135 <para>Units can be aliased (have an alternative name), by creating a symlink from the new name to the
136 existing name in one of the unit search paths. For example, <filename>systemd-networkd.service</filename>
137 has the alias <filename>dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service</filename>, created during installation as
138 a symlink, so when <command>systemd</command> is asked through D-Bus to load
139 <filename>dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service</filename>, it'll load
2e93770f 140 <filename>systemd-networkd.service</filename>. As another example, <filename>default.target</filename> —
ecd6c000 141 the default system target started at boot — is commonly aliased to either
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142 <filename>multi-user.target</filename> or <filename>graphical.target</filename> to select what is started
143 by default. Alias names may be used in commands like <command>disable</command>,
144 <command>start</command>, <command>stop</command>, <command>status</command>, and similar, and in all
145 unit dependency directives, including <varname>Wants=</varname>, <varname>Requires=</varname>,
146 <varname>Before=</varname>, <varname>After=</varname>. Aliases cannot be used with the
147 <command>preset</command> command.</para>
148
149 <para>Aliases obey the following restrictions: a unit of a certain type (<literal>.service</literal>,
150 <literal>.socket</literal>, …) can only be aliased by a name with the same type suffix. A plain unit (not
151 a template or an instance), may only be aliased by a plain name. A template instance may only be aliased
152 by another template instance, and the instance part must be identical. A template may be aliased by
153 another template (in which case the alias applies to all instances of the template). As a special case, a
154 template instance (e.g. <literal>alias@inst.service</literal>) may be a symlink to different template
155 (e.g. <literal>template@inst.service</literal>). In that case, just this specific instance is aliased,
156 while other instances of the template (e.g. <literal>alias@foo.service</literal>,
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157 <literal>alias@bar.service</literal>) are not aliased. Those rules preserve the requirement that the
158 instance (if any) is always uniquely defined for a given unit and all its aliases. The target of alias
159 symlink must point to a valid unit file location, i.e. the symlink target name must match the symlink
160 source name as described, and the destination path must be in one of the unit search paths, see UNIT FILE
161 LOAD PATH section below for more details. Note that the target file may not exist, i.e. the symlink may
162 be dangling.</para>
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163
164 <para>Unit files may specify aliases through the <varname>Alias=</varname> directive in the [Install]
165 section. When the unit is enabled, symlinks will be created for those names, and removed when the unit is
166 disabled. For example, <filename>reboot.target</filename> specifies
167 <varname>Alias=ctrl-alt-del.target</varname>, so when enabled, the symlink
57733518 168 <filename>/etc/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.service</filename> pointing to the
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169 <filename>reboot.target</filename> file will be created, and when
170 <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Alt</keycap><keycap>Del</keycap></keycombo> is invoked,
171 <command>systemd</command> will look for the <filename>ctrl-alt-del.service</filename> and execute
172 <filename>reboot.service</filename>. <command>systemd</command> does not look at the [Install] section at
173 all during normal operation, so any directives in that section only have an effect through the symlinks
174 created during enablement.</para>
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175
176 <para>Along with a unit file <filename>foo.service</filename>, the directory
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177 <filename>foo.service.wants/</filename> may exist. All unit files symlinked from such a directory are
178 implicitly added as dependencies of type <varname>Wants=</varname> to the unit. Similar functionality
179 exists for <varname>Requires=</varname> type dependencies as well, the directory suffix is
180 <filename>.requires/</filename> in this case. This functionality is useful to hook units into the
181 start-up of other units, without having to modify their unit files. For details about the semantics of
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182 <varname>Wants=</varname> and <varname>Requires=</varname>, see below. The preferred way to create
183 symlinks in the <filename>.wants/</filename> or <filename>.requires/</filename> directories is by
184 specifying the dependency in [Install] section of the target unit, and creating the symlink in the file
185 system with the <command>enable</command> or <command>preset</command> commands of
186 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>. The
187 target can be a normal unit (either plain or a specific instance of a template unit). In case when the
188 source unit is a template, the target can also be a template, in which case the instance will be
189 "propagated" to the target unit to form a valid unit instance. The target of symlinks in
190 <filename>.wants/</filename> or <filename>.requires/</filename> must thus point to a valid unit file
191 location, i.e. the symlink target name must satisfy the described requirements, and the destination path
192 must be in one of the unit search paths, see UNIT FILE LOAD PATH section below for more details. Note
193 that the target file may not exist, i.e. the symlink may be dangling.</para>
798d3a52 194
be73bb48 195 <para>Along with a unit file <filename>foo.service</filename>, a "drop-in" directory
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196 <filename>foo.service.d/</filename> may exist. All files with the suffix
197 <literal>.conf</literal> from this directory will be merged in the alphanumeric order and parsed
198 after the main unit file itself has been parsed. This is useful to alter or add configuration
199 settings for a unit, without having to modify unit files. Each drop-in file must contain appropriate
200 section headers. For instantiated units, this logic will first look for the instance
201 <literal>.d/</literal> subdirectory (e.g. <literal>foo@bar.service.d/</literal>) and read its
202 <literal>.conf</literal> files, followed by the template <literal>.d/</literal> subdirectory (e.g.
203 <literal>foo@.service.d/</literal>) and the <literal>.conf</literal> files there. Moreover for unit
204 names containing dashes (<literal>-</literal>), the set of directories generated by repeatedly
205 truncating the unit name after all dashes is searched too. Specifically, for a unit name
1b2ad5d9 206 <filename>foo-bar-baz.service</filename> not only the regular drop-in directory
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207 <filename>foo-bar-baz.service.d/</filename> is searched but also both <filename>foo-bar-.service.d/</filename> and
208 <filename>foo-.service.d/</filename>. This is useful for defining common drop-ins for a set of related units, whose
209 names begin with a common prefix. This scheme is particularly useful for mount, automount and slice units, whose
210 systematic naming structure is built around dashes as component separators. Note that equally named drop-in files
211 further down the prefix hierarchy override those further up,
212 i.e. <filename>foo-bar-.service.d/10-override.conf</filename> overrides
213 <filename>foo-.service.d/10-override.conf</filename>.</para>
214
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215 <para>In cases of unit aliases (described above), dropins for the aliased name and all aliases are
216 loaded. In the example of <filename>default.target</filename> aliasing
217 <filename>graphical.target</filename>, <filename>default.target.d/</filename>,
218 <filename>default.target.wants/</filename>, <filename>default.target.requires/</filename>,
219 <filename>graphical.target.d/</filename>, <filename>graphical.target.wants/</filename>,
220 <filename>graphical.target.requires/</filename> would all be read. For templates, dropins for the
221 template, any template aliases, the template instance, and all alias instances are read. When just a
222 specific template instance is aliased, then the dropins for the target template, the target template
223 instance, and the alias template instance are read.</para>
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224
225 <para>In addition to <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename>, the drop-in <literal>.d/</literal>
bac150e9 226 directories for system services can be placed in <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename> or
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227 <filename>/run/systemd/system</filename> directories. Drop-in files in <filename>/etc/</filename>
228 take precedence over those in <filename>/run/</filename> which in turn take precedence over those
229 in <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>. Drop-in files under any of these directories take precedence
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230 over unit files wherever located. Multiple drop-in files with different names are applied in
231 lexicographic order, regardless of which of the directories they reside in.</para>
bac150e9 232
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233 <para>Units also support a top-level drop-in with <filename><replaceable>type</replaceable>.d/</filename>,
234 where <replaceable>type</replaceable> may be e.g. <literal>service</literal> or <literal>socket</literal>,
235 that allows altering or adding to the settings of all corresponding unit files on the system.
236 The formatting and precedence of applying drop-in configurations follow what is defined above.
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237 Files in <filename><replaceable>type</replaceable>.d/</filename> have lower precedence compared
238 to files in name-specific override directories. The usual rules apply: multiple drop-in files
239 with different names are applied in lexicographic order, regardless of which of the directories
240 they reside in, so a file in <filename><replaceable>type</replaceable>.d/</filename> applies
241 to a unit only if there are no drop-ins or masks with that name in directories with higher
242 precedence. See Examples.</para>
d2724678 243
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244 <para>Note that while systemd offers a flexible dependency system
245 between units it is recommended to use this functionality only
246 sparingly and instead rely on techniques such as bus-based or
247 socket-based activation which make dependencies implicit,
248 resulting in a both simpler and more flexible system.</para>
249
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250 <para>As mentioned above, a unit may be instantiated from a template file. This allows creation
251 of multiple units from a single configuration file. If systemd looks for a unit configuration
252 file, it will first search for the literal unit name in the file system. If that yields no
253 success and the unit name contains an <literal>@</literal> character, systemd will look for a
254 unit template that shares the same name but with the instance string (i.e. the part between the
255 <literal>@</literal> character and the suffix) removed. Example: if a service
256 <filename>getty@tty3.service</filename> is requested and no file by that name is found, systemd
257 will look for <filename>getty@.service</filename> and instantiate a service from that
258 configuration file if it is found.</para>
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259
260 <para>To refer to the instance string from within the
261 configuration file you may use the special <literal>%i</literal>
262 specifier in many of the configuration options. See below for
263 details.</para>
264
265 <para>If a unit file is empty (i.e. has the file size 0) or is
266 symlinked to <filename>/dev/null</filename>, its configuration
267 will not be loaded and it appears with a load state of
268 <literal>masked</literal>, and cannot be activated. Use this as an
269 effective way to fully disable a unit, making it impossible to
270 start it even manually.</para>
271
272 <para>The unit file format is covered by the
f856778b 273 <ulink url="https://systemd.io/PORTABILITY_AND_STABILITY/">Interface
274 Portability and Stability Promise</ulink>.</para>
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275
276 </refsect1>
277
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278 <refsect1>
279 <title>String Escaping for Inclusion in Unit Names</title>
280
281 <para>Sometimes it is useful to convert arbitrary strings into unit names. To facilitate this, a method of string
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282 escaping is used, in order to map strings containing arbitrary byte values (except <constant>NUL</constant>) into
283 valid unit names and their restricted character set. A common special case are unit names that reflect paths to
284 objects in the file system hierarchy. Example: a device unit <filename>dev-sda.device</filename> refers to a device
285 with the device node <filename index="false">/dev/sda</filename> in the file system.</para>
2651d037 286
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287 <para>The escaping algorithm operates as follows: given a string, any <literal>/</literal> character is
288 replaced by <literal>-</literal>, and all other characters which are not ASCII alphanumerics,
289 <literal>:</literal>, <literal>_</literal> or <literal>.</literal> are replaced by C-style
290 <literal>\x2d</literal> escapes. In addition, <literal>.</literal> is replaced with such a C-style escape
291 when it would appear as the first character in the escaped string.</para>
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292
293 <para>When the input qualifies as absolute file system path, this algorithm is extended slightly: the path to the
294 root directory <literal>/</literal> is encoded as single dash <literal>-</literal>. In addition, any leading,
295 trailing or duplicate <literal>/</literal> characters are removed from the string before transformation. Example:
211c99c7 296 <filename index="false">/foo//bar/baz/</filename> becomes <literal>foo-bar-baz</literal>.</para>
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297
298 <para>This escaping is fully reversible, as long as it is known whether the escaped string was a path (the
299 unescaping results are different for paths and non-path strings). The
300 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-escape</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> command may be
301 used to apply and reverse escaping on arbitrary strings. Use <command>systemd-escape --path</command> to escape
302 path strings, and <command>systemd-escape</command> without <option>--path</option> otherwise.</para>
303 </refsect1>
304
c129bd5d 305 <refsect1>
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306 <title>Automatic dependencies</title>
307
308 <refsect2>
309 <title>Implicit Dependencies</title>
310
311 <para>A number of unit dependencies are implicitly established, depending on unit type and
312 unit configuration. These implicit dependencies can make unit configuration file cleaner. For
313 the implicit dependencies in each unit type, please refer to section "Implicit Dependencies"
314 in respective man pages.</para>
315
316 <para>For example, service units with <varname>Type=dbus</varname> automatically acquire
317 dependencies of type <varname>Requires=</varname> and <varname>After=</varname> on
318 <filename>dbus.socket</filename>. See
319 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
320 for details.</para>
321 </refsect2>
322
323 <refsect2>
324 <title>Default Dependencies</title>
325
326 <para>Default dependencies are similar to implicit dependencies, but can be turned on and off
327 by setting <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> to <varname>yes</varname> (the default) and
328 <varname>no</varname>, while implicit dependencies are always in effect. See section "Default
329 Dependencies" in respective man pages for the effect of enabling
330 <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> in each unit types.</para>
331
332 <para>For example, target units will complement all configured dependencies of type
333 <varname>Wants=</varname> or <varname>Requires=</varname> with dependencies of type
72ceee43 334 <varname>After=</varname>. See
aed5cb03 335 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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336 for details. Note that this behavior can be opted out by setting
337 <varname>DefaultDependencies=no</varname> in the specified units, or it can be selectively
3b51a183 338 overridden via an explicit <varname>Before=</varname> dependency.</para>
aed5cb03 339 </refsect2>
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340 </refsect1>
341
798d3a52 342 <refsect1>
f757855e 343 <title>Unit File Load Path</title>
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344
345 <para>Unit files are loaded from a set of paths determined during
346 compilation, described in the two tables below. Unit files found
347 in directories listed earlier override files with the same name in
348 directories lower in the list.</para>
349
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350 <para>When the variable <varname>$SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH</varname> is set,
351 the contents of this variable overrides the unit load path. If
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352 <varname>$SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH</varname> ends with an empty component
