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1 <?xml version='1.0'?>
2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
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4 <!ENTITY % entities SYSTEM "custom-entities.ent" >
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7 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
8
9 <refentry id="systemd.unit"
10 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
11
12 <refentryinfo>
13 <title>systemd.unit</title>
14 <productname>systemd</productname>
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>,
37 <filename><replaceable>slice</replaceable>.slice</filename>,
38 <filename><replaceable>scope</replaceable>.scope</filename></para>
39
40 <refsect2>
41 <title>System Unit Search Path</title>
42
43 <para><literallayout><filename>/etc/systemd/system.control/*</filename>
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>
48 <filename>/etc/systemd/system.attached/*</filename>
49 <filename>/run/systemd/system/*</filename>
50 <filename>/run/systemd/system.attached/*</filename>
51 <filename>/run/systemd/generator/*</filename>
52 <filename index='false'></filename>
53 <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/*</filename>
54 <filename>/run/systemd/generator.late/*</filename></literallayout></para>
55 </refsect2>
56
57 <refsect2>
58 <title>User Unit Search Path</title>
59 <para><literallayout><filename>~/.config/systemd/user.control/*</filename>
60 <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user.control/*</filename>
61 <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/transient/*</filename>
62 <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.early/*</filename>
63 <filename>~/.config/systemd/user/*</filename>
64 <filename>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/systemd/user/*</filename>
65 <filename>/etc/systemd/user/*</filename>
66 <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user/*</filename>
67 <filename>/run/systemd/user/*</filename>
68 <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator/*</filename>
69 <filename>$XDG_DATA_HOME/systemd/user/*</filename>
70 <filename>$XDG_DATA_DIRS/systemd/user/*</filename>
71 <filename index='false'></filename>
72 <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/user/*</filename>
73 <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.late/*</filename></literallayout></para>
74 </refsect2>
75
76 </refsynopsisdiv>
77
78 <refsect1>
79 <title>Description</title>
80
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
86 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.syntax</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
87 for a general description of the syntax.</para>
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>,
106 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.slice</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
107 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.scope</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
108 </para>
109
110 <para>Unit files are loaded from a set of paths determined during compilation, described in the next
111 section.</para>
112
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
123 constructed based on a "template file" which serves as the definition of multiple services or other
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
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>
128
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>
134
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
140 <filename>systemd-networkd.service</filename>. As another example, <filename>default.target</filename>
141 the default system target started at boot — is commonly aliased to either
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>,
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>
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
168 <filename>/etc/systemd/system/ctrl-alt-del.service</filename> pointing to the
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>
175
176 <para>Along with a unit file <filename>foo.service</filename>, the directory
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
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>
194
195 <para>Along with a unit file <filename>foo.service</filename>, a "drop-in" directory
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
206 <filename>foo-bar-baz.service</filename> not only the regular drop-in directory
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
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>
224
225 <para>In addition to <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename>, the drop-in <literal>.d/</literal>
226 directories for system services can be placed in <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename> or
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
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>
232
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.
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>
243
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
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>
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
273 <ulink url="https://systemd.io/PORTABILITY_AND_STABILITY/">Interface
274 Portability and Stability Promise</ulink>.</para>
275
276 </refsect1>
277
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
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>
286
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>
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:
296 <filename index="false">/foo//bar/baz/</filename> becomes <literal>foo-bar-baz</literal>.</para>
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
305 <refsect1>
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
334 <varname>After=</varname>. See
335 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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
338 overridden via an explicit <varname>Before=</varname> dependency.</para>
339 </refsect2>
340 </refsect1>
341
342 <refsect1>
343 <title>Unit File Load Path</title>
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
350 <para>When the variable <varname>$SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH</varname> is set,
351 the contents of this variable overrides the unit load path. If
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>
366 <entry>Path</entry>
367 <entry>Description</entry>
368 </row>
369 </thead>
370 <tbody>
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
385 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
386 </row>
387 <row>
388 <entry><filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename></entry>
389 <entry>System units created by the administrator</entry>
390 </row>
391 <row>
392 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/system</filename></entry>
393 <entry>Runtime units</entry>
394 </row>
395 <row>
396 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/generator</filename></entry>
397 <entry>Generated units with medium priority (see <replaceable>normal-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
398 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
399 </row>
400 <row>
401 <entry><filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/system</filename></entry>
402 <entry>System units installed by the administrator </entry>
403 </row>
404 <row>
405 <entry><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename></entry>
406 <entry>System units installed by the distribution package manager</entry>
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
411 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
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>
427 <entry>Path</entry>
428 <entry>Description</entry>
429 </row>
430 </thead>
431 <tbody>
432 <row>
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>
441 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/transient</filename></entry>
442 <entry>Dynamic configuration for transient units</entry>
443 </row>
444 <row>
445 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.early</filename></entry>
446 <entry>Generated units with high priority (see <replaceable>early-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
447 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
448 </row>
449 <row>
450 <entry><filename>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>$HOME/.config/systemd/user</filename></entry>
451 <entry>User configuration (<varname>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</varname> is used if set, <filename>~/.config</filename> otherwise)</entry>
452 </row>
453 <row>
454 <entry><filename>$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>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS</varname> is used if set, <filename>/etc/xdg</filename> otherwise)</entry>
456 </row>
457 <row>
458 <entry><filename>/etc/systemd/user</filename></entry>
459 <entry>User units created by the administrator</entry>
460 </row>
461 <row>
462 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user</filename></entry>
463 <entry>Runtime units (only used when $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set)</entry>
464 </row>
465 <row>
466 <entry><filename>/run/systemd/user</filename></entry>
467 <entry>Runtime units</entry>
468 </row>
469 <row>
470 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator</filename></entry>
471 <entry>Generated units with medium priority (see <replaceable>normal-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
472 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
473 </row>
474 <row>
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>$XDG_DATA_HOME</varname> is used if set, <filename>~/.local/share</filename> otherwise)</entry>
477 </row>
478 <row>
479 <entry><filename>$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>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname> is used if set, <filename>/usr/local/share</filename> and <filename>/usr/share</filename> otherwise)</entry>
481 </row>
482 <row>
483 <entry><filename>$dir/systemd/user</filename> for each <varname index="false">$dir</varname> in <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname></entry>
484 <entry>Additional locations for installed user units, one for each entry in <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname></entry>
485 </row>
486 <row>
487 <entry><filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/user</filename></entry>
488 <entry>User units installed by the administrator</entry>
489 </row>
490 <row>
491 <entry><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/user</filename></entry>
492 <entry>User units installed by the distribution package manager</entry>
493 </row>
494 <row>
495 <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.late</filename></entry>
496 <entry>Generated units with low priority (see <replaceable>late-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
497 ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
498 </row>
499 </tbody>
500 </tgroup>
501 </table>
502
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
506 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.environment-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
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
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
527 whether the target is within the unit load path. In contrast, a symlink which goes outside of the unit
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>
539 </refsect1>
540
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
580 <refsect1>
581 <title>[Unit] Section Options</title>
582
583 <para>The unit file may include a [Unit] section, which carries
584 generic information about the unit that is not dependent on the
585 type of unit:</para>
586
587 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
588 <varlistentry>
589 <term><varname>Description=</varname></term>
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
597 <replaceable>description</replaceable>...</literal>, <literal>Started
598 <replaceable>description</replaceable>.</literal>, <literal>Reached target
599 <replaceable>description</replaceable>.</literal>, <literal>Failed to start
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>
603
604 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
605 </listitem>
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
625 effect.</para>
626
627 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
628 </varlistentry>
629
630 <varlistentry>
631 <term><varname>Wants=</varname></term>
632
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>
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
642 the start-up of one unit to the start-up of another unit.</para>
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
650 activated.</para>
651
652 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
653 </varlistentry>
654
655 <varlistentry>
656 <term><varname>Requires=</varname></term>
657
658 <listitem><para>Similar to <varname>Wants=</varname>, but declares a stronger requirement
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
665 <varname>After=</varname>, this unit will be stopped (or restarted) if one of the other units is
666 explicitly stopped (or restarted).</para>
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
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>,
674 <varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname>, … — see below) do not cause the start job of a unit with a
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
679 without a specific other unit also in active state (see below).</para>
680
681 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
682 </varlistentry>
683
684 <varlistentry>
685 <term><varname>Requisite=</varname></term>
686
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>
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>
699
700 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
701 </listitem>
702 </varlistentry>
703
704 <varlistentry>
705 <term><varname>BindsTo=</varname></term>
706
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
718 enters inactive state, but also one that is bound to another unit that gets skipped due to an unmet condition
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
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>
728
729 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
730 </listitem>
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
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>
748
749 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
750 </listitem>
751 </varlistentry>
752
753 <varlistentry>
754 <term><varname>Upholds=</varname></term>
755
756 <listitem><para>Configures dependencies similar to <varname>Wants=</varname>, but as long as this unit
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
762 happens. The restart happens without delay, and usual per-unit rate-limit applies.</para>
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
766 <filename>b.service</filename>.</para>
767
768 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/>
769 </listitem>
770 </varlistentry>
771
772 <varlistentry>
773 <term><varname>Conflicts=</varname></term>
774
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>
785
786 <para>If unit A that conflicts with unit B is scheduled to
787 be started at the same time as B, the transaction will either
788 fail (in case both are required parts of the transaction) or be
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
791 that is not required will be removed, or in case both are
792 not required, the unit that conflicts will be started and the
793 unit that is conflicted is stopped.</para>
794
795 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
796 </varlistentry>
797
798 <varlistentry>
799 <term><varname>Before=</varname></term>
800 <term><varname>After=</varname></term>
801
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
805 <para>Those two settings configure ordering dependencies between units. If unit
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
814 start-up order is applied. I.e. if a unit is configured with <varname>After=</varname> on another
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
825 success. Note that this does includes <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname> (or
826 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> for the shutdown case).</para>
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
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
836 creates the corresponding device unit without delay.</para>
837
838 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
839 </varlistentry>
840
841 <varlistentry>
842 <term><varname>OnFailure=</varname></term>
843
844 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of one or more units that are activated when this unit enters
845 the <literal>failed</literal> state.</para>
846
847 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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
854 the <literal>inactive</literal> state.</para>
855
856 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
857 </varlistentry>
858
859 <varlistentry>
860 <term><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></term>
861 <term><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></term>
862
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
866 all units that are linked to it using these two settings.</para>
867
868 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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
878 units that are linked to it using these two settings.</para>
879
880 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
881 </varlistentry>
882
883 <varlistentry>
884 <term><varname>JoinsNamespaceOf=</varname></term>
885