353 (<literal>:</literal>), the usual unit load path will be appended
354 to the contents of the variable.</para>
355
356 <table>
357 <title>
358 Load path when running in system mode (<option>--system</option>).
359 </title>
360
361 <tgroup cols='2'>
362 <colspec colname='path' />
363 <colspec colname='expl' />
364 <thead>
365 <row>
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366 <entry>Path</entry>
367 <entry>Description</entry>
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368 </row>
369 </thead>
370 <tbody>
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371 <row>
372 <entry><filename>/etc/systemd/system.control</filename></entry>
373 <entry morerows="1">Persistent and transient configuration created using the dbus API</entry>
374 </row>
375 <row>
376 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/system.control</filename></entry>
377 </row>
378 <row>
379 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/transient</filename></entry>
380 <entry>Dynamic configuration for transient units</entry>
381 </row>
382 <row>
383 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/generator.early</filename></entry>
384 <entry>Generated units with high priority (see <replaceable>early-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
631e393a 385 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
b82f27e7 386 </row>
798d3a52 387 <row>
5a15caf4 388 <entry><filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename></entry>
565026b4 389 <entry>System units created by the administrator</entry>
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390 </row>
391 <row>
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392 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/system</filename></entry>
393 <entry>Runtime units</entry>
798d3a52 394 </row>
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395 <row>
396 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/generator</filename></entry>
397 <entry>Generated units with medium priority (see <replaceable>normal-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
631e393a 398 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
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399 </row>
400 <row>
401 <entry><filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/system</filename></entry>
565026b4 402 <entry>System units installed by the administrator </entry>
b82f27e7 403 </row>
798d3a52 404 <row>
5a15caf4 405 <entry><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename></entry>
565026b4 406 <entry>System units installed by the distribution package manager</entry>
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407 </row>
408 <row>
409 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/generator.late</filename></entry>
410 <entry>Generated units with low priority (see <replaceable>late-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
631e393a 411 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
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412 </row>
413 </tbody>
414 </tgroup>
415 </table>
416
417 <table>
418 <title>
419 Load path when running in user mode (<option>--user</option>).
420 </title>
421
422 <tgroup cols='2'>
423 <colspec colname='path' />
424 <colspec colname='expl' />
425 <thead>
426 <row>
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427 <entry>Path</entry>
428 <entry>Description</entry>
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429 </row>
430 </thead>
431 <tbody>
432 <row>
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433 <entry><filename>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/systemd/user.control</filename> or <filename
434 >~/.config/systemd/user.control</filename></entry>
435 <entry morerows="1">Persistent and transient configuration created using the dbus API (<varname>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</varname> is used if set, <filename>~/.config</filename> otherwise)</entry>
436 </row>
437 <row>
438 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user.control</filename></entry>
439 </row>
440 <row>
b6d2f033 441 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/transient</filename></entry>
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442 <entry>Dynamic configuration for transient units</entry>
443 </row>
444 <row>
b6d2f033 445 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.early</filename></entry>
b82f27e7 446 <entry>Generated units with high priority (see <replaceable>early-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
631e393a 447 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
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448 </row>
449 <row>
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450 <entry><filename>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>$HOME/.config/systemd/user</filename></entry>
451 <entry>User configuration (<varname>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</varname> is used if set, <filename>~/.config</filename> otherwise)</entry>
798d3a52 452 </row>
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453 <row>
454 <entry><filename>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>/etc/xdg/systemd/user</filename></entry>
455 <entry>Additional configuration directories as specified by the XDG base directory specification (<varname>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS</varname> is used if set, <filename>/etc/xdg</filename> otherwise)</entry>
456 </row>
798d3a52 457 <row>
5a15caf4 458 <entry><filename>/etc/systemd/user</filename></entry>
565026b4 459 <entry>User units created by the administrator</entry>
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460 </row>
461 <row>
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462 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user</filename></entry>
463 <entry>Runtime units (only used when $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set)</entry>
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464 </row>
465 <row>
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466 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/user</filename></entry>
467 <entry>Runtime units</entry>
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468 </row>
469 <row>
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470 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator</filename></entry>
471 <entry>Generated units with medium priority (see <replaceable>normal-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
631e393a 472 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
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473 </row>
474 <row>
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475 <entry><filename>$XDG_DATA_HOME/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>$HOME/.local/share/systemd/user</filename></entry>
476 <entry>Units of packages that have been installed in the home directory (<varname>$XDG_DATA_HOME</varname> is used if set, <filename>~/.local/share</filename> otherwise)</entry>
477 </row>
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478 <row>
479 <entry><filename>$XDG_DATA_DIRS/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>/usr/local/share/systemd/user</filename> and <filename>/usr/share/systemd/user</filename></entry>
480 <entry>Additional data directories as specified by the XDG base directory specification (<varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname> is used if set, <filename>/usr/local/share</filename> and <filename>/usr/share</filename> otherwise)</entry>
481 </row>
b82f27e7 482 <row>
b0343f8c 483 <entry><filename>$dir/systemd/user</filename> for each <varname index="false">$dir</varname> in <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname></entry>
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484 <entry>Additional locations for installed user units, one for each entry in <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname></entry>
485 </row>
486 <row>
487 <entry><filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/user</filename></entry>
565026b4 488 <entry>User units installed by the administrator</entry>
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489 </row>
490 <row>
5a15caf4 491 <entry><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/user</filename></entry>
565026b4 492 <entry>User units installed by the distribution package manager</entry>
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493 </row>
494 <row>
495 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.late</filename></entry>
496 <entry>Generated units with low priority (see <replaceable>late-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
631e393a 497 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
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498 </row>
499 </tbody>
500 </tgroup>
501 </table>
502
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503 <para>The set of load paths for the user manager instance may be augmented or
504 changed using various environment variables. And environment variables may in
505 turn be set using environment generators, see
930362ab 506 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.environment-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
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507 In particular, <varname>$XDG_DATA_HOME</varname> and
508 <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname> may be easily set using
509 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-environment-d-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
510 Thus, directories listed here are just the defaults. To see the actual list that
511 would be used based on compilation options and current environment use
512 <programlisting>systemd-analyze --user unit-paths</programlisting>
513 </para>
514
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515 <para>Moreover, additional units might be loaded into systemd from directories not on the unit load path
516 by creating a symlink pointing to a unit file in the directories. You can use <command>systemctl
517 link</command> for this; see
518 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>. The file
519 system where the linked unit files are located must be accessible when systemd is started (e.g. anything
520 underneath <filename>/home/</filename> or <filename>/var/</filename> is not allowed, unless those
521 directories are located on the root file system).</para>
522
523 <para>It is important to distinguish "linked unit files" from "unit file aliases": any symlink where the
524 symlink <emphasis>target</emphasis> is within the unit load path becomes an alias: the source name and
525 the target file name must satisfy specific constraints listed above in the discussion of aliases, but the
526 symlink target doesn't have to exist, and in fact the symlink target path is not used, except to check
8b7378e1 527 whether the target is within the unit load path. In contrast, a symlink which goes outside of the unit
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528 load path signifies a linked unit file. The symlink is followed when loading the file, but the
529 destination name is otherwise unused (and may even not be a valid unit file name). For example, symlinks
530 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/alias1.service</filename> → <filename index='false'>service1.service</filename>,
531 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/alias2.service</filename> → <filename index='false'>/usr/lib/systemd/service1.service</filename>,
532 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/alias3.service</filename> → <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/service1.service</filename>
533 are all valid aliases and <filename index='false'>service1.service</filename> will have
534 four names, even if the unit file is located at
535 <filename index='false'>/run/systemd/system/service1.service</filename>. In contrast,
536 a symlink <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/link1.service</filename> → <filename index='false'>../link1_service_file</filename>
537 means that <filename index='false'>link1.service</filename> is a "linked unit" and the contents of
538 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/link1_service_file</filename> provide its configuration.</para>
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539 </refsect1>
540
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541 <refsect1>
542 <title>Unit Garbage Collection</title>
543
544 <para>The system and service manager loads a unit's configuration automatically when a unit is referenced for the
545 first time. It will automatically unload the unit configuration and state again when the unit is not needed anymore
546 ("garbage collection"). A unit may be referenced through a number of different mechanisms:</para>
547
548 <orderedlist>
549 <listitem><para>Another loaded unit references it with a dependency such as <varname>After=</varname>,
550 <varname>Wants=</varname>, …</para></listitem>
551
552 <listitem><para>The unit is currently starting, running, reloading or stopping.</para></listitem>
553
554 <listitem><para>The unit is currently in the <constant>failed</constant> state. (But see below.)</para></listitem>
555
556 <listitem><para>A job for the unit is pending.</para></listitem>
557
558 <listitem><para>The unit is pinned by an active IPC client program.</para></listitem>
559
560 <listitem><para>The unit is a special "perpetual" unit that is always active and loaded. Examples for perpetual
561 units are the root mount unit <filename>-.mount</filename> or the scope unit <filename>init.scope</filename> that
562 the service manager itself lives in.</para></listitem>
563
564 <listitem><para>The unit has running processes associated with it.</para></listitem>
565 </orderedlist>
566
567 <para>The garbage collection logic may be altered with the <varname>CollectMode=</varname> option, which allows
568 configuration whether automatic unloading of units that are in <constant>failed</constant> state is permissible,
569 see below.</para>
570
571 <para>Note that when a unit's configuration and state is unloaded, all execution results, such as exit codes, exit
572 signals, resource consumption and other statistics are lost, except for what is stored in the log subsystem.</para>
573
574 <para>Use <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command> or an equivalent command to reload unit configuration while
575 the unit is already loaded. In this case all configuration settings are flushed out and replaced with the new
576 configuration (which however might not be in effect immediately), however all runtime state is
577 saved/restored.</para>
578 </refsect1>
579
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580 <refsect1>
581 <title>[Unit] Section Options</title>
582
a8eaaee7 583 <para>The unit file may include a [Unit] section, which carries
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584 generic information about the unit that is not dependent on the
585 type of unit:</para>
586
587 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
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588 <varlistentry>
589 <term><varname>Description=</varname></term>
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590 <listitem><para>A short human readable title of the unit. This may be used by
591 <command>systemd</command> (and other UIs) as a user-visible label for the unit, so this string
592 should identify the unit rather than describe it, despite the name. This string also shouldn't just
593 repeat the unit name. <literal>Apache2 Web Server</literal> is a good example. Bad examples are
594 <literal>high-performance light-weight HTTP server</literal> (too generic) or
595 <literal>Apache2</literal> (meaningless for people who do not know Apache, duplicates the unit
596 name). <command>systemd</command> may use this string as a noun in status messages (<literal>Starting
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597 <replaceable>description</replaceable>...</literal>, <literal>Started
598 <replaceable>description</replaceable>.</literal>, <literal>Reached target
599 <replaceable>description</replaceable>.</literal>, <literal>Failed to start
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600 <replaceable>description</replaceable>.</literal>), so it should be capitalized, and should not be a
601 full sentence, or a phrase with a continuous verb. Bad examples include <literal>exiting the
602 container</literal> or <literal>updating the database once per day.</literal>.</para>
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603
604 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
c43acf69 605 </listitem>
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606 </varlistentry>
607
608 <varlistentry>
609 <term><varname>Documentation=</varname></term>
610 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of URIs referencing
611 documentation for this unit or its configuration. Accepted are
612 only URIs of the types <literal>http://</literal>,
613 <literal>https://</literal>, <literal>file:</literal>,
614 <literal>info:</literal>, <literal>man:</literal>. For more
615 information about the syntax of these URIs, see <citerefentry
616 project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>uri</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
617 The URIs should be listed in order of relevance, starting with
618 the most relevant. It is a good idea to first reference
619 documentation that explains what the unit's purpose is,
620 followed by how it is configured, followed by any other
621 related documentation. This option may be specified more than
622 once, in which case the specified list of URIs is merged. If
623 the empty string is assigned to this option, the list is reset
624 and all prior assignments will have no
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625 effect.</para>
626
627 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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628 </varlistentry>
629
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630 <varlistentry>
631 <term><varname>Wants=</varname></term>
632
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633 <listitem><para>Configures (weak) requirement dependencies on other units. This option may be
634 specified more than once or multiple space-separated units may be specified in one option in which
635 case dependencies for all listed names will be created. Dependencies of this type may also be
636 configured outside of the unit configuration file by adding a symlink to a
637 <filename>.wants/</filename> directory accompanying the unit file. For details, see above.</para>
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638
639 <para>Units listed in this option will be started if the configuring unit is. However, if the listed
640 units fail to start or cannot be added to the transaction, this has no impact on the validity of the
641 transaction as a whole, and this unit will still be started. This is the recommended way to hook
1ad44867 642 the start-up of one unit to the start-up of another unit.</para>
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643
644 <para>Note that requirement dependencies do not influence the order in which services are started or
645 stopped. This has to be configured independently with the <varname>After=</varname> or
646 <varname>Before=</varname> options. If unit <filename>foo.service</filename> pulls in unit
647 <filename>bar.service</filename> as configured with <varname>Wants=</varname> and no ordering is
648 configured with <varname>After=</varname> or <varname>Before=</varname>, then both units will be
649 started simultaneously and without any delay between them if <filename>foo.service</filename> is
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650 activated.</para>
651
652 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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653 </varlistentry>
654
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655 <varlistentry>
656 <term><varname>Requires=</varname></term>
657
c024f320 658 <listitem><para>Similar to <varname>Wants=</varname>, but declares a stronger requirement
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659 dependency. Dependencies of this type may also be configured by adding a symlink to a
660 <filename>.requires/</filename> directory accompanying the unit file.</para>
661
662 <para>If this unit gets activated, the units listed will be activated as well. If one of
663 the other units fails to activate, and an ordering dependency <varname>After=</varname> on the
664 failing unit is set, this unit will not be started. Besides, with or without specifying
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665 <varname>After=</varname>, this unit will be stopped (or restarted) if one of the other units is
666 explicitly stopped (or restarted).</para>
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667
668 <para>Often, it is a better choice to use <varname>Wants=</varname> instead of
669 <varname>Requires=</varname> in order to achieve a system that is more robust when dealing with
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670 failing services.</para>
671
672 <para>Note that this dependency type does not imply that the other unit always has to be in active state when
673 this unit is running. Specifically: failing condition checks (such as <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname>,
6b5bb2f9 674 <varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname>, … — see below) do not cause the start job of a unit with a
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675 <varname>Requires=</varname> dependency on it to fail. Also, some unit types may deactivate on their own (for
676 example, a service process may decide to exit cleanly, or a device may be unplugged by the user), which is not
677 propagated to units having a <varname>Requires=</varname> dependency. Use the <varname>BindsTo=</varname>
678 dependency type together with <varname>After=</varname> to ensure that a unit may never be in active state
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679 without a specific other unit also in active state (see below).</para>
680
681 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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682 </varlistentry>
683
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684 <varlistentry>
685 <term><varname>Requisite=</varname></term>
798d3a52 686
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687 <listitem><para>Similar to <varname>Requires=</varname>. However, if the units listed here
688 are not started already, they will not be started and the starting of this unit will fail
689 immediately. <varname>Requisite=</varname> does not imply an ordering dependency, even if
690 both units are started in the same transaction. Hence this setting should usually be
691 combined with <varname>After=</varname>, to ensure this unit is not started before the other
692 unit.</para>
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693
694 <para>When <varname>Requisite=b.service</varname> is used on
695 <filename>a.service</filename>, this dependency will show as
696 <varname>RequisiteOf=a.service</varname> in property listing of
697 <filename>b.service</filename>. <varname>RequisiteOf=</varname>
698 dependency cannot be specified directly.</para>
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699
700 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
b2920668 701 </listitem>
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702 </varlistentry>
703
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704 <varlistentry>
705 <term><varname>BindsTo=</varname></term>
706
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707 <listitem><para>Configures requirement dependencies, very similar in style to
708 <varname>Requires=</varname>. However, this dependency type is stronger: in addition to the effect of
709 <varname>Requires=</varname> it declares that if the unit bound to is stopped, this unit will be stopped
710 too. This means a unit bound to another unit that suddenly enters inactive state will be stopped too.