886 <listitem><para>For units that start processes (such as service units), lists one or more other units
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>,
891 <varname>PrivateIPC=</varname>, <varname>IPCNamespacePath=</varname>, and
892 <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> directives (see
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
895 <filename>/tmp/</filename>, <filename>/var/tmp/</filename>, IPC namespace and network namespace as
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>,
899 <varname>PrivateIPC=</varname>/<varname>IPCNamespacePath=</varname> and/or
900 <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> is enabled for both the unit that joins the namespace and the unit
901 whose namespace is joined.</para>
902
903 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v209"/></listitem>
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
915 mounted automatically through <filename>local-fs.target</filename>,
916 but are still honored for the purposes of this option, i.e. they
917 will be pulled in by this unit.</para>
918
919 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
920 </varlistentry>
921
922 <varlistentry>
923 <term><varname>OnSuccessJobMode=</varname></term>
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
935 <varname>OnSuccess=</varname>/<varname>OnFailure=</varname> will be enqueued. See
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
940 <varname>OnSuccess=</varname>/<varname>OnFailure=</varname>.</para>
941
942 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v209"/></listitem>
943 </varlistentry>
944
945 <varlistentry>
946 <term><varname>IgnoreOnIsolate=</varname></term>
947
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
951 units.</para>
952
953 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
954 </varlistentry>
955
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
961 longer used. Note that, in order to minimize the work to be
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
966 it. Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para>
967
968 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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
985 <option>false</option>.</para>
986
987 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
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
1000 <option>false</option>.</para>
1001
1002 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
1003 </varlistentry>
1004
1005 <varlistentry>
1006 <term><varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname></term>
1007
1008 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
1009 <option>yes</option>, (the default), a few default
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
1017 option to <option>no</option>. It is highly recommended to
1018 leave this option enabled for the majority of common units. If
1019 set to <option>no</option>, this option does not disable
1020 all implicit dependencies, just non-essential
1021 ones.</para>
1022
1023 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
1024 </varlistentry>
1025
1026 <varlistentry>
1027 <term><varname>CollectMode=</varname></term>
1028
1029 <listitem><para>Tweaks the "garbage collection" algorithm for this unit. Takes one of <option>inactive</option>
1030 or <option>inactive-or-failed</option>. If set to <option>inactive</option> the unit will be unloaded if it is
1031 in the <constant>inactive</constant> state and is not referenced by clients, jobs or other units — however it
1032 is not unloaded if it is in the <constant>failed</constant> state. In <option>failed</option> mode, failed
1033 units are not unloaded until the user invoked <command>systemctl reset-failed</command> on them to reset the
1034 <constant>failed</constant> state, or an equivalent command. This behaviour is altered if this option is set to
1035 <option>inactive-or-failed</option>: in this case the unit is unloaded even if the unit is in a
1036 <constant>failed</constant> state, and thus an explicitly resetting of the <constant>failed</constant> state is
1037 not necessary. Note that if this mode is used unit results (such as exit codes, exit signals, consumed
1038 resources, …) are flushed out immediately after the unit completed, except for what is stored in the logging
1039 subsystem. Defaults to <option>inactive</option>.</para>
1040
1041 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v236"/>
1042 </listitem>
1043 </varlistentry>
1044
1045 <varlistentry>
1046 <term><varname>FailureAction=</varname></term>
1047 <term><varname>SuccessAction=</varname></term>
1048
1049 <listitem><para>Configure the action to take when the unit stops and enters a failed state or
1050 inactive state. Takes one of <option>none</option>, <option>reboot</option>,
1051 <option>reboot-force</option>, <option>reboot-immediate</option>, <option>poweroff</option>,
1052 <option>poweroff-force</option>, <option>poweroff-immediate</option>, <option>exit</option>,
1053 <option>exit-force</option>, <option>soft-reboot</option>, <option>soft-reboot-force</option>,
1054 <option>kexec</option>, <option>kexec-force</option>, <option>halt</option>,
1055 <option>halt-force</option> and <option>halt-immediate</option>. In system mode, all options are
1056 allowed. In user mode, only <option>none</option>, <option>exit</option>,
1057 <option>exit-force</option>, <option>soft-reboot</option> and <option>soft-reboot-force</option> are
1058 allowed. Both options default to <option>none</option>.</para>
1059
1060 <para>If <option>none</option> is set, no action will be triggered. <option>reboot</option> causes a
1061 reboot following the normal shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl
1062 reboot</command>). <option>reboot-force</option> causes a forced reboot which will terminate all
1063 processes forcibly but should cause no dirty file systems on reboot (i.e. equivalent to
1064 <command>systemctl reboot -f</command>) and <option>reboot-immediate</option> causes immediate
1065 execution of the
1066 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system
1067 call, which might result in data loss (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl reboot -ff</command>).
1068 Similarly, <option>poweroff</option>, <option>poweroff-force</option>,
1069 <option>poweroff-immediate</option>, <option>kexec</option>, <option>kexec-force</option>,
1070 <option>halt</option>, <option>halt-force</option> and <option>halt-immediate</option> have the
1071 effect of powering down the system, executing kexec, and halting the system respectively with similar
1072 semantics. <option>exit</option> causes the manager to exit following the normal shutdown procedure,
1073 and <option>exit-force</option> causes it terminate without shutting down services. When
1074 <option>exit</option> or <option>exit-force</option> is used by default the exit status of the main
1075 process of the unit (if this applies) is returned from the service manager. However, this may be
1076 overridden with
1077 <varname>FailureActionExitStatus=</varname>/<varname>SuccessActionExitStatus=</varname>, see below.
1078 <option>soft-reboot</option> will trigger a userspace reboot operation.
1079 <option>soft-reboot-force</option> does that too, but does not go through the shutdown transaction
1080 beforehand.</para>
1081
1082 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v236"/></listitem>
1083 </varlistentry>
1084
1085 <varlistentry>
1086 <term><varname>FailureActionExitStatus=</varname></term>
1087 <term><varname>SuccessActionExitStatus=</varname></term>
1088
1089 <listitem><para>Controls the exit status to propagate back to an invoking container manager (in case of a
1090 system service) or service manager (in case of a user manager) when the
1091 <varname>FailureAction=</varname>/<varname>SuccessAction=</varname> are set to <option>exit</option> or
1092 <option>exit-force</option> and the action is triggered. By default the exit status of the main process of the
1093 triggering unit (if this applies) is propagated. Takes a value in the range 0255 or the empty string to
1094 request default behaviour.</para>
1095
1096 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v240"/></listitem>
1097 </varlistentry>
1098
1099 <varlistentry>
1100 <term><varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname></term>
1101 <term><varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname></term>
1102
1103 <listitem><para><varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname> specifies a timeout for the whole job that starts
1104 running when the job is queued. <varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> specifies a timeout that
1105 starts running when the queued job is actually started. If either limit is reached, the job will be
1106 cancelled, the unit however will not change state or even enter the <literal>failed</literal> mode.
1107 </para>
1108
1109 <para>Both settings take a time span with the default unit of seconds, but other units may be
1110 specified, see
1111 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1112 The default is <literal>infinity</literal> (job timeouts disabled), except for device units where
1113 <varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> defaults to <varname>DefaultDeviceTimeoutSec=</varname>.
1114 </para>
1115
1116 <para>Note: these timeouts are independent from any unit-specific timeouts (for example, the timeout
1117 set with <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> in service units). The job timeout has no effect on the
1118 unit itself. Or in other words: unit-specific timeouts are useful to abort unit state changes, and
1119 revert them. The job timeout set with this option however is useful to abort only the job waiting for
1120 the unit state to change.</para>
1121
1122 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
1123 </listitem>
1124 </varlistentry>
1125
1126 <varlistentry>
1127 <term><varname>JobTimeoutAction=</varname></term>
1128 <term><varname>JobTimeoutRebootArgument=</varname></term>
1129
1130 <listitem><para><varname>JobTimeoutAction=</varname> optionally configures an additional action to
1131 take when the timeout is hit, see description of <varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname> and
1132 <varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> above. It takes the same values as
1133 <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname>. Defaults to <option>none</option>.</para>
1134
1135 <para><varname>JobTimeoutRebootArgument=</varname> configures an optional reboot string to pass to
1136 the <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system
1137 call.</para>
1138
1139 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v240"/></listitem>
1140 </varlistentry>
1141
1142 <varlistentry>
1143 <term><varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=<replaceable>interval</replaceable></varname></term>
1144 <term><varname>StartLimitBurst=<replaceable>burst</replaceable></varname></term>
1145
1146 <listitem><para>Configure unit start rate limiting. Units which are started more than
1147 <replaceable>burst</replaceable> times within an <replaceable>interval</replaceable> time span are
1148 not permitted to start any more. Use <varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> to configure the
1149 checking interval and <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to configure how many starts per interval
1150 are allowed.</para>
1151
1152 <para><replaceable>interval</replaceable> is a time span with the default unit of seconds, but other
1153 units may be specified, see
1154 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1155 Defaults to <varname>DefaultStartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> in manager configuration file, and may
1156 be set to 0 to disable any kind of rate limiting. <replaceable>burst</replaceable> is a number and
1157 defaults to <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in manager configuration file.</para>
1158
1159 <para>These configuration options are particularly useful in conjunction with the service setting
1160 <varname>Restart=</varname> (see
1161 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>);
1162 however, they apply to all kinds of starts (including manual), not just those triggered by the
1163 <varname>Restart=</varname> logic.</para>
1164
1165 <para>Note that units which are configured for <varname>Restart=</varname>, and which reach the start
1166 limit are not attempted to be restarted anymore; however, they may still be restarted manually or
1167 from a timer or socket at a later point, after the <replaceable>interval</replaceable> has passed.
1168 From that point on, the restart logic is activated again. <command>systemctl reset-failed</command>
1169 will cause the restart rate counter for a service to be flushed, which is useful if the administrator
1170 wants to manually start a unit and the start limit interferes with that. Rate-limiting is enforced
1171 after any unit condition checks are executed, and hence unit activations with failing conditions do
1172 not count towards the rate limit.</para>
1173
1174 <para>When a unit is unloaded due to the garbage collection logic (see above) its rate limit counters
1175 are flushed out too. This means that configuring start rate limiting for a unit that is not
1176 referenced continuously has no effect.</para>
1177
1178 <para>This setting does not apply to slice, target, device, and scope units, since they are unit
1179 types whose activation may either never fail, or may succeed only a single time.</para>
1180
1181 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v229"/></listitem>
1182 </varlistentry>
1183
1184 <varlistentry>
1185 <term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
1186
1187 <listitem><para>Configure an additional action to take if the rate limit configured with
1188 <varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> and <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is hit. Takes the same
1189 values as the <varname>FailureAction=</varname>/<varname>SuccessAction=</varname> settings. If
1190 <option>none</option> is set, hitting the rate limit will trigger no action except that
1191 the start will not be permitted. Defaults to <option>none</option>.</para>
1192
1193 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v229"/></listitem>
1194 </varlistentry>
1195
1196 <varlistentry>
1197 <term><varname>RebootArgument=</varname></term>
1198 <listitem><para>Configure the optional argument for the
1199 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system call if
1200 <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname> or <varname>FailureAction=</varname> is a reboot action. This
1201 works just like the optional argument to <command>systemctl reboot</command> command.</para>
1202
1203 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v229"/></listitem>
1204 </varlistentry>
1205
1206 <varlistentry>
1207 <term><varname>SourcePath=</varname></term>
1208 <listitem><para>A path to a configuration file this unit has
1209 been generated from. This is primarily useful for
1210 implementation of generator tools that convert configuration
1211 from an external configuration file format into native unit
1212 files. This functionality should not be used in normal
1213 units.</para>
1214
1215 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
1216 </varlistentry>
1217 </variablelist>
1218
1219 <refsect2>
1220 <title>Conditions and Asserts</title>
1221
1222 <para>Unit files may also include a number of <varname index="false">Condition…=</varname> and <varname
1223 index="false">Assert…=</varname> settings. Before the unit is started, systemd will verify that the
1224 specified conditions and asserts are true. If not, the starting of the unit will be (mostly silently)
1225 skipped (in case of conditions), or aborted with an error message (in case of asserts). Failing
1226 conditions or asserts will not result in the unit being moved into the <literal>failed</literal>
1227 state. The conditions and asserts are checked at the time the queued start job is to be executed. The
1228 ordering dependencies are still respected, so other units are still pulled in and ordered as if this
1229 unit was successfully activated, and the conditions and asserts are executed the precise moment the
1230 unit would normally start and thus can validate system state after the units ordered before completed
1231 initialization. Use condition expressions for skipping units that do not apply to the local system, for
1232 example because the kernel or runtime environment doesn't require their functionality.