711 Units can suddenly, unexpectedly enter inactive state for different reasons: the main process of a service unit
712 might terminate on its own choice, the backing device of a device unit might be unplugged or the mount point of
713 a mount unit might be unmounted without involvement of the system and service manager.</para>
714
715 <para>When used in conjunction with <varname>After=</varname> on the same unit the behaviour of
716 <varname>BindsTo=</varname> is even stronger. In this case, the unit bound to strictly has to be in active
717 state for this unit to also be in active state. This not only means a unit bound to another unit that suddenly
413e8650 718 enters inactive state, but also one that is bound to another unit that gets skipped due to an unmet condition
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719 check (such as <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname>, <varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname>, … —
720 see below) will be stopped, should it be running. Hence, in many cases it is best to combine
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721 <varname>BindsTo=</varname> with <varname>After=</varname>.</para>
722
723 <para>When <varname>BindsTo=b.service</varname> is used on
724 <filename>a.service</filename>, this dependency will show as
725 <varname>BoundBy=a.service</varname> in property listing of
726 <filename>b.service</filename>. <varname>BoundBy=</varname>
727 dependency cannot be specified directly.</para>
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728
729 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
b2920668 730 </listitem>
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731 </varlistentry>
732
733 <varlistentry>
734 <term><varname>PartOf=</varname></term>
735
736 <listitem><para>Configures dependencies similar to
737 <varname>Requires=</varname>, but limited to stopping and
738 restarting of units. When systemd stops or restarts the units
739 listed here, the action is propagated to this unit. Note that
740 this is a one-way dependency — changes to this unit do not
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741 affect the listed units.</para>
742
743 <para>When <varname>PartOf=b.service</varname> is used on
744 <filename>a.service</filename>, this dependency will show as
745 <varname>ConsistsOf=a.service</varname> in property listing of
746 <filename>b.service</filename>. <varname>ConsistsOf=</varname>
747 dependency cannot be specified directly.</para>
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748
749 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
b2920668 750 </listitem>
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751 </varlistentry>
752
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753 <varlistentry>
754 <term><varname>Upholds=</varname></term>
755
d844b033 756 <listitem><para>Configures dependencies similar to <varname>Wants=</varname>, but as long as this unit
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757 is up, all units listed in <varname>Upholds=</varname> are started whenever found to be inactive or
758 failed, and no job is queued for them. While a <varname>Wants=</varname> dependency on another unit
759 has a one-time effect when this units started, a <varname>Upholds=</varname> dependency on it has a
760 continuous effect, constantly restarting the unit if necessary. This is an alternative to the
761 <varname>Restart=</varname> setting of service units, to ensure they are kept running whatever
24752c41 762 happens. The restart happens without delay, and usual per-unit rate-limit applies.</para>
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763
764 <para>When <varname>Upholds=b.service</varname> is used on <filename>a.service</filename>, this
765 dependency will show as <varname>UpheldBy=a.service</varname> in the property listing of
38f90179 766 <filename>b.service</filename>.</para>
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767
768 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/>
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769 </listitem>
770 </varlistentry>
771
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772 <varlistentry>
773 <term><varname>Conflicts=</varname></term>
774
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775 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of unit names. Configures negative requirement
776 dependencies. If a unit has a <varname>Conflicts=</varname> setting on another unit, starting the
777 former will stop the latter and vice versa.</para>
778
779 <para>Note that this setting does not imply an ordering dependency, similarly to the
780 <varname>Wants=</varname> and <varname>Requires=</varname> dependencies described above. This means
781 that to ensure that the conflicting unit is stopped before the other unit is started, an
782 <varname>After=</varname> or <varname>Before=</varname> dependency must be declared. It doesn't
783 matter which of the two ordering dependencies is used, because stop jobs are always ordered before
784 start jobs, see the discussion in <varname>Before=</varname>/<varname>After=</varname> below.</para>
798d3a52 785
d19cd71a 786 <para>If unit A that conflicts with unit B is scheduled to
798d3a52 787 be started at the same time as B, the transaction will either
46054ac0 788 fail (in case both are required parts of the transaction) or be
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789 modified to be fixed (in case one or both jobs are not a
790 required part of the transaction). In the latter case, the job
46054ac0 791 that is not required will be removed, or in case both are
798d3a52 792 not required, the unit that conflicts will be started and the
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793 unit that is conflicted is stopped.</para>
794
795 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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796 </varlistentry>
797
798 <varlistentry>
799 <term><varname>Before=</varname></term>
800 <term><varname>After=</varname></term>
801
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802 <listitem><para>These two settings expect a space-separated list of unit names. They may be specified
803 more than once, in which case dependencies for all listed names are created.</para>
804
d5d5b3f4 805 <para>Those two settings configure ordering dependencies between units. If unit
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806 <filename>foo.service</filename> contains the setting <option>Before=bar.service</option> and both
807 units are being started, <filename>bar.service</filename>'s start-up is delayed until
808 <filename>foo.service</filename> has finished starting up. <varname>After=</varname> is the inverse
809 of <varname>Before=</varname>, i.e. while <varname>Before=</varname> ensures that the configured unit
810 is started before the listed unit begins starting up, <varname>After=</varname> ensures the opposite,
811 that the listed unit is fully started up before the configured unit is started.</para>
812
813 <para>When two units with an ordering dependency between them are shut down, the inverse of the
e9dd6984 814 start-up order is applied. I.e. if a unit is configured with <varname>After=</varname> on another
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815 unit, the former is stopped before the latter if both are shut down. Given two units with any
816 ordering dependency between them, if one unit is shut down and the other is started up, the shutdown
817 is ordered before the start-up. It doesn't matter if the ordering dependency is
818 <varname>After=</varname> or <varname>Before=</varname>, in this case. It also doesn't matter which
819 of the two is shut down, as long as one is shut down and the other is started up; the shutdown is
820 ordered before the start-up in all cases. If two units have no ordering dependencies between them,
821 they are shut down or started up simultaneously, and no ordering takes place. It depends on the unit
822 type when precisely a unit has finished starting up. Most importantly, for service units start-up is
823 considered completed for the purpose of <varname>Before=</varname>/<varname>After=</varname> when all
824 its configured start-up commands have been invoked and they either failed or reported start-up
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825 success. Note that this does includes <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname> (or
826 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> for the shutdown case).</para>
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827
828 <para>Note that those settings are independent of and orthogonal to the requirement dependencies as
829 configured by <varname>Requires=</varname>, <varname>Wants=</varname>, <varname>Requisite=</varname>,
830 or <varname>BindsTo=</varname>. It is a common pattern to include a unit name in both the
831 <varname>After=</varname> and <varname>Wants=</varname> options, in which case the unit listed will
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832 be started before the unit that is configured with these options.</para>
833
834 <para>Note that <varname>Before=</varname> dependencies on device units have no effect and are not
835 supported. Devices generally become available as a result of an external hotplug event, and systemd
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836 creates the corresponding device unit without delay.</para>
837
838 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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839 </varlistentry>
840
841 <varlistentry>
842 <term><varname>OnFailure=</varname></term>
843
294446dc 844 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of one or more units that are activated when this unit enters
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845 the <literal>failed</literal> state.</para>
846
847 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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848 </varlistentry>
849
850 <varlistentry>
851 <term><varname>OnSuccess=</varname></term>
852
853 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of one or more units that are activated when this unit enters
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854 the <literal>inactive</literal> state.</para>
855
856 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
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857 </varlistentry>
858
859 <varlistentry>
860 <term><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></term>
861 <term><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></term>
862
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863 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of one or more units to which reload requests from this unit
864 shall be propagated to, or units from which reload requests shall be propagated to this unit,
865 respectively. Issuing a reload request on a unit will automatically also enqueue reload requests on
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866 all units that are linked to it using these two settings.</para>
867
868 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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869 </varlistentry>
870
871 <varlistentry>
872 <term><varname>PropagatesStopTo=</varname></term>
873 <term><varname>StopPropagatedFrom=</varname></term>
874
875 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of one or more units to which stop requests from this unit
876 shall be propagated to, or units from which stop requests shall be propagated to this unit,
877 respectively. Issuing a stop request on a unit will automatically also enqueue stop requests on all
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878 units that are linked to it using these two settings.</para>
879
880 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
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881 </varlistentry>
882
883 <varlistentry>
884 <term><varname>JoinsNamespaceOf=</varname></term>
885
4107452e 886 <listitem><para>For units that start processes (such as service units), lists one or more other units
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887 whose network and/or temporary file namespace to join. If this is specified on a unit (say, a.service
888 has <varname>JoinsNamespaceOf=b.service</varname>), then this the inverse dependency
889 (<varname>JoinsNamespaceOf=a.service</varname> for b.service) is implied. This only applies to unit
890 types which support the <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname>, <varname>NetworkNamespacePath=</varname>,
a70581ff 891 <varname>PrivateIPC=</varname>, <varname>IPCNamespacePath=</varname>, and
798d3a52 892 <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> directives (see
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893 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
894 details). If a unit that has this setting set is started, its processes will see the same
a70581ff 895 <filename>/tmp/</filename>, <filename>/var/tmp/</filename>, IPC namespace and network namespace as
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896 one listed unit that is started. If multiple listed units are already started and these do not share
897 their namespace, then it is not defined which namespace is joined. Note that this setting only has an
898 effect if <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname>/<varname>NetworkNamespacePath=</varname>,
a70581ff 899 <varname>PrivateIPC=</varname>/<varname>IPCNamespacePath=</varname> and/or
4107452e 900 <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> is enabled for both the unit that joins the namespace and the unit
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901 whose namespace is joined.</para>
902
903 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v209"/></listitem>
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904 </varlistentry>
905
906 <varlistentry>
907 <term><varname>RequiresMountsFor=</varname></term>
908
909 <listitem><para>Takes a space-separated list of absolute
910 paths. Automatically adds dependencies of type
911 <varname>Requires=</varname> and <varname>After=</varname> for
912 all mount units required to access the specified path.</para>
913
914 <para>Mount points marked with <option>noauto</option> are not
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915 mounted automatically through <filename>local-fs.target</filename>,
916 but are still honored for the purposes of this option, i.e. they
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917 will be pulled in by this unit.</para>
918
919 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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920 </varlistentry>
921
922 <varlistentry>
e87abe82 923 <term><varname>OnSuccessJobMode=</varname></term>
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924 <term><varname>OnFailureJobMode=</varname></term>
925
926 <listitem><para>Takes a value of
927 <literal>fail</literal>,
928 <literal>replace</literal>,
929 <literal>replace-irreversibly</literal>,
930 <literal>isolate</literal>,
931 <literal>flush</literal>,
932 <literal>ignore-dependencies</literal> or
933 <literal>ignore-requirements</literal>. Defaults to
934 <literal>replace</literal>. Specifies how the units listed in
e87abe82 935 <varname>OnSuccess=</varname>/<varname>OnFailure=</varname> will be enqueued. See
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936 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
937 <option>--job-mode=</option> option for details on the
938 possible values. If this is set to <literal>isolate</literal>,
939 only a single unit may be listed in
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940 <varname>OnSuccess=</varname>/<varname>OnFailure=</varname>.</para>
941
942 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v209"/></listitem>
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943 </varlistentry>
944
945 <varlistentry>
946 <term><varname>IgnoreOnIsolate=</varname></term>
947
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948 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If <option>true</option>, this unit will not be stopped
949 when isolating another unit. Defaults to <option>false</option> for service, target, socket, timer,
950 and path units, and <option>true</option> for slice, scope, device, swap, mount, and automount
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951 units.</para>
952
953 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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954 </varlistentry>
955
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956 <varlistentry>
957 <term><varname>StopWhenUnneeded=</varname></term>
958
959 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
960 <option>true</option>, this unit will be stopped when it is no
b938cb90 961 longer used. Note that, in order to minimize the work to be
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962 executed, systemd will not stop units by default unless they
963 are conflicting with other units, or the user explicitly
964 requested their shut down. If this option is set, a unit will
965 be automatically cleaned up if no other active unit requires
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966 it. Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para>
967
968 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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969 </varlistentry>
970
971 <varlistentry>
972 <term><varname>RefuseManualStart=</varname></term>
973 <term><varname>RefuseManualStop=</varname></term>
974
975 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
976 <option>true</option>, this unit can only be activated or
977 deactivated indirectly. In this case, explicit start-up or
978 termination requested by the user is denied, however if it is
979 started or stopped as a dependency of another unit, start-up
980 or termination will succeed. This is mostly a safety feature
981 to ensure that the user does not accidentally activate units
982 that are not intended to be activated explicitly, and not
983 accidentally deactivate units that are not intended to be
984 deactivated. These options default to
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985 <option>false</option>.</para>
986
987 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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988 </varlistentry>
989
990 <varlistentry>
991 <term><varname>AllowIsolate=</varname></term>
992
993 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
994 <option>true</option>, this unit may be used with the
995 <command>systemctl isolate</command> command. Otherwise, this
996 will be refused. It probably is a good idea to leave this
997 disabled except for target units that shall be used similar to
998 runlevels in SysV init systems, just as a precaution to avoid
999 unusable system states. This option defaults to
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1000 <option>false</option>.</para>
1001
1002 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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1003 </varlistentry>
1004
1005 <varlistentry>
1006 <term><varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname></term>
1007
1008 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
c13fb257 1009 <option>yes</option>, (the default), a few default
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1010 dependencies will implicitly be created for the unit. The
1011 actual dependencies created depend on the unit type. For
1012 example, for service units, these dependencies ensure that the
1013 service is started only after basic system initialization is
1014 completed and is properly terminated on system shutdown. See
1015 the respective man pages for details. Generally, only services
1016 involved with early boot or late shutdown should set this
c13fb257 1017 option to <option>no</option>. It is highly recommended to
798d3a52 1018 leave this option enabled for the majority of common units. If
c13fb257 1019 set to <option>no</option>, this option does not disable
798d3a52 1020 all implicit dependencies, just non-essential
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1021 ones.</para>
1022
1023 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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1024 </varlistentry>
1025
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1026 <varlistentry>
1027 <term><varname>SurviveFinalKillSignal=</varname></term>
1028
1029 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. Defaults to <option>no</option>. If <option>yes</option>,
1030 processes belonging to this unit will not be sent the final <literal>SIGTERM</literal> and
1031 <literal>SIGKILL</literal> signals during the final phase of the system shutdown process.