1233 </para>
1234
1235 <para>If multiple conditions are specified, the unit will be executed if all of them apply (i.e. a
1236 logical AND is applied). Condition checks can use a pipe symbol (<literal>|</literal>) after the equals
1237 sign (<literal>Condition…=|…</literal>), which causes the condition to become a
1238 <emphasis>triggering</emphasis> condition. If at least one triggering condition is defined for a unit,
1239 then the unit will be started if at least one of the triggering conditions of the unit applies and all
1240 of the regular (i.e. non-triggering) conditions apply. If you prefix an argument with the pipe symbol
1241 and an exclamation mark, the pipe symbol must be passed first, the exclamation second. If any of these
1242 options is assigned the empty string, the list of conditions is reset completely, all previous
1243 condition settings (of any kind) will have no effect.</para>
1244
1245 <para>The <varname>AssertArchitecture=</varname>, <varname>AssertVirtualization=</varname>, … options
1246 are similar to conditions but cause the start job to fail (instead of being skipped). The failed check
1247 is logged. Units with unmet conditions are considered to be in a clean state and will be garbage
1248 collected if they are not referenced. This means that when queried, the condition failure may or may
1249 not show up in the state of the unit.</para>
1250
1251 <para>Note that neither assertion nor condition expressions result in unit state changes. Also note
1252 that both are checked at the time the job is to be executed, i.e. long after depending jobs and it
1253 itself were queued. Thus, neither condition nor assertion expressions are suitable for conditionalizing
1254 unit dependencies.</para>
1255
1256 <para>The <command>condition</command> verb of
1257 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-analyze</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> can
1258 be used to test condition and assert expressions.</para>
1259
1260 <para>Except for <varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname>, all path checks follow symlinks.</para>
1261
1262 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
1263 <varlistentry>
1264 <term><varname>ConditionArchitecture=</varname></term>
1265
1266 <listitem><para>Check whether the system is running on a specific architecture. Takes one of
1267 <literal>x86</literal>,
1268 <literal>x86-64</literal>,
1269 <literal>ppc</literal>,
1270 <literal>ppc-le</literal>,
1271 <literal>ppc64</literal>,
1272 <literal>ppc64-le</literal>,
1273 <literal>ia64</literal>,
1274 <literal>parisc</literal>,
1275 <literal>parisc64</literal>,
1276 <literal>s390</literal>,
1277 <literal>s390x</literal>,
1278 <literal>sparc</literal>,
1279 <literal>sparc64</literal>,
1280 <literal>mips</literal>,
1281 <literal>mips-le</literal>,
1282 <literal>mips64</literal>,
1283 <literal>mips64-le</literal>,
1284 <literal>alpha</literal>,
1285 <literal>arm</literal>,
1286 <literal>arm-be</literal>,
1287 <literal>arm64</literal>,
1288 <literal>arm64-be</literal>,
1289 <literal>sh</literal>,
1290 <literal>sh64</literal>,
1291 <literal>m68k</literal>,
1292 <literal>tilegx</literal>,
1293 <literal>cris</literal>,
1294 <literal>arc</literal>,
1295 <literal>arc-be</literal>, or
1296 <literal>native</literal>.</para>
1297
1298 <para>The architecture is determined from the information returned by
1299 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1300 and is thus subject to
1301 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>personality</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1302 Note that a <varname>Personality=</varname> setting in the same unit file has no effect on this
1303 condition. A special architecture name <literal>native</literal> is mapped to the architecture the
1304 system manager itself is compiled for. The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation
1305 mark.</para>
1306
1307 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/>
1308 </listitem>
1309 </varlistentry>
1310
1311 <varlistentry>
1312 <term><varname>ConditionFirmware=</varname></term>
1313
1314 <listitem><para>Check whether the system's firmware is of a certain type. The following values are
1315 possible:</para>
1316
1317 <itemizedlist>
1318 <listitem><para><literal>uefi</literal> matches systems with EFI.</para></listitem>
1319
1320 <listitem><para><literal>device-tree</literal> matches systems with a device tree.
1321 </para></listitem>
1322
1323 <listitem><para><literal>device-tree-compatible(<replaceable>value</replaceable>)</literal>
1324 matches systems with a device tree that are compatible with <literal>value</literal>.
1325 </para></listitem>
1326
1327 <listitem><para><literal>smbios-field(<replaceable>field</replaceable>
1328 <replaceable>operator</replaceable> <replaceable>value</replaceable>)</literal> matches systems
1329 with a SMBIOS field containing a certain value. <replaceable>field</replaceable> is the name of
1330 the SMBIOS field exposed as <literal>sysfs</literal> attribute file below
1331 <filename>/sys/class/dmi/id/</filename>. <replaceable>operator</replaceable> is one of
1332 <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal>,
1333 <literal>&gt;</literal>, <literal>==</literal>, <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal> for version
1334 comparisons, <literal>=</literal> and <literal>!=</literal> for literal string comparisons, or
1335 <literal>$=</literal>, <literal>!$=</literal> for shell-style glob comparisons.
1336 <replaceable>value</replaceable> is the expected value of the SMBIOS field value (possibly
1337 containing shell style globs in case <literal>$=</literal>/<literal>!$=</literal> is used).