1032 This functionality replaces the older mechanism that allowed a program to set
1033 <literal>argv[0][0] = '@'</literal> as described at
1034 <ulink url="https://systemd.io/ROOT_STORAGE_DAEMONS">systemd and Storage Daemons for the Root File
1035 System</ulink>, which however continues to be supported.</para>
1036
1037 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/></listitem>
1038 </varlistentry>
1039
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1040 <varlistentry>
1041 <term><varname>CollectMode=</varname></term>
1042
1043 <listitem><para>Tweaks the "garbage collection" algorithm for this unit. Takes one of <option>inactive</option>
1044 or <option>inactive-or-failed</option>. If set to <option>inactive</option> the unit will be unloaded if it is
1045 in the <constant>inactive</constant> state and is not referenced by clients, jobs or other units — however it
1046 is not unloaded if it is in the <constant>failed</constant> state. In <option>failed</option> mode, failed
1047 units are not unloaded until the user invoked <command>systemctl reset-failed</command> on them to reset the
1048 <constant>failed</constant> state, or an equivalent command. This behaviour is altered if this option is set to
1049 <option>inactive-or-failed</option>: in this case the unit is unloaded even if the unit is in a
1050 <constant>failed</constant> state, and thus an explicitly resetting of the <constant>failed</constant> state is
1051 not necessary. Note that if this mode is used unit results (such as exit codes, exit signals, consumed
1052 resources, …) are flushed out immediately after the unit completed, except for what is stored in the logging
1053 subsystem. Defaults to <option>inactive</option>.</para>
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1054
1055 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v236"/>
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1056 </listitem>
1057 </varlistentry>
1058
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1059 <varlistentry>
1060 <term><varname>FailureAction=</varname></term>
1061 <term><varname>SuccessAction=</varname></term>
1062
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1063 <listitem><para>Configure the action to take when the unit stops and enters a failed state or
1064 inactive state. Takes one of <option>none</option>, <option>reboot</option>,
1065 <option>reboot-force</option>, <option>reboot-immediate</option>, <option>poweroff</option>,
1066 <option>poweroff-force</option>, <option>poweroff-immediate</option>, <option>exit</option>,
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1067 <option>exit-force</option>, <option>soft-reboot</option>, <option>soft-reboot-force</option>,
1068 <option>kexec</option>, <option>kexec-force</option>, <option>halt</option>,
1069 <option>halt-force</option> and <option>halt-immediate</option>. In system mode, all options are
1070 allowed. In user mode, only <option>none</option>, <option>exit</option>,
1071 <option>exit-force</option>, <option>soft-reboot</option> and <option>soft-reboot-force</option> are
1072 allowed. Both options default to <option>none</option>.</para>
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1073
1074 <para>If <option>none</option> is set, no action will be triggered. <option>reboot</option> causes a
1075 reboot following the normal shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl
1076 reboot</command>). <option>reboot-force</option> causes a forced reboot which will terminate all
1077 processes forcibly but should cause no dirty file systems on reboot (i.e. equivalent to
1078 <command>systemctl reboot -f</command>) and <option>reboot-immediate</option> causes immediate
1079 execution of the
1080 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system
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1081 call, which might result in data loss (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl reboot -ff</command>).
1082 Similarly, <option>poweroff</option>, <option>poweroff-force</option>,
1083 <option>poweroff-immediate</option>, <option>kexec</option>, <option>kexec-force</option>,
1084 <option>halt</option>, <option>halt-force</option> and <option>halt-immediate</option> have the
1085 effect of powering down the system, executing kexec, and halting the system respectively with similar
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1086 semantics. <option>exit</option> causes the manager to exit following the normal shutdown procedure,
1087 and <option>exit-force</option> causes it terminate without shutting down services. When
1088 <option>exit</option> or <option>exit-force</option> is used by default the exit status of the main
1089 process of the unit (if this applies) is returned from the service manager. However, this may be
1090 overridden with
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1091 <varname>FailureActionExitStatus=</varname>/<varname>SuccessActionExitStatus=</varname>, see below.
1092 <option>soft-reboot</option> will trigger a userspace reboot operation.
1093 <option>soft-reboot-force</option> does that too, but does not go through the shutdown transaction
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1094 beforehand.</para>
1095
1096 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v236"/></listitem>
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1097 </varlistentry>
1098
1099 <varlistentry>
1100 <term><varname>FailureActionExitStatus=</varname></term>
1101 <term><varname>SuccessActionExitStatus=</varname></term>
1102
1103 <listitem><para>Controls the exit status to propagate back to an invoking container manager (in case of a
1104 system service) or service manager (in case of a user manager) when the
1105 <varname>FailureAction=</varname>/<varname>SuccessAction=</varname> are set to <option>exit</option> or
1106 <option>exit-force</option> and the action is triggered. By default the exit status of the main process of the
1107 triggering unit (if this applies) is propagated. Takes a value in the range 0…255 or the empty string to
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1108 request default behaviour.</para>
1109
1110 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v240"/></listitem>
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1111 </varlistentry>
1112
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1113 <varlistentry>
1114 <term><varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname></term>
a2df3ea4 1115 <term><varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname></term>
798d3a52 1116
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1117 <listitem><para><varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname> specifies a timeout for the whole job that starts
1118 running when the job is queued. <varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> specifies a timeout that
1119 starts running when the queued job is actually started. If either limit is reached, the job will be
1120 cancelled, the unit however will not change state or even enter the <literal>failed</literal> mode.
1121 </para>
1122
1123 <para>Both settings take a time span with the default unit of seconds, but other units may be
1124 specified, see
1125 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1126 The default is <literal>infinity</literal> (job timeouts disabled), except for device units where
83d373d2 1127 <varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> defaults to <varname>DefaultDeviceTimeoutSec=</varname>.
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1128 </para>
1129
1130 <para>Note: these timeouts are independent from any unit-specific timeouts (for example, the timeout
1131 set with <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> in service units). The job timeout has no effect on the
1132 unit itself. Or in other words: unit-specific timeouts are useful to abort unit state changes, and
1133 revert them. The job timeout set with this option however is useful to abort only the job waiting for
1134 the unit state to change.</para>
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1135
1136 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
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1137 </listitem>
1138 </varlistentry>
1139
1140 <varlistentry>
1141 <term><varname>JobTimeoutAction=</varname></term>
1142 <term><varname>JobTimeoutRebootArgument=</varname></term>
798d3a52 1143
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1144 <listitem><para><varname>JobTimeoutAction=</varname> optionally configures an additional action to
1145 take when the timeout is hit, see description of <varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname> and
de597248 1146 <varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> above. It takes the same values as
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1147 <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname>. Defaults to <option>none</option>.</para>
1148
1149 <para><varname>JobTimeoutRebootArgument=</varname> configures an optional reboot string to pass to
1150 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system
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1151 call.</para>
1152
1153 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v240"/></listitem>
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1154 </varlistentry>
1155
6bf0f408 1156 <varlistentry>
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1157 <term><varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=<replaceable>interval</replaceable></varname></term>
1158 <term><varname>StartLimitBurst=<replaceable>burst</replaceable></varname></term>
6bf0f408 1159
fc5ffacd 1160 <listitem><para>Configure unit start rate limiting. Units which are started more than
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1161 <replaceable>burst</replaceable> times within an <replaceable>interval</replaceable> time span are
1162 not permitted to start any more. Use <varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> to configure the
1163 checking interval and <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to configure how many starts per interval
1164 are allowed.</para>
1165
1166 <para><replaceable>interval</replaceable> is a time span with the default unit of seconds, but other
1167 units may be specified, see
1168 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1169 Defaults to <varname>DefaultStartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> in manager configuration file, and may
1170 be set to 0 to disable any kind of rate limiting. <replaceable>burst</replaceable> is a number and
1171 defaults to <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in manager configuration file.</para>
1172
1173 <para>These configuration options are particularly useful in conjunction with the service setting
b94f4313 1174 <varname>Restart=</varname> (see
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1175 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>);
1176 however, they apply to all kinds of starts (including manual), not just those triggered by the
1177 <varname>Restart=</varname> logic.</para>
1178
1179 <para>Note that units which are configured for <varname>Restart=</varname>, and which reach the start
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1180 limit are not attempted to be restarted anymore; however, they may still be restarted manually or
1181 from a timer or socket at a later point, after the <replaceable>interval</replaceable> has passed.
1182 From that point on, the restart logic is activated again. <command>systemctl reset-failed</command>
1183 will cause the restart rate counter for a service to be flushed, which is useful if the administrator
1184 wants to manually start a unit and the start limit interferes with that. Rate-limiting is enforced
1185 after any unit condition checks are executed, and hence unit activations with failing conditions do
1186 not count towards the rate limit.</para>
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1187
1188 <para>When a unit is unloaded due to the garbage collection logic (see above) its rate limit counters
1189 are flushed out too. This means that configuring start rate limiting for a unit that is not
1190 referenced continuously has no effect.</para>
1191
1192 <para>This setting does not apply to slice, target, device, and scope units, since they are unit
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1193 types whose activation may either never fail, or may succeed only a single time.</para>
1194
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1196 </varlistentry>
1197
1198 <varlistentry>
1199 <term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
1200
454dd6ce 1201 <listitem><para>Configure an additional action to take if the rate limit configured with
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1202 <varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> and <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is hit. Takes the same
1203 values as the <varname>FailureAction=</varname>/<varname>SuccessAction=</varname> settings. If
1204 <option>none</option> is set, hitting the rate limit will trigger no action except that
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1205 the start will not be permitted. Defaults to <option>none</option>.</para>
1206
1207 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v229"/></listitem>
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1208 </varlistentry>
1209
1210 <varlistentry>
1211 <term><varname>RebootArgument=</varname></term>
1212 <listitem><para>Configure the optional argument for the
1213 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system call if
53c35a76 1214 <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname> or <varname>FailureAction=</varname> is a reboot action. This
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1215 works just like the optional argument to <command>systemctl reboot</command> command.</para>
1216
1217 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v229"/></listitem>
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1218 </varlistentry>
1219
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1220 <varlistentry>
1221 <term><varname>SourcePath=</varname></term>
1222 <listitem><para>A path to a configuration file this unit has
1223 been generated from. This is primarily useful for
1224 implementation of generator tools that convert configuration
1225 from an external configuration file format into native unit
1226 files. This functionality should not be used in normal
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1227 units.</para>
1228
1229 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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1230 </varlistentry>
1231 </variablelist>
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1232
1233 <refsect2>
1234 <title>Conditions and Asserts</title>
1235
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1236 <para>Unit files may also include a number of <varname index="false">Condition…=</varname> and <varname
1237 index="false">Assert…=</varname> settings. Before the unit is started, systemd will verify that the
1238 specified conditions and asserts are true. If not, the starting of the unit will be (mostly silently)
1239 skipped (in case of conditions), or aborted with an error message (in case of asserts). Failing
1240 conditions or asserts will not result in the unit being moved into the <literal>failed</literal>
1241 state. The conditions and asserts are checked at the time the queued start job is to be executed. The
1242 ordering dependencies are still respected, so other units are still pulled in and ordered as if this
1243 unit was successfully activated, and the conditions and asserts are executed the precise moment the
1244 unit would normally start and thus can validate system state after the units ordered before completed
1245 initialization. Use condition expressions for skipping units that do not apply to the local system, for
1246 example because the kernel or runtime environment doesn't require their functionality.
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1247 </para>
1248
1249 <para>If multiple conditions are specified, the unit will be executed if all of them apply (i.e. a
54166cee 1250 logical AND is applied). Condition checks can use a pipe symbol (<literal>|</literal>) after the equals
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1251 sign (<literal>Condition…=|…</literal>), which causes the condition to become a
1252 <emphasis>triggering</emphasis> condition. If at least one triggering condition is defined for a unit,
1253 then the unit will be started if at least one of the triggering conditions of the unit applies and all
1254 of the regular (i.e. non-triggering) conditions apply. If you prefix an argument with the pipe symbol
1255 and an exclamation mark, the pipe symbol must be passed first, the exclamation second. If any of these
1256 options is assigned the empty string, the list of conditions is reset completely, all previous
1257 condition settings (of any kind) will have no effect.</para>
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1258
1259 <para>The <varname>AssertArchitecture=</varname>, <varname>AssertVirtualization=</varname>, … options
0a6aa7a2 1260 are similar to conditions but cause the start job to fail (instead of being skipped). The failed check
413e8650 1261 is logged. Units with unmet conditions are considered to be in a clean state and will be garbage
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1262 collected if they are not referenced. This means that when queried, the condition failure may or may
1263 not show up in the state of the unit.</para>
1264
1265 <para>Note that neither assertion nor condition expressions result in unit state changes. Also note
1266 that both are checked at the time the job is to be executed, i.e. long after depending jobs and it
1267 itself were queued. Thus, neither condition nor assertion expressions are suitable for conditionalizing
1268 unit dependencies.</para>
1269
1270 <para>The <command>condition</command> verb of
1271 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-analyze</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> can
1272 be used to test condition and assert expressions.</para>
1273
1274 <para>Except for <varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname>, all path checks follow symlinks.</para>
1275
1276 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
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1277 <varlistentry>
1278 <term><varname>ConditionArchitecture=</varname></term>
1279
1280 <listitem><para>Check whether the system is running on a specific architecture. Takes one of
1281 <literal>x86</literal>,
1282 <literal>x86-64</literal>,
1283 <literal>ppc</literal>,
1284 <literal>ppc-le</literal>,
1285 <literal>ppc64</literal>,
1286 <literal>ppc64-le</literal>,
1287 <literal>ia64</literal>,
1288 <literal>parisc</literal>,
1289 <literal>parisc64</literal>,
1290 <literal>s390</literal>,
1291 <literal>s390x</literal>,
1292 <literal>sparc</literal>,
1293 <literal>sparc64</literal>,
1294 <literal>mips</literal>,
1295 <literal>mips-le</literal>,
1296 <literal>mips64</literal>,
1297 <literal>mips64-le</literal>,
1298 <literal>alpha</literal>,
1299 <literal>arm</literal>,
1300 <literal>arm-be</literal>,
1301 <literal>arm64</literal>,
1302 <literal>arm64-be</literal>,
1303 <literal>sh</literal>,
1304 <literal>sh64</literal>,
1305 <literal>m68k</literal>,
1306 <literal>tilegx</literal>,
1307 <literal>cris</literal>,
1308 <literal>arc</literal>,
1309 <literal>arc-be</literal>, or
1310 <literal>native</literal>.</para>
1311
1312 <para>The architecture is determined from the information returned by
1313 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1314 and is thus subject to
1315 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>personality</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1316 Note that a <varname>Personality=</varname> setting in the same unit file has no effect on this
1317 condition. A special architecture name <literal>native</literal> is mapped to the architecture the
1318 system manager itself is compiled for. The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation
1319 mark.</para>
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1320
1321 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
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1322 </listitem>
1323 </varlistentry>
1324
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1325 <varlistentry>
1326 <term><varname>ConditionFirmware=</varname></term>
1327
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1328 <listitem><para>Check whether the system's firmware is of a certain type. The following values are
1329 possible:</para>
1330
1331 <itemizedlist>
1332 <listitem><para><literal>uefi</literal> matches systems with EFI.</para></listitem>
1333
1334 <listitem><para><literal>device-tree</literal> matches systems with a device tree.
1335 </para></listitem>
1336
1337 <listitem><para><literal>device-tree-compatible(<replaceable>value</replaceable>)</literal>
a9ba6f8a 1338 matches systems with a device tree that are compatible with <literal>value</literal>.
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1339 </para></listitem>
1340
1341 <listitem><para><literal>smbios-field(<replaceable>field</replaceable>
1342 <replaceable>operator</replaceable> <replaceable>value</replaceable>)</literal> matches systems
1343 with a SMBIOS field containing a certain value. <replaceable>field</replaceable> is the name of
1344 the SMBIOS field exposed as <literal>sysfs</literal> attribute file below
1345 <filename>/sys/class/dmi/id/</filename>. <replaceable>operator</replaceable> is one of
1346 <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal>,
1347 <literal>&gt;</literal>, <literal>==</literal>, <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal> for version
1348 comparisons, <literal>=</literal> and <literal>!=</literal> for literal string comparisons, or
1349 <literal>$=</literal>, <literal>!$=</literal> for shell-style glob comparisons.
1350 <replaceable>value</replaceable> is the expected value of the SMBIOS field value (possibly
1351 containing shell style globs in case <literal>$=</literal>/<literal>!$=</literal> is used).
1352 </para></listitem>
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1353 </itemizedlist>
1354
1355 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
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1356 </varlistentry>
1357
337b7334 1358 <varlistentry>
81a41081 1359 <term><varname>ConditionVirtualization=</varname></term>
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1360
1361 <listitem><para>Check whether the system is executed in a virtualized environment and optionally
1362 test whether it is a specific implementation. Takes either boolean value to check if being executed
1363 in any virtualized environment, or one of
1364 <literal>vm</literal> and
1365 <literal>container</literal> to test against a generic type of virtualization solution, or one of
1366 <literal>qemu</literal>,
1367 <literal>kvm</literal>,
b6eca373 1368 <literal>amazon</literal>,
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1369 <literal>zvm</literal>,
1370 <literal>vmware</literal>,
1371 <literal>microsoft</literal>,
1372 <literal>oracle</literal>,
3224e38b 1373 <literal>powervm</literal>,
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1374 <literal>xen</literal>,
1375 <literal>bochs</literal>,
1376 <literal>uml</literal>,
1377 <literal>bhyve</literal>,
1378 <literal>qnx</literal>,
f5558306 1379 <literal>apple</literal>,
d833ed78 1380 <literal>sre</literal>,
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1381 <literal>openvz</literal>,
1382 <literal>lxc</literal>,
1383 <literal>lxc-libvirt</literal>,
1384 <literal>systemd-nspawn</literal>,
1385 <literal>docker</literal>,
1386 <literal>podman</literal>,
1387 <literal>rkt</literal>,
1388 <literal>wsl</literal>,
80cc3e3e 1389 <literal>proot</literal>,
abac810b 1390 <literal>pouch</literal>,
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1391 <literal>acrn</literal> to test
1392 against a specific implementation, or
1393 <literal>private-users</literal> to check whether we are running in a user namespace. See
1394 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-detect-virt</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1395 for a full list of known virtualization technologies and their identifiers. If multiple
1396 virtualization technologies are nested, only the innermost is considered. The test may be negated
1397 by prepending an exclamation mark.</para>
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1398
1399 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1400 </listitem>
1401 </varlistentry>
1402
1403 <varlistentry>
1404 <term><varname>ConditionHost=</varname></term>
1405
1406 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionHost=</varname> may be used to match against the hostname or
1407 machine ID of the host. This either takes a hostname string (optionally with shell style globs)
1408 which is tested against the locally set hostname as returned by
1409 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>gethostname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>, or
1410 a machine ID formatted as string (see
1411 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
1412 The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark.</para>
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1413
1414 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1415 </listitem>
1416 </varlistentry>
1417
1418 <varlistentry>
1419 <term><varname>ConditionKernelCommandLine=</varname></term>
1420
1421 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionKernelCommandLine=</varname> may be used to check whether a
1422 specific kernel command line option is set (or if prefixed with the exclamation mark — unset). The
1423 argument must either be a single word, or an assignment (i.e. two words, separated by
1424 <literal>=</literal>). In the former case the kernel command line is searched for the word
1425 appearing as is, or as left hand side of an assignment. In the latter case, the exact assignment is
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1426 looked for with right and left hand side matching. This operates on the kernel command line
1427 communicated to userspace via <filename>/proc/cmdline</filename>, except when the service manager
1428 is invoked as payload of a container manager, in which case the command line of <filename>PID
1429 1</filename> is used instead (i.e. <filename>/proc/1/cmdline</filename>).</para>
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1430
1431 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1432 </listitem>
1433 </varlistentry>
1434
1435 <varlistentry>
1436 <term><varname>ConditionKernelVersion=</varname></term>
1437
1438 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionKernelVersion=</varname> may be used to check whether the kernel
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1439 version (as reported by <command>uname -r</command>) matches a certain expression, or if prefixed
1440 with the exclamation mark, does not match. The argument must be a list of (potentially quoted)
1441 expressions. Each expression starts with one of <literal>=</literal> or <literal>!=</literal> for
06219747 1442 string comparisons, <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>==</literal>,
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1443 <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;</literal> for version
1444 comparisons, or <literal>$=</literal>, <literal>!$=</literal> for a shell-style glob match. If no
1445 operator is specified, <literal>$=</literal> is implied.</para>
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1446
1447 <para>Note that using the kernel version string is an unreliable way to determine which features
1448 are supported by a kernel, because of the widespread practice of backporting drivers, features, and
1449 fixes from newer upstream kernels into older versions provided by distributions. Hence, this check
1450 is inherently unportable and should not be used for units which may be used on different
1451 distributions.</para>
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1452
1453 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1454 </listitem>
1455 </varlistentry>
1456
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1457 <varlistentry>
1458 <term><varname>ConditionCredential=</varname></term>
1459
1460 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionCredential=</varname> may be used to check whether a credential
1461 by the specified name was passed into the service manager. See <ulink
1462 url="https://systemd.io/CREDENTIALS">System and Service Credentials</ulink> for details about
1463 credentials. If used in services for the system service manager this may be used to conditionalize
1464 services based on system credentials passed in. If used in services for the per-user service
1465 manager this may be used to conditionalize services based on credentials passed into the
1466 <filename>unit@.service</filename> service instance belonging to the user. The argument must be a
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1467 valid credential name.</para>
1468
1469 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v252"/></listitem>
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1470 </varlistentry>
1471
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1472 <varlistentry>
1473 <term><varname>ConditionEnvironment=</varname></term>
1474
1475 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionEnvironment=</varname> may be used to check whether a specific
1476 environment variable is set (or if prefixed with the exclamation mark — unset) in the service
1477 manager's environment block.
1478
1479 The argument may be a single word, to check if the variable with this name is defined in the
1480 environment block, or an assignment
1481 (<literal><replaceable>name</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>), to check if
1482 the variable with this exact value is defined. Note that the environment block of the service
1483 manager itself is checked, i.e. not any variables defined with <varname>Environment=</varname> or
1484 <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>, as described above. This is particularly useful when the
1485 service manager runs inside a containerized environment or as per-user service manager, in order to
1486 check for variables passed in by the enclosing container manager or PAM.</para>
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1487
1488 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v246"/>
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1489 </listitem>
1490 </varlistentry>
1491
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1492 <varlistentry>
1493 <term><varname>ConditionSecurity=</varname></term>
1494
1495 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionSecurity=</varname> may be used to check whether the given
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1496 security technology is enabled on the system. Currently, the following values are recognized:</para>
1497
1498 <table>
1499 <title>Recognized security technologies</title>
1500
1501 <tgroup cols='2'>
1502 <colspec colname='value'/>
1503 <colspec colname='description'/>
1504
1505 <thead>
1506 <row>
1507 <entry>Value</entry>
1508 <entry>Description</entry>
1509 </row>
1510 </thead>
1511 <tbody>
1512 <row>
1513 <entry>selinux</entry>
1514 <entry>SELinux MAC</entry>
1515 </row>
1516 <row>
1517 <entry>apparmor</entry>
1518 <entry>AppArmor MAC</entry>
1519 </row>
1520 <row>
1521 <entry>tomoyo</entry>
1522 <entry>Tomoyo MAC</entry>
1523 </row>
1524 <row>
1525 <entry>smack</entry>
1526 <entry>SMACK MAC</entry>
1527 </row>
1528 <row>
1529 <entry>ima</entry>
1530 <entry>Integrity Measurement Architecture (IMA)</entry>
1531 </row>
1532 <row>
1533 <entry>audit</entry>
1534 <entry>Linux Audit Framework</entry>
1535 </row>
1536 <row>
1537 <entry>uefi-secureboot</entry>
1538 <entry>UEFI SecureBoot</entry>
1539 </row>
1540 <row>
1541 <entry>tpm2</entry>
1542 <entry>Trusted Platform Module 2.0 (TPM2)</entry>
1543 </row>
1544 <row>
1545 <entry>cvm</entry>
1546 <entry>Confidential virtual machine (SEV/TDX)</entry>
1547 </row>
1548 <row>
1549 <entry>measured-uki</entry>
1550 <entry>Unified Kernel Image with PCR 11 Measurements, as per <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-stub</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>. <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v255"/></entry>
1551 </row>
1552 </tbody>
1553 </tgroup>
1554 </table>
1555
1556 <para>The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark.</para>
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1557
1558 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1559 </listitem>
1560 </varlistentry>
1561
1562 <varlistentry>
1563 <term><varname>ConditionCapability=</varname></term>
1564
1565 <listitem><para>Check whether the given capability exists in the capability bounding set of the
1566 service manager (i.e. this does not check whether capability is actually available in the permitted
1567 or effective sets, see
1568 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1569 for details). Pass a capability name such as <literal>CAP_MKNOD</literal>, possibly prefixed with
1570 an exclamation mark to negate the check.</para>
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1571
1572 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1573 </listitem>
1574 </varlistentry>
1575
1576 <varlistentry>
1577 <term><varname>ConditionACPower=</varname></term>
1578
1579 <listitem><para>Check whether the system has AC power, or is exclusively battery powered at the
1580 time of activation of the unit. This takes a boolean argument. If set to <literal>true</literal>,
1581 the condition will hold only if at least one AC connector of the system is connected to a power
1582 source, or if no AC connectors are known. Conversely, if set to <literal>false</literal>, the
1583 condition will hold only if there is at least one AC connector known and all AC connectors are
1584 disconnected from a power source.</para>
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1585
1586 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1587 </listitem>
1588 </varlistentry>
1589
1590 <varlistentry>
1591 <term><varname>ConditionNeedsUpdate=</varname></term>
1592
3b121157 1593 <listitem><para>Takes one of <filename>/var/</filename> or <filename>/etc/</filename> as argument,
bf1abf1a 1594 possibly prefixed with a <literal>!</literal> (to invert the condition). This condition may be
337b7334 1595 used to conditionalize units on whether the specified directory requires an update because
3b121157 1596 <filename>/usr/</filename>'s modification time is newer than the stamp file
337b7334 1597 <filename>.updated</filename> in the specified directory. This is useful to implement offline
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1598 updates of the vendor operating system resources in <filename>/usr/</filename> that require updating
1599 of <filename>/etc/</filename> or <filename>/var/</filename> on the next following boot. Units making
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1600 use of this condition should order themselves before
1601 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-update-done.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1602 to make sure they run before the stamp file's modification time gets reset indicating a completed
1603 update.</para>
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1604
1605 <para>If the <varname>systemd.condition-needs-update=</varname> option is specified on the kernel
1606 command line (taking a boolean), it will override the result of this condition check, taking
f75420a4 1607 precedence over any file modification time checks. If the kernel command line option is used,
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1608 <filename>systemd-update-done.service</filename> will not have immediate effect on any following
1609 <varname>ConditionNeedsUpdate=</varname> checks, until the system is rebooted where the kernel
1610 command line option is not specified anymore.</para>
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1611
1612 <para>Note that to make this scheme effective, the timestamp of <filename>/usr/</filename> should
1613 be explicitly updated after its contents are modified. The kernel will automatically update
1614 modification timestamp on a directory only when immediate children of a directory are modified; an
1615 modification of nested files will not automatically result in mtime of <filename>/usr/</filename>
1616 being updated.</para>
1617
1618 <para>Also note that if the update method includes a call to execute appropriate post-update steps
1619 itself, it should not touch the timestamp of <filename>/usr/</filename>. In a typical distribution
1620 packaging scheme, packages will do any required update steps as part of the installation or
1621 upgrade, to make package contents immediately usable. <varname>ConditionNeedsUpdate=</varname>
1622 should be used with other update mechanisms where such an immediate update does not
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1623 happen.</para>
1624
1625 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/></listitem>
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1626 </varlistentry>
1627
1628 <varlistentry>
1629 <term><varname>ConditionFirstBoot=</varname></term>
1630
1631 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. This condition may be used to conditionalize units on