1338 </para></listitem>
1339 </itemizedlist>
1340
1341 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
1342 </varlistentry>
1343
1344 <varlistentry>
1345 <term><varname>ConditionVirtualization=</varname></term>
1346
1347 <listitem><para>Check whether the system is executed in a virtualized environment and optionally
1348 test whether it is a specific implementation. Takes either boolean value to check if being executed
1349 in any virtualized environment, or one of
1350 <literal>vm</literal> and
1351 <literal>container</literal> to test against a generic type of virtualization solution, or one of
1352 <literal>qemu</literal>,
1353 <literal>kvm</literal>,
1354 <literal>amazon</literal>,
1355 <literal>zvm</literal>,
1356 <literal>vmware</literal>,
1357 <literal>microsoft</literal>,
1358 <literal>oracle</literal>,
1359 <literal>powervm</literal>,
1360 <literal>xen</literal>,
1361 <literal>bochs</literal>,
1362 <literal>uml</literal>,
1363 <literal>bhyve</literal>,
1364 <literal>qnx</literal>,
1365 <literal>apple</literal>,
1366 <literal>sre</literal>,
1367 <literal>openvz</literal>,
1368 <literal>lxc</literal>,
1369 <literal>lxc-libvirt</literal>,
1370 <literal>systemd-nspawn</literal>,
1371 <literal>docker</literal>,
1372 <literal>podman</literal>,
1373 <literal>rkt</literal>,
1374 <literal>wsl</literal>,
1375 <literal>proot</literal>,
1376 <literal>pouch</literal>,
1377 <literal>acrn</literal> to test
1378 against a specific implementation, or
1379 <literal>private-users</literal> to check whether we are running in a user namespace. See
1380 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-detect-virt</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1381 for a full list of known virtualization technologies and their identifiers. If multiple
1382 virtualization technologies are nested, only the innermost is considered. The test may be negated
1383 by prepending an exclamation mark.</para>
1384
1385 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1386 </listitem>
1387 </varlistentry>
1388
1389 <varlistentry>
1390 <term><varname>ConditionHost=</varname></term>
1391
1392 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionHost=</varname> may be used to match against the hostname or
1393 machine ID of the host. This either takes a hostname string (optionally with shell style globs)
1394 which is tested against the locally set hostname as returned by
1395 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>gethostname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>, or
1396 a machine ID formatted as string (see
1397 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
1398 The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark.</para>
1399
1400 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1401 </listitem>
1402 </varlistentry>
1403
1404 <varlistentry>
1405 <term><varname>ConditionKernelCommandLine=</varname></term>
1406
1407 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionKernelCommandLine=</varname> may be used to check whether a
1408 specific kernel command line option is set (or if prefixed with the exclamation mark — unset). The
1409 argument must either be a single word, or an assignment (i.e. two words, separated by
1410 <literal>=</literal>). In the former case the kernel command line is searched for the word
1411 appearing as is, or as left hand side of an assignment. In the latter case, the exact assignment is
1412 looked for with right and left hand side matching. This operates on the kernel command line
1413 communicated to userspace via <filename>/proc/cmdline</filename>, except when the service manager
1414 is invoked as payload of a container manager, in which case the command line of <filename>PID
1415 1</filename> is used instead (i.e. <filename>/proc/1/cmdline</filename>).</para>
1416
1417 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1418 </listitem>
1419 </varlistentry>
1420
1421 <varlistentry>
1422 <term><varname>ConditionKernelVersion=</varname></term>
1423
1424 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionKernelVersion=</varname> may be used to check whether the kernel
1425 version (as reported by <command>uname -r</command>) matches a certain expression, or if prefixed
1426 with the exclamation mark, does not match. The argument must be a list of (potentially quoted)
1427 expressions. Each expression starts with one of <literal>=</literal> or <literal>!=</literal> for
1428 string comparisons, <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>==</literal>,
1429 <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;</literal> for version
1430 comparisons, or <literal>$=</literal>, <literal>!$=</literal> for a shell-style glob match. If no
1431 operator is specified, <literal>$=</literal> is implied.</para>
1432
1433 <para>Note that using the kernel version string is an unreliable way to determine which features
1434 are supported by a kernel, because of the widespread practice of backporting drivers, features, and
1435 fixes from newer upstream kernels into older versions provided by distributions. Hence, this check
1436 is inherently unportable and should not be used for units which may be used on different
1437 distributions.</para>
1438
1439 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1440 </listitem>
1441 </varlistentry>
1442
1443 <varlistentry>
1444 <term><varname>ConditionCredential=</varname></term>
1445
1446 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionCredential=</varname> may be used to check whether a credential
1447 by the specified name was passed into the service manager. See <ulink
1448 url="https://systemd.io/CREDENTIALS">System and Service Credentials</ulink> for details about
1449 credentials. If used in services for the system service manager this may be used to conditionalize
1450 services based on system credentials passed in. If used in services for the per-user service
1451 manager this may be used to conditionalize services based on credentials passed into the
1452 <filename>unit@.service</filename> service instance belonging to the user. The argument must be a
1453 valid credential name.</para>
1454
1455 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v252"/></listitem>
1456 </varlistentry>
1457
1458 <varlistentry>
1459 <term><varname>ConditionEnvironment=</varname></term>
1460
1461 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionEnvironment=</varname> may be used to check whether a specific
1462 environment variable is set (or if prefixed with the exclamation mark — unset) in the service
1463 manager's environment block.