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1632 whether the system is booting up for the first time. This roughly means that <filename>/etc/</filename>
1633 was unpopulated when the system started booting (for details, see "First Boot Semantics" in
a48627ef 1634 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
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1635 First boot is considered finished (this condition will evaluate as false) after the manager
1636 has finished the startup phase.</para>
1637
1638 <para>This condition may be used to populate <filename>/etc/</filename> on the first boot after
1639 factory reset, or when a new system instance boots up for the first time.</para>
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1640
1641 <para>For robustness, units with <varname>ConditionFirstBoot=yes</varname> should order themselves
1642 before <filename>first-boot-complete.target</filename> and pull in this passive target with
7cd43e34 1643 <varname>Wants=</varname>. This ensures that in a case of an aborted first boot, these units will
a48627ef 1644 be re-run during the next system startup.</para>
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1645
1646 <para>If the <varname>systemd.condition-first-boot=</varname> option is specified on the kernel
1647 command line (taking a boolean), it will override the result of this condition check, taking
1648 precedence over <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename> existence checks.</para>
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1649
1650 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1651 </listitem>
1652 </varlistentry>
1653
1654 <varlistentry>
1655 <term><varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname></term>
1656
d0fd1149 1657 <listitem><para>Check for the existence of a file. If the specified absolute path name does not exist,
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1658 the condition will fail. If the absolute path name passed to
1659 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> is prefixed with an exclamation mark
1660 (<literal>!</literal>), the test is negated, and the unit is only started if the path does not
1661 exist.</para>
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1662
1663 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1664 </listitem>
1665 </varlistentry>
1666
1667 <varlistentry>
1668 <term><varname>ConditionPathExistsGlob=</varname></term>
1669
1670 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathExistsGlob=</varname> is similar to
1671 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname>, but checks for the existence of at least one file or
1672 directory matching the specified globbing pattern.</para>
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1673
1674 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1675 </listitem>
1676 </varlistentry>
1677
1678 <varlistentry>
1679 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsDirectory=</varname></term>
1680
1681 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsDirectory=</varname> is similar to
1682 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a
1683 directory.</para>
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1684
1685 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1686 </listitem>
1687 </varlistentry>
1688
1689 <varlistentry>
1690 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname></term>
1691
1692 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname> is similar to
1693 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a symbolic
1694 link.</para>
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1695
1696 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1697 </listitem>
1698 </varlistentry>
1699
1700 <varlistentry>
1701 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsMountPoint=</varname></term>
1702
1703 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsMountPoint=</varname> is similar to
1704 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a mount
1705 point.</para>
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1706
1707 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1708 </listitem>
1709 </varlistentry>
1710
1711 <varlistentry>
1712 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsReadWrite=</varname></term>
1713
1714 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsReadWrite=</varname> is similar to
1715 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that the underlying file system is readable
1716 and writable (i.e. not mounted read-only).</para>
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1717
1718 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1719 </listitem>
1720 </varlistentry>
1721
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1722 <varlistentry>
1723 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsEncrypted=</varname></term>
1724
1725 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsEncrypted=</varname> is similar to
1726 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that the underlying file system's backing
1727 block device is encrypted using dm-crypt/LUKS. Note that this check does not cover ext4
1728 per-directory encryption, and only detects block level encryption. Moreover, if the specified path
1729 resides on a file system on top of a loopback block device, only encryption above the loopback device is
1730 detected. It is not detected whether the file system backing the loopback block device is encrypted.</para>
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1731
1732 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v246"/>
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1733 </listitem>
1734 </varlistentry>
1735
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1736 <varlistentry>
1737 <term><varname>ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname></term>
1738
1739 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname> is similar to
1740 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a non-empty
1741 directory.</para>
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1742
1743 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1744 </listitem>
1745 </varlistentry>
1746
1747 <varlistentry>
1748 <term><varname>ConditionFileNotEmpty=</varname></term>
1749
1750 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionFileNotEmpty=</varname> is similar to
1751 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and refers to a
1752 regular file with a non-zero size.</para>
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1753
1754 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1755 </listitem>
1756 </varlistentry>
1757
1758 <varlistentry>
1759 <term><varname>ConditionFileIsExecutable=</varname></term>
1760
1761 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionFileIsExecutable=</varname> is similar to
1762 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists, is a regular file,
1763 and marked executable.</para>
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1764
1765 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1766 </listitem>
1767 </varlistentry>
1768
1769 <varlistentry>
1770 <term><varname>ConditionUser=</varname></term>
1771
1772 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionUser=</varname> takes a numeric <literal>UID</literal>, a UNIX
1773 user name, or the special value <literal>@system</literal>. This condition may be used to check
1774 whether the service manager is running as the given user. The special value
1775 <literal>@system</literal> can be used to check if the user id is within the system user
1776 range. This option is not useful for system services, as the system manager exclusively runs as the
1777 root user, and thus the test result is constant.</para>
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1778
1779 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1780 </listitem>
1781 </varlistentry>
1782
1783 <varlistentry>
1784 <term><varname>ConditionGroup=</varname></term>
1785
1786 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionGroup=</varname> is similar to <varname>ConditionUser=</varname>
1787 but verifies that the service manager's real or effective group, or any of its auxiliary groups,
1788 match the specified group or GID. This setting does not support the special value
1789 <literal>@system</literal>.</para>
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1790
1791 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1792 </listitem>
1793 </varlistentry>
1794
1795 <varlistentry>
1796 <term><varname>ConditionControlGroupController=</varname></term>
1797
be0d27ee 1798 <listitem><para>Check whether given cgroup controllers (e.g. <literal>cpu</literal>) are available
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1799 for use on the system or whether the legacy v1 cgroup or the modern v2 cgroup hierarchy is used.
1800 </para>
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1801
1802 <para>Multiple controllers may be passed with a space separating them; in this case the condition
1803 will only pass if all listed controllers are available for use. Controllers unknown to systemd are
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1804 ignored. Valid controllers are <literal>cpu</literal>, <literal>io</literal>,
1805 <literal>memory</literal>, and <literal>pids</literal>. Even if available in the kernel, a
1806 particular controller may not be available if it was disabled on the kernel command line with
1807 <varname>cgroup_disable=controller</varname>.</para>
1808
1809 <para>Alternatively, two special strings <literal>v1</literal> and <literal>v2</literal> may be
1810 specified (without any controller names). <literal>v2</literal> will pass if the unified v2 cgroup
1811 hierarchy is used, and <literal>v1</literal> will pass if the legacy v1 hierarchy or the hybrid
1812 hierarchy are used. Note that legacy or hybrid hierarchies have been deprecated. See
1813 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
1814 more information.</para>
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1815
1816 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
c32f496b 1817 </listitem>
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1818 </varlistentry>
1819
1820 <varlistentry>
1821 <term><varname>ConditionMemory=</varname></term>
1822
1823 <listitem><para>Verify that the specified amount of system memory is available to the current
1824 system. Takes a memory size in bytes as argument, optionally prefixed with a comparison operator
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1825 <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>=</literal> (or <literal>==</literal>),
1826 <literal>!=</literal> (or <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>), <literal>&gt;=</literal>,
1827 <literal>&gt;</literal>. On bare-metal systems compares the amount of physical memory in the system
1828 with the specified size, adhering to the specified comparison operator. In containers compares the
1829 amount of memory assigned to the container instead.</para>
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1830
1831 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
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1832 </listitem>
1833 </varlistentry>
1834
1835 <varlistentry>
1836 <term><varname>ConditionCPUs=</varname></term>
1837
1838 <listitem><para>Verify that the specified number of CPUs is available to the current system. Takes
1839 a number of CPUs as argument, optionally prefixed with a comparison operator
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1840 <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>=</literal> (or <literal>==</literal>),
1841 <literal>!=</literal> (or <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>), <literal>&gt;=</literal>,
1842 <literal>&gt;</literal>. Compares the number of CPUs in the CPU affinity mask configured of the
1843 service manager itself with the specified number, adhering to the specified comparison operator. On
1844 physical systems the number of CPUs in the affinity mask of the service manager usually matches the
1845 number of physical CPUs, but in special and virtual environments might differ. In particular, in
1846 containers the affinity mask usually matches the number of CPUs assigned to the container and not
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1847 the physically available ones.</para>
1848
1849 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/></listitem>
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1850 </varlistentry>
1851
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1852 <varlistentry>
1853 <term><varname>ConditionCPUFeature=</varname></term>
1854
1855 <listitem><para>Verify that a given CPU feature is available via the <literal>CPUID</literal>
1856 instruction. This condition only does something on i386 and x86-64 processors. On other
1857 processors it is assumed that the CPU does not support the given feature. It checks the leaves
1858 <literal>1</literal>, <literal>7</literal>, <literal>0x80000001</literal>, and
1859 <literal>0x80000007</literal>. Valid values are:
1860 <literal>fpu</literal>,
1861 <literal>vme</literal>,
1862 <literal>de</literal>,
1863 <literal>pse</literal>,
1864 <literal>tsc</literal>,
1865 <literal>msr</literal>,
1866 <literal>pae</literal>,
1867 <literal>mce</literal>,
1868 <literal>cx8</literal>,
1869 <literal>apic</literal>,
1870 <literal>sep</literal>,
1871 <literal>mtrr</literal>,
1872 <literal>pge</literal>,
1873 <literal>mca</literal>,
1874 <literal>cmov</literal>,
1875 <literal>pat</literal>,
1876 <literal>pse36</literal>,
1877 <literal>clflush</literal>,
1878 <literal>mmx</literal>,
1879 <literal>fxsr</literal>,
1880 <literal>sse</literal>,
1881 <literal>sse2</literal>,
1882 <literal>ht</literal>,
1883 <literal>pni</literal>,
1884 <literal>pclmul</literal>,
1885 <literal>monitor</literal>,
1886 <literal>ssse3</literal>,
1887 <literal>fma3</literal>,
1888 <literal>cx16</literal>,
1889 <literal>sse4_1</literal>,
1890 <literal>sse4_2</literal>,
1891 <literal>movbe</literal>,
1892 <literal>popcnt</literal>,
1893 <literal>aes</literal>,
1894 <literal>xsave</literal>,
1895 <literal>osxsave</literal>,
1896 <literal>avx</literal>,
1897 <literal>f16c</literal>,
1898 <literal>rdrand</literal>,
1899 <literal>bmi1</literal>,
1900 <literal>avx2</literal>,
1901 <literal>bmi2</literal>,
1902 <literal>rdseed</literal>,
1903 <literal>adx</literal>,
1904 <literal>sha_ni</literal>,
1905 <literal>syscall</literal>,
1906 <literal>rdtscp</literal>,
1907 <literal>lm</literal>,
1908 <literal>lahf_lm</literal>,
1909 <literal>abm</literal>,
1910 <literal>constant_tsc</literal>.</para>
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1911
1912 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v248"/>
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1913 </listitem>
1914 </varlistentry>
1915
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1916 <varlistentry>
1917 <term><varname>ConditionOSRelease=</varname></term>
1918
1919 <listitem><para>Verify that a specific <literal>key=value</literal> pair is set in the host's
1920 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>os-release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
1921
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1922 <para>Other than exact string matching (with <literal>=</literal> and <literal>!=</literal>),
1923 relative comparisons are supported for versioned parameters (e.g. <literal>VERSION_ID</literal>;
1924 with <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>==</literal>,
1925 <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;</literal>), and shell-style
1926 wildcard comparisons (<literal>*</literal>, <literal>?</literal>, <literal>[]</literal>) are
71a3ff03 1927 supported with the <literal>$=</literal> (match) and <literal>!$=</literal> (non-match).</para>
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1928
1929 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/>
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1930 </listitem>
1931 </varlistentry>
1932
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1933 <varlistentry>
1934 <term><varname>ConditionMemoryPressure=</varname></term>
1935 <term><varname>ConditionCPUPressure=</varname></term>
1936 <term><varname>ConditionIOPressure=</varname></term>
1937
1938 <listitem><para>Verify that the overall system (memory, CPU or IO) pressure is below or equal to a threshold.
1939 This setting takes a threshold value as argument. It can be specified as a simple percentage value,
1940 suffixed with <literal>%</literal>, in which case the pressure will be measured as an average over the last
1941 five minutes before the attempt to start the unit is performed.