1464
1465 The argument may be a single word, to check if the variable with this name is defined in the
1466 environment block, or an assignment
1467 (<literal><replaceable>name</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>), to check if
1468 the variable with this exact value is defined. Note that the environment block of the service
1469 manager itself is checked, i.e. not any variables defined with <varname>Environment=</varname> or
1470 <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>, as described above. This is particularly useful when the
1471 service manager runs inside a containerized environment or as per-user service manager, in order to
1472 check for variables passed in by the enclosing container manager or PAM.</para>
1473
1474 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v246"/>
1475 </listitem>
1476 </varlistentry>
1477
1478 <varlistentry>
1479 <term><varname>ConditionSecurity=</varname></term>
1480
1481 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionSecurity=</varname> may be used to check whether the given
1482 security technology is enabled on the system. Currently, the recognized values are
1483 <literal>selinux</literal>, <literal>apparmor</literal>, <literal>tomoyo</literal>,
1484 <literal>ima</literal>, <literal>smack</literal>, <literal>audit</literal>,
1485 <literal>uefi-secureboot</literal>, <literal>tpm2</literal> and <literal>cvm</literal>.
1486 The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark.</para>
1487
1488 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1489 </listitem>
1490 </varlistentry>
1491
1492 <varlistentry>
1493 <term><varname>ConditionCapability=</varname></term>
1494
1495 <listitem><para>Check whether the given capability exists in the capability bounding set of the
1496 service manager (i.e. this does not check whether capability is actually available in the permitted
1497 or effective sets, see
1498 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1499 for details). Pass a capability name such as <literal>CAP_MKNOD</literal>, possibly prefixed with
1500 an exclamation mark to negate the check.</para>
1501
1502 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1503 </listitem>
1504 </varlistentry>
1505
1506 <varlistentry>
1507 <term><varname>ConditionACPower=</varname></term>
1508
1509 <listitem><para>Check whether the system has AC power, or is exclusively battery powered at the
1510 time of activation of the unit. This takes a boolean argument. If set to <literal>true</literal>,
1511 the condition will hold only if at least one AC connector of the system is connected to a power
1512 source, or if no AC connectors are known. Conversely, if set to <literal>false</literal>, the
1513 condition will hold only if there is at least one AC connector known and all AC connectors are
1514 disconnected from a power source.</para>
1515
1516 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1517 </listitem>
1518 </varlistentry>
1519
1520 <varlistentry>
1521 <term><varname>ConditionNeedsUpdate=</varname></term>
1522
1523 <listitem><para>Takes one of <filename>/var/</filename> or <filename>/etc/</filename> as argument,
1524 possibly prefixed with a <literal>!</literal> (to invert the condition). This condition may be
1525 used to conditionalize units on whether the specified directory requires an update because
1526 <filename>/usr/</filename>'s modification time is newer than the stamp file
1527 <filename>.updated</filename> in the specified directory. This is useful to implement offline
1528 updates of the vendor operating system resources in <filename>/usr/</filename> that require updating
1529 of <filename>/etc/</filename> or <filename>/var/</filename> on the next following boot. Units making
1530 use of this condition should order themselves before
1531 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-update-done.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1532 to make sure they run before the stamp file's modification time gets reset indicating a completed
1533 update.</para>
1534
1535 <para>If the <varname>systemd.condition-needs-update=</varname> option is specified on the kernel
1536 command line (taking a boolean), it will override the result of this condition check, taking
1537 precedence over any file modification time checks. If the kernel command line option is used,
1538 <filename>systemd-update-done.service</filename> will not have immediate effect on any following
1539 <varname>ConditionNeedsUpdate=</varname> checks, until the system is rebooted where the kernel
1540 command line option is not specified anymore.</para>
1541
1542 <para>Note that to make this scheme effective, the timestamp of <filename>/usr/</filename> should
1543 be explicitly updated after its contents are modified. The kernel will automatically update
1544 modification timestamp on a directory only when immediate children of a directory are modified; an
1545 modification of nested files will not automatically result in mtime of <filename>/usr/</filename>
1546 being updated.</para>
1547
1548 <para>Also note that if the update method includes a call to execute appropriate post-update steps
1549 itself, it should not touch the timestamp of <filename>/usr/</filename>. In a typical distribution
1550 packaging scheme, packages will do any required update steps as part of the installation or
1551 upgrade, to make package contents immediately usable. <varname>ConditionNeedsUpdate=</varname>
1552 should be used with other update mechanisms where such an immediate update does not
1553 happen.</para>
1554
1555 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/></listitem>
1556 </varlistentry>
1557
1558 <varlistentry>
1559 <term><varname>ConditionFirstBoot=</varname></term>
1560
1561 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. This condition may be used to conditionalize units on
1562 whether the system is booting up for the first time. This roughly means that <filename>/etc/</filename>
1563 was unpopulated when the system started booting (for details, see "First Boot Semantics" in
1564 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
1565 First boot is considered finished (this condition will evaluate as false) after the manager
1566 has finished the startup phase.</para>
1567
1568 <para>This condition may be used to populate <filename>/etc/</filename> on the first boot after
1569 factory reset, or when a new system instance boots up for the first time.</para>
1570
1571 <para>For robustness, units with <varname>ConditionFirstBoot=yes</varname> should order themselves
1572 before <filename>first-boot-complete.target</filename> and pull in this passive target with
1573 <varname>Wants=</varname>. This ensures that in a case of an aborted first boot, these units will
1574 be re-run during the next system startup.</para>
1575
1576 <para>If the <varname>systemd.condition-first-boot=</varname> option is specified on the kernel
1577 command line (taking a boolean), it will override the result of this condition check, taking
1578 precedence over <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename> existence checks.</para>
1579
1580 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1581 </listitem>
1582 </varlistentry>
1583
1584 <varlistentry>
1585 <term><varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname></term>
1586
1587 <listitem><para>Check for the existence of a file. If the specified absolute path name does not exist,
1588 the condition will fail. If the absolute path name passed to
1589 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> is prefixed with an exclamation mark