1942 Alternatively, the average timespan can also be specified using <literal>/</literal> as a separator, for
1943 example: <literal>10%/1min</literal>. The supported timespans match what the kernel provides, and are
1944 limited to <literal>10sec</literal>, <literal>1min</literal> and <literal>5min</literal>. The
1945 <literal>full</literal> PSI will be checked first, and if not found <literal>some</literal> will be
1946 checked. For more details, see the documentation on <ulink
0e685823 1947 url="https://docs.kernel.org/accounting/psi.html">PSI (Pressure Stall Information)
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1948 </ulink>.</para>
1949
1950 <para>Optionally, the threshold value can be prefixed with the slice unit under which the pressure will be checked,
1951 followed by a <literal>:</literal>. If the slice unit is not specified, the overall system pressure will be measured,
1952 instead of a particular cgroup's.</para>
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1953
1954 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v250"/>
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1955 </listitem>
1956 </varlistentry>
1957
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1958 <varlistentry>
1959 <term><varname>AssertArchitecture=</varname></term>
1960 <term><varname>AssertVirtualization=</varname></term>
1961 <term><varname>AssertHost=</varname></term>
1962 <term><varname>AssertKernelCommandLine=</varname></term>
1963 <term><varname>AssertKernelVersion=</varname></term>
1d87f03a 1964 <term><varname>AssertCredential=</varname></term>
7d27d39a 1965 <term><varname>AssertEnvironment=</varname></term>
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1966 <term><varname>AssertSecurity=</varname></term>
1967 <term><varname>AssertCapability=</varname></term>
1968 <term><varname>AssertACPower=</varname></term>
1969 <term><varname>AssertNeedsUpdate=</varname></term>
1970 <term><varname>AssertFirstBoot=</varname></term>
1971 <term><varname>AssertPathExists=</varname></term>
1972 <term><varname>AssertPathExistsGlob=</varname></term>
1973 <term><varname>AssertPathIsDirectory=</varname></term>
1974 <term><varname>AssertPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname></term>
1975 <term><varname>AssertPathIsMountPoint=</varname></term>
1976 <term><varname>AssertPathIsReadWrite=</varname></term>
7d27d39a 1977 <term><varname>AssertPathIsEncrypted=</varname></term>
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1978 <term><varname>AssertDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname></term>
1979 <term><varname>AssertFileNotEmpty=</varname></term>
1980 <term><varname>AssertFileIsExecutable=</varname></term>
1981 <term><varname>AssertUser=</varname></term>
1982 <term><varname>AssertGroup=</varname></term>
1983 <term><varname>AssertControlGroupController=</varname></term>
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SR
1984 <term><varname>AssertMemory=</varname></term>
1985 <term><varname>AssertCPUs=</varname></term>
39a74288 1986 <term><varname>AssertCPUFeature=</varname></term>
1e26f8a6 1987 <term><varname>AssertOSRelease=</varname></term>
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1988 <term><varname>AssertMemoryPressure=</varname></term>
1989 <term><varname>AssertCPUPressure=</varname></term>
1990 <term><varname>AssertIOPressure=</varname></term>
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1991
1992 <listitem><para>Similar to the <varname>ConditionArchitecture=</varname>,
1993 <varname>ConditionVirtualization=</varname>, …, condition settings described above, these settings
1994 add assertion checks to the start-up of the unit. However, unlike the conditions settings, any
1995 assertion setting that is not met results in failure of the start job (which means this is logged
1996 loudly). Note that hitting a configured assertion does not cause the unit to enter the
1997 <literal>failed</literal> state (or in fact result in any state change of the unit), it affects
1998 only the job queued for it. Use assertion expressions for units that cannot operate when specific
1999 requirements are not met, and when this is something the administrator or user should look
2000 into.</para>
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2001
2002 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v218"/>
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2003 </listitem>
2004 </varlistentry>
2005 </variablelist>
2006 </refsect2>
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2007 </refsect1>
2008
2009 <refsect1>
2010 <title>Mapping of unit properties to their inverses</title>
2011
2012 <para>Unit settings that create a relationship with a second unit usually show up
2013 in properties of both units, for example in <command>systemctl show</command>
2014 output. In some cases the name of the property is the same as the name of the
2116134b 2015 configuration setting, but not always. This table lists the properties
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2016 that are shown on two units which are connected through some dependency, and shows
2017 which property on "source" unit corresponds to which property on the "target" unit.
2018 </para>
2019
2020 <table>
2021 <title>
2022 "Forward" and "reverse" unit properties
2023 </title>
2024
2eca7635 2025 <tgroup cols='4'>
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2026 <colspec colname='forward' />
2027 <colspec colname='reverse' />
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2028 <colspec colname='fuse' />
2029 <colspec colname='ruse' />
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2030 <thead>
2031 <row>
2032 <entry>"Forward" property</entry>
2033 <entry>"Reverse" property</entry>
2eca7635 2034 <entry namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>Where used</entry>
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2035 </row>
2036 </thead>
2037 <tbody>
2038 <row>
2039 <entry><varname>Before=</varname></entry>
2040 <entry><varname>After=</varname></entry>
2eca7635 2041 <entry morerows='1' namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>[Unit] section</entry>
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2042 </row>
2043 <row>
2044 <entry><varname>After=</varname></entry>
2045 <entry><varname>Before=</varname></entry>
2046 </row>
2047 <row>
2048 <entry><varname>Requires=</varname></entry>
2049 <entry><varname>RequiredBy=</varname></entry>
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2050 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2051 <entry>[Install] section</entry>
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2052 </row>
2053 <row>
2054 <entry><varname>Wants=</varname></entry>
2055 <entry><varname>WantedBy=</varname></entry>
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2056 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2057 <entry>[Install] section</entry>
2bf92506 2058 </row>
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2059 <row>
2060 <entry><varname>Upholds=</varname></entry>
2061 <entry><varname>UpheldBy=</varname></entry>
2062 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2063 <entry>[Install] section</entry>
2064 </row>
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2065 <row>
2066 <entry><varname>PartOf=</varname></entry>
2067 <entry><varname>ConsistsOf=</varname></entry>
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2068 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2069 <entry>an automatic property</entry>
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2070 </row>
2071 <row>
2072 <entry><varname>BindsTo=</varname></entry>
2073 <entry><varname>BoundBy=</varname></entry>
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2074 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2075 <entry>an automatic property</entry>
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2076 </row>
2077 <row>
2078 <entry><varname>Requisite=</varname></entry>
2079 <entry><varname>RequisiteOf=</varname></entry>
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2080 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2081 <entry>an automatic property</entry>
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2082 </row>
2083 <row>
2084 <entry><varname>Triggers=</varname></entry>
2085 <entry><varname>TriggeredBy=</varname></entry>
2eca7635 2086 <entry namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>Automatic properties, see notes below</entry>
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2087 </row>
2088 <row>
2089 <entry><varname>Conflicts=</varname></entry>
2090 <entry><varname>ConflictedBy=</varname></entry>
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2091 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2092 <entry>an automatic property</entry>
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2093 </row>
2094 <row>
2095 <entry><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></entry>
2096 <entry><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></entry>
2eca7635 2097 <entry morerows='1' namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>[Unit] section</entry>
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2098 </row>
2099 <row>
2100 <entry><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></entry>
2101 <entry><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></entry>
2102 </row>
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2103 <row>
2104 <entry><varname>Following=</varname></entry>
2105 <entry>n/a</entry>
2106 <entry>An automatic property</entry>
2107 </row>
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2108 </tbody>
2109 </tgroup>
2110 </table>
798d3a52 2111
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2112 <para>Note: <varname>WantedBy=</varname>, <varname>RequiredBy=</varname>, and <varname>UpheldBy=</varname>
2113 are used in the [Install] section to create symlinks in <filename>.wants/</filename>,
2114 <filename>.requires/</filename>, and <filename>.upholds/</filename> directories. They cannot be used
2115 directly as a unit configuration setting.</para>
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2116
2117 <para>Note: <varname>ConsistsOf=</varname>, <varname>BoundBy=</varname>,
2118 <varname>RequisiteOf=</varname>, <varname>ConflictedBy=</varname> are created
95522092 2119 implicitly along with their reverses and cannot be specified directly.</para>
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2120
2121 <para>Note: <varname>Triggers=</varname> is created implicitly between a socket,
2122 path unit, or an automount unit, and the unit they activate. By default a unit
1b2ad5d9 2123 with the same name is triggered, but this can be overridden using
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2124 <varname>Sockets=</varname>, <varname>Service=</varname>, and <varname>Unit=</varname>
2125 settings. See
2126 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2127 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2128 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2129 and
2130 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
95522092 2131 for details. <varname>TriggeredBy=</varname> is created implicitly on the
2bf92506 2132 triggered unit.</para>
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2133
2134 <para>Note: <varname>Following=</varname> is used to group device aliases and points to the
2135 "primary" device unit that systemd is using to track device state, usually corresponding to a
2136 sysfs path. It does not show up in the "target" unit.</para>
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2137 </refsect1>
2138
2139 <refsect1>
2140 <title>[Install] Section Options</title>
2141
bdac5608 2142 <para>Unit files may include an [Install] section, which carries installation information for
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2143 the unit. This section is not interpreted by
2144 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> during runtime; it is
2145 used by the <command>enable</command> and <command>disable</command> commands of the
2146 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> tool during
caa45f5b 2147 installation of a unit.</para>
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2148
2149 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
2150 <varlistentry>
2151 <term><varname>Alias=</varname></term>
2152
f4bf8d2f 2153 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of additional names this unit shall be installed under. The names listed
1245e413 2154 here must have the same suffix (i.e. type) as the unit filename. This option may be specified more than once,
f4bf8d2f
LP
2155 in which case all listed names are used. At installation time, <command>systemctl enable</command> will create
2156 symlinks from these names to the unit filename. Note that not all unit types support such alias names, and this
2157 setting is not supported for them. Specifically, mount, slice, swap, and automount units do not support
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2158 aliasing.</para>
2159
2160 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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2161 </varlistentry>
2162
2163 <varlistentry>
2164 <term><varname>WantedBy=</varname></term>
2165 <term><varname>RequiredBy=</varname></term>
38f90179 2166 <term><varname>UpheldBy=</varname></term>
798d3a52 2167
17a2679e 2168 <listitem><para>This option may be used more than once, or a space-separated list of unit names may
38f90179
MY
2169 be given. A symbolic link is created in the <filename>.wants/</filename>, <filename>.requires/</filename>,
2170 or <filename>.upholds/</filename> directory of each of the listed units when this unit is installed
2171 by <command>systemctl enable</command>. This has the effect of a dependency of type
2172 <varname>Wants=</varname>, <varname>Requires=</varname>, or <varname>Upholds=</varname> being added
2173 from the listed unit to the current unit. See the description of the mentioned dependency types
2174 in the [Unit] section for details.</para>
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2175
2176 <para>In case of template units listing non template units, the listing unit must have
2177 <varname>DefaultInstance=</varname> set, or <command>systemctl enable</command> must be called with
2178 an instance name. The instance (default or specified) will be added to the
38f90179
MY
2179 <filename>.wants/</filename>, <filename>.requires/</filename>, or <filename>.upholds/</filename>
2180 list of the listed unit. For example, <command>WantedBy=getty.target</command> in a service
2181 <filename>getty@.service</filename> will result in <command>systemctl enable getty@tty2.service</command>
2182 creating a <filename>getty.target.wants/getty@tty2.service</filename> link to
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2183 <filename>getty@.service</filename>. This also applies to listing specific instances of templated
2184 units: this specific instance will gain the dependency. A template unit may also list a template
2185 unit, in which case a generic dependency will be added where each instance of the listing unit will
2186 have a dependency on an instance of the listed template with the same instance value. For example,
2187 <command>WantedBy=container@.target</command> in a service <filename>monitor@.service</filename> will
2188 result in <command>systemctl enable monitor@.service</command> creating a
2189 <filename>container@.target.wants/monitor@.service</filename> link to
2190 <filename>monitor@.service</filename>, which applies to all instances of
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2191 <filename>container@.target</filename>.</para>
2192
2193 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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2194 </varlistentry>
2195
2196 <varlistentry>
2197 <term><varname>Also=</varname></term>
2198
2199 <listitem><para>Additional units to install/deinstall when
2200 this unit is installed/deinstalled. If the user requests
2201 installation/deinstallation of a unit with this option
2202 configured, <command>systemctl enable</command> and
2203 <command>systemctl disable</command> will automatically
2204 install/uninstall units listed in this option as well.</para>
2205
2206 <para>This option may be used more than once, or a
2207 space-separated list of unit names may be
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2208 given.</para>
2209
2210 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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2211 </varlistentry>
2212
2213 <varlistentry>
2214 <term><varname>DefaultInstance=</varname></term>
2215
2216 <listitem><para>In template unit files, this specifies for
2217 which instance the unit shall be enabled if the template is
2218 enabled without any explicitly set instance. This option has
2219 no effect in non-template unit files. The specified string
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AK
2220 must be usable as instance identifier.</para>
2221
2222 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v215"/></listitem>
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2223 </varlistentry>
2224 </variablelist>
2225
46a3adee
YW
2226 <para>The following specifiers are interpreted in the Install section:
2227 %a, %b, %B, %g, %G, %H, %i, %j, %l, %m, %n, %N, %o, %p, %u, %U, %v, %w, %W, %%.
2228 For their meaning see the next section.</para>
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2229 </refsect1>
2230
2231 <refsect1>
2232 <title>Specifiers</title>
2233
2234 <para>Many settings resolve specifiers which may be used to write
2235 generic unit files referring to runtime or unit parameters that
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2236 are replaced when the unit files are loaded. Specifiers must be known
2237 and resolvable for the setting to be valid. The following
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2238 specifiers are understood:</para>
2239
0d525a3e 2240 <table class='specifiers'>
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2241 <title>Specifiers available in unit files</title>
2242 <tgroup cols='3' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
2243 <colspec colname="spec" />
2244 <colspec colname="mean" />
2245 <colspec colname="detail" />
2246 <thead>
2247 <row>
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2248 <entry>Specifier</entry>
2249 <entry>Meaning</entry>
2250 <entry>Details</entry>
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2251 </row>
2252 </thead>
2253 <tbody>
503298b7 2254 <row>
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2255 <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since it includes a
2256 reference onto our own man page, which would make the rendered version self-referential. -->
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2257 <entry><literal>%a</literal></entry>
2258 <entry>Architecture</entry>
2259 <entry>A short string identifying the architecture of the local system. A string such as <constant>x86</constant>, <constant>x86-64</constant> or <constant>arm64</constant>. See the architectures defined for <varname>ConditionArchitecture=</varname> above for a full list.</entry>
2260 </row>
9a515f0a 2261 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="A"/>
c83347b4 2262 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="b"/>
503298b7 2263 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="B"/>
798d3a52 2264 <row>
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2265 <entry><literal>%C</literal></entry>
2266 <entry>Cache directory root</entry>
2267 <entry>This is either <filename>/var/cache</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_CACHE_HOME</literal> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
798d3a52 2268 </row>
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2269 <row>
2270 <entry><literal>%d</literal></entry>
2271 <entry>Credentials directory</entry>
2272 <entry>This is the value of the <literal>$CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY</literal> environment variable if available. See section "Credentials" in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for more information.</entry>
2273 </row>
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2274 <row>
2275 <entry><literal>%E</literal></entry>
2276 <entry>Configuration directory root</entry>
3b121157 2277 <entry>This is either <filename>/etc/</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</literal> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
969309c2 2278 </row>
798d3a52 2279 <row>
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2280 <entry><literal>%f</literal></entry>
2281 <entry>Unescaped filename</entry>
2282 <entry>This is either the unescaped instance name (if applicable) with <filename>/</filename> prepended (if applicable), or the unescaped prefix name prepended with <filename>/</filename>. This implements unescaping according to the rules for escaping absolute file system paths discussed above.</entry>
798d3a52 2283 </row>
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2284 <row>
2285 <entry><literal>%g</literal></entry>
2286 <entry>User group</entry>
2287 <entry>This is the name of the group running the service manager instance. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>root</literal>.</entry>
2288 </row>
2289 <row>
2290 <entry><literal>%G</literal></entry>
2291 <entry>User GID</entry>
2292 <entry>This is the numeric GID of the user running the service manager instance. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>0</literal>.</entry>
2293 </row>
798d3a52 2294 <row>
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2295 <entry><literal>%h</literal></entry>
2296 <entry>User home directory</entry>
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2297 <entry>This is the home directory of the <emphasis>user running the service manager instance</emphasis>. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>/root</literal>.
2298
2299Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
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2300 </row>
2301 <row>
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ZJS
2302 <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since we want a
2303 slightly more verbose explanation here, referring to the reload cycle. -->
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2304 <entry><literal>%H</literal></entry>
2305 <entry>Host name</entry>
2306 <entry>The hostname of the running system at the point in time the unit configuration is loaded.</entry>
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2307 </row>
2308 <row>
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2309 <entry><literal>%i</literal></entry>
2310 <entry>Instance name</entry>
e1a7f622 2311 <entry>For instantiated units this is the string between the first <literal>@</literal> character and the type suffix. Empty for non-instantiated units.</entry>
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2312 </row>
2313 <row>
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2314 <entry><literal>%I</literal></entry>
2315 <entry>Unescaped instance name</entry>
e1a7f622 2316 <entry>Same as <literal>%i</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
798d3a52 2317 </row>
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ZJS
2318 <row>
2319 <entry><literal>%j</literal></entry>
2320 <entry>Final component of the prefix</entry>
2321 <entry>This is the string between the last <literal>-</literal> and the end of the prefix name. If there is no <literal>-</literal>, this is the same as <literal>%p</literal>.</entry>
2322 </row>
2323 <row>
2324 <entry><literal>%J</literal></entry>
2325 <entry>Unescaped final component of the prefix</entry>
2326 <entry>Same as <literal>%j</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
2327 </row>
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YW
2328 <row>
2329 <entry><literal>%l</literal></entry>
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FS
2330 <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since we want a
2331 slightly more verbose explanation here, referring to the reload cycle. -->
55318801
YW
2332 <entry>Short host name</entry>
2333 <entry>The hostname of the running system at the point in time the unit configuration is loaded, truncated at the first dot to remove any domain component.</entry>
2334 </row>
798d3a52 2335 <row>
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2336 <entry><literal>%L</literal></entry>
2337 <entry>Log directory root</entry>
f9c91932 2338 <entry>This is either <filename>/var/log</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <varname>$XDG_STATE_HOME</varname> resolves to with <filename index="false">/log</filename> appended (for user managers).</entry>
14068e17 2339 </row>
c83347b4 2340 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="m"/>
9a515f0a 2341 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="M"/>
14068e17 2342 <row>
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2343 <entry><literal>%n</literal></entry>
2344 <entry>Full unit name</entry>
2345 <entry></entry>
14068e17
LP
2346 </row>
2347 <row>
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2348 <entry><literal>%N</literal></entry>
2349 <entry>Full unit name</entry>
2350 <entry>Same as <literal>%n</literal>, but with the type suffix removed.</entry>
798d3a52 2351 </row>
55318801 2352 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="o"/>
798d3a52 2353 <row>
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2354 <entry><literal>%p</literal></entry>
2355 <entry>Prefix name</entry>
2356 <entry>For instantiated units, this refers to the string before the first <literal>@</literal> character of the unit name. For non-instantiated units, same as <literal>%N</literal>.</entry>
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2357 </row>
2358 <row>
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2359 <entry><literal>%P</literal></entry>
2360 <entry>Unescaped prefix name</entry>
2361 <entry>Same as <literal>%p</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
798d3a52 2362 </row>
6ceb0a40
FS
2363 <row>
2364 <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since we want a
2365 slightly more verbose explanation here, referring to the reload cycle. -->
d0aba07f 2366 <entry><literal>%q</literal></entry>
6ceb0a40
FS
2367 <entry>Pretty host name</entry>
2368 <entry>The pretty hostname of the running system at the point in time the unit configuration is loaded, as read from the <varname>PRETTY_HOSTNAME=</varname> field of <filename>/etc/machine-info</filename>. If not set, resolves to the short hostname. See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-info</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for more information.</entry>
2369 </row>
798d3a52 2370 <row>
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ZJS
2371 <entry><literal>%s</literal></entry>
2372 <entry>User shell</entry>
8a7adccb 2373 <entry>This is the shell of the user running the service manager instance.</entry>
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2374 </row>
2375 <row>
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2376 <entry><literal>%S</literal></entry>
2377 <entry>State directory root</entry>
f9c91932 2378 <entry>This is either <filename>/var/lib</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <varname>$XDG_STATE_HOME</varname> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
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2379 </row>
2380 <row>
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2381 <entry><literal>%t</literal></entry>
2382 <entry>Runtime directory root</entry>
3b121157 2383 <entry>This is either <filename>/run/</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR</literal> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
b294e594 2384 </row>
806d919c 2385 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="T"/>
798d3a52 2386 <row>
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2387 <entry><literal>%u</literal></entry>
2388 <entry>User name</entry>
b4e24077
ZJS
2389 <entry>This is the name of the <emphasis>user running the service manager instance</emphasis>. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>root</literal>.
2390
2391Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
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2392 </row>
2393 <row>
2394 <entry><literal>%U</literal></entry>
2395 <entry>User UID</entry>
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ZJS
2396 <entry>This is the numeric UID of the <emphasis>user running the service manager instance</emphasis>. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>0</literal>.
2397
2398Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
798d3a52 2399 </row>
c83347b4 2400 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="v"/>
806d919c 2401 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="V"/>
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2402 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="w"/>
2403 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="W"/>
607f0328
ZJS
2404 <row>
2405 <entry><literal>%y</literal></entry>
2406 <entry>The path to the fragment</entry>
2407 <entry>This is the path where the main part of the unit file is located. For linked unit files, the real path outside of the unit search directories is used. For units that don't have a fragment file, this specifier will raise an error.</entry>
2408 </row>
2409 <row>
2410 <entry><literal>%Y</literal></entry>
2411 <entry>The directory of the fragment</entry>
2412 <entry>This is the directory part of <literal>%y</literal>.</entry>
2413 </row>
c83347b4 2414 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="percent"/>
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2415 </tbody>
2416 </tgroup>
2417 </table>
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2418 </refsect1>
2419
2420 <refsect1>
2421 <title>Examples</title>
2422
2423 <example>
2424 <title>Allowing units to be enabled</title>
2425
2426 <para>The following snippet (highlighted) allows a unit (e.g.
2427 <filename>foo.service</filename>) to be enabled via
2428 <command>systemctl enable</command>:</para>
2429
2430 <programlisting>[Unit]
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CS
2431Description=Foo
2432
2433[Service]
2434ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
2435
2436<emphasis>[Install]</emphasis>
2437<emphasis>WantedBy=multi-user.target</emphasis></programlisting>
2438
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2439 <para>After running <command>systemctl enable</command>, a
2440 symlink
211c99c7 2441 <filename index="false">/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/foo.service</filename>
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2442 linking to the actual unit will be created. It tells systemd to
2443 pull in the unit when starting
2444 <filename>multi-user.target</filename>. The inverse
2445 <command>systemctl disable</command> will remove that symlink
2446 again.</para>
2447 </example>
2448
2449 <example>
2450 <title>Overriding vendor settings</title>
2451
2452 <para>There are two methods of overriding vendor settings in
2453 unit files: copying the unit file from
12b42c76
TG
2454 <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename> to
2455 <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename> and modifying the
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2456 chosen settings. Alternatively, one can create a directory named
2457 <filename><replaceable>unit</replaceable>.d/</filename> within
12b42c76 2458 <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename> and place a drop-in
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2459 file <filename><replaceable>name</replaceable>.conf</filename>
2460 there that only changes the specific settings one is interested
2461 in. Note that multiple such drop-in files are read if
8331eaab 2462 present, processed in lexicographic order of their filename.</para>
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2463
2464 <para>The advantage of the first method is that one easily
2465 overrides the complete unit, the vendor unit is not parsed at
2466 all anymore. It has the disadvantage that improvements to the
2467 unit file by the vendor are not automatically incorporated on
2468 updates.</para>
2469
2470 <para>The advantage of the second method is that one only
2471 overrides the settings one specifically wants, where updates to
2472 the unit by the vendor automatically apply. This has the
2473 disadvantage that some future updates by the vendor might be
2474 incompatible with the local changes.</para>
2475
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2476 <para>This also applies for user instances of systemd, but with
2477 different locations for the unit files. See the section on unit
2478 load paths for further details.</para>
2479
2480 <para>Suppose there is a vendor-supplied unit
12b42c76 2481 <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename> with
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2482 the following contents:</para>
2483
2484 <programlisting>[Unit]
92b1e225
CS
2485Description=Some HTTP server
2486After=remote-fs.target sqldb.service
2487Requires=sqldb.service
2488AssertPathExists=/srv/webserver
2489
2490[Service]
2491Type=notify
2492ExecStart=/usr/sbin/some-fancy-httpd-server
2493Nice=5
2494
2495[Install]
2496WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
2497
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2498 <para>Now one wants to change some settings as an administrator:
2499 firstly, in the local setup, <filename>/srv/webserver</filename>
e2acdb6b 2500 might not exist, because the HTTP server is configured to use
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2501 <filename>/srv/www</filename> instead. Secondly, the local
2502 configuration makes the HTTP server also depend on a memory
2503 cache service, <filename>memcached.service</filename>, that
2504 should be pulled in (<varname>Requires=</varname>) and also be
2505 ordered appropriately (<varname>After=</varname>). Thirdly, in
2506 order to harden the service a bit more, the administrator would
2507 like to set the <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> setting (see
912f003f 2508 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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2509 for details). And lastly, the administrator would like to reset
2510 the niceness of the service to its default value of 0.</para>
2511
2512 <para>The first possibility is to copy the unit file to
12b42c76 2513 <filename>/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename> and
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2514 change the chosen settings:</para>
2515
2516 <programlisting>[Unit]
92b1e225
CS
2517Description=Some HTTP server
2518After=remote-fs.target sqldb.service <emphasis>memcached.service</emphasis>
2519Requires=sqldb.service <emphasis>memcached.service</emphasis>
2520AssertPathExists=<emphasis>/srv/www</emphasis>
2521
2522[Service]
2523Type=notify
2524ExecStart=/usr/sbin/some-fancy-httpd-server
2525<emphasis>Nice=0</emphasis>
2526<emphasis>PrivateTmp=yes</emphasis>
2527
2528[Install]
2529WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
2530
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2531 <para>Alternatively, the administrator could create a drop-in
2532 file
12b42c76 2533 <filename>/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d/local.conf</filename>
798d3a52 2534 with the following contents:</para>
92b1e225 2535
798d3a52 2536 <programlisting>[Unit]
92b1e225
CS
2537After=memcached.service
2538Requires=memcached.service
2539# Reset all assertions and then re-add the condition we want
2540AssertPathExists=
2541AssertPathExists=/srv/www
2542
2543[Service]
2544Nice=0
2545PrivateTmp=yes</programlisting>
2546
afbc75e6
DB
2547 <para>Note that for drop-in files, if one wants to remove
2548 entries from a setting that is parsed as a list (and is not a
2549 dependency), such as <varname>AssertPathExists=</varname> (or
2550 e.g. <varname>ExecStart=</varname> in service units), one needs
2551 to first clear the list before re-adding all entries except the
2552 one that is to be removed. Dependencies (<varname>After=</varname>, etc.)
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2553 cannot be reset to an empty list, so dependencies can only be
2554 added in drop-ins. If you want to remove dependencies, you have
2555 to override the entire unit.</para>
0cf4c0d1 2556
798d3a52 2557 </example>
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2558
2559 <example>
2560 <title>Top level drop-ins with template units</title>
2561
dbb8b5bc 2562 <para>Top level per-type drop-ins can be used to change some aspect of
5c7a4f21 2563 all units of a particular type. For example, by creating the
dbb8b5bc 2564 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/service.d/</filename>
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2565 directory with a drop-in file, the contents of the drop-in file can be
2566 applied to all service units. We can take this further by having the
2567 top-level drop-in instantiate a secondary helper unit. Consider for
2568 example the following set of units and drop-in files where we install
dbb8b5bc 2569 an <varname>OnFailure=</varname> dependency for all service units.</para>
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2570
2571 <para>
2572 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/failure-handler@.service</filename>:</para>
2573
2574 <programlisting>[Unit]
2575Description=My failure handler for %i
2576
2577[Service]
2578Type=oneshot
2579# Perform some special action for when %i exits unexpectedly.
2580ExecStart=/usr/sbin/myfailurehandler %i
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2581 </programlisting>
2582
dbb8b5bc 2583 <para>We can then add an instance of
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2584 <filename index='false'>failure-handler@.service</filename> as an
2585 <varname>OnFailure=</varname> dependency for all service units.</para>
2586
2587 <para>
2588 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/service.d/10-all.conf</filename>:</para>
2589
2590 <programlisting>[Unit]
dbb8b5bc 2591OnFailure=failure-handler@%N.service
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2592 </programlisting>
2593
2594 <para>Now, after running <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command> all
2595 services will have acquired an <varname>OnFailure=</varname> dependency on
dbb8b5bc 2596 <filename index='false'>failure-handler@%N.service</filename>. The
90a404f5 2597 template instance units will also have gained the dependency which results
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2598 in the creation of a recursive dependency chain. systemd will try to detect
2599 these recursive dependency chains where a template unit directly and
2600 recursively depends on itself and will remove such dependencies
2601 automatically if it finds them. If systemd doesn't detect the recursive
2602 dependency chain, we can break the chain ourselves by disabling the drop-in
2603 for the template instance units via a symlink to
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2604 <filename index='false'>/dev/null</filename>:</para>
2605
2606 <programlisting>
dbb8b5bc 2607<command>mkdir /etc/systemd/system/failure-handler@.service.d/</command>
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2608<command>ln -s /dev/null /etc/systemd/system/failure-handler@.service.d/10-all.conf</command>
2609<command>systemctl daemon-reload</command>
2610 </programlisting>
2611
2612 <para>This ensures that if a <filename index='false'>failure-handler@.service</filename> instance fails it will not trigger an instance named
dbb8b5bc 2613 <filename index='false'>failure-handler@failure-handler.service</filename>.</para>
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2614
2615 </example>
2616
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2617 </refsect1>
2618
2619 <refsect1>
2620 <title>See Also</title>
2621 <para>
2622 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2623 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
d1698b82 2624 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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2625 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2626 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2627 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2628 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2629 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2630 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2631 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.swap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2632 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2633 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2634 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.timer</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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2635 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.scope</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2636 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.slice</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2637 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2638 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-analyze</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2639 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2640 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
3ba3a79d 2641 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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2642 </para>
2643 </refsect1>
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2644
2645</refentry>