1590 (<literal>!</literal>), the test is negated, and the unit is only started if the path does not
1591 exist.</para>
1592
1593 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1594 </listitem>
1595 </varlistentry>
1596
1597 <varlistentry>
1598 <term><varname>ConditionPathExistsGlob=</varname></term>
1599
1600 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathExistsGlob=</varname> is similar to
1601 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname>, but checks for the existence of at least one file or
1602 directory matching the specified globbing pattern.</para>
1603
1604 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1605 </listitem>
1606 </varlistentry>
1607
1608 <varlistentry>
1609 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsDirectory=</varname></term>
1610
1611 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsDirectory=</varname> is similar to
1612 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a
1613 directory.</para>
1614
1615 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1616 </listitem>
1617 </varlistentry>
1618
1619 <varlistentry>
1620 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname></term>
1621
1622 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname> is similar to
1623 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a symbolic
1624 link.</para>
1625
1626 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1627 </listitem>
1628 </varlistentry>
1629
1630 <varlistentry>
1631 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsMountPoint=</varname></term>
1632
1633 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsMountPoint=</varname> is similar to
1634 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a mount
1635 point.</para>
1636
1637 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1638 </listitem>
1639 </varlistentry>
1640
1641 <varlistentry>
1642 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsReadWrite=</varname></term>
1643
1644 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsReadWrite=</varname> is similar to
1645 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that the underlying file system is readable
1646 and writable (i.e. not mounted read-only).</para>
1647
1648 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1649 </listitem>
1650 </varlistentry>
1651
1652 <varlistentry>
1653 <term><varname>ConditionPathIsEncrypted=</varname></term>
1654
1655 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsEncrypted=</varname> is similar to
1656 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that the underlying file system's backing
1657 block device is encrypted using dm-crypt/LUKS. Note that this check does not cover ext4
1658 per-directory encryption, and only detects block level encryption. Moreover, if the specified path
1659 resides on a file system on top of a loopback block device, only encryption above the loopback device is
1660 detected. It is not detected whether the file system backing the loopback block device is encrypted.</para>
1661
1662 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v246"/>
1663 </listitem>
1664 </varlistentry>
1665
1666 <varlistentry>
1667 <term><varname>ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname></term>
1668
1669 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname> is similar to
1670 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a non-empty
1671 directory.</para>
1672
1673 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1674 </listitem>
1675 </varlistentry>
1676
1677 <varlistentry>
1678 <term><varname>ConditionFileNotEmpty=</varname></term>
1679
1680 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionFileNotEmpty=</varname> is similar to
1681 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and refers to a
1682 regular file with a non-zero size.</para>
1683
1684 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1685 </listitem>
1686 </varlistentry>
1687
1688 <varlistentry>
1689 <term><varname>ConditionFileIsExecutable=</varname></term>
1690
1691 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionFileIsExecutable=</varname> is similar to
1692 <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists, is a regular file,
1693 and marked executable.</para>
1694
1695 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1696 </listitem>
1697 </varlistentry>
1698
1699 <varlistentry>
1700 <term><varname>ConditionUser=</varname></term>
1701
1702 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionUser=</varname> takes a numeric <literal>UID</literal>, a UNIX
1703 user name, or the special value <literal>@system</literal>. This condition may be used to check
1704 whether the service manager is running as the given user. The special value
1705 <literal>@system</literal> can be used to check if the user id is within the system user
1706 range. This option is not useful for system services, as the system manager exclusively runs as the
1707 root user, and thus the test result is constant.</para>
1708
1709 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1710 </listitem>
1711 </varlistentry>
1712
1713 <varlistentry>
1714 <term><varname>ConditionGroup=</varname></term>
1715
1716 <listitem><para><varname>ConditionGroup=</varname> is similar to <varname>ConditionUser=</varname>
1717 but verifies that the service manager's real or effective group, or any of its auxiliary groups,
1718 match the specified group or GID. This setting does not support the special value
1719 <literal>@system</literal>.</para>
1720
1721 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1722 </listitem>
1723 </varlistentry>
1724
1725 <varlistentry>
1726 <term><varname>ConditionControlGroupController=</varname></term>
1727
1728 <listitem><para>Check whether given cgroup controllers (e.g. <literal>cpu</literal>) are available
1729 for use on the system or whether the legacy v1 cgroup or the modern v2 cgroup hierarchy is used.
1730 </para>
1731
1732 <para>Multiple controllers may be passed with a space separating them; in this case the condition
1733 will only pass if all listed controllers are available for use. Controllers unknown to systemd are
1734 ignored. Valid controllers are <literal>cpu</literal>, <literal>io</literal>,
1735 <literal>memory</literal>, and <literal>pids</literal>. Even if available in the kernel, a
1736 particular controller may not be available if it was disabled on the kernel command line with
1737 <varname>cgroup_disable=controller</varname>.</para>
1738
1739 <para>Alternatively, two special strings <literal>v1</literal> and <literal>v2</literal> may be
1740 specified (without any controller names). <literal>v2</literal> will pass if the unified v2 cgroup
1741 hierarchy is used, and <literal>v1</literal> will pass if the legacy v1 hierarchy or the hybrid
1742 hierarchy are used. Note that legacy or hybrid hierarchies have been deprecated. See
1743 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
1744 more information.</para>
1745
1746 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1747 </listitem>
1748 </varlistentry>
1749
1750 <varlistentry>
1751 <term><varname>ConditionMemory=</varname></term>
1752
1753 <listitem><para>Verify that the specified amount of system memory is available to the current
1754 system. Takes a memory size in bytes as argument, optionally prefixed with a comparison operator
1755 <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>=</literal> (or <literal>==</literal>),
1756 <literal>!=</literal> (or <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>), <literal>&gt;=</literal>,
1757 <literal>&gt;</literal>. On bare-metal systems compares the amount of physical memory in the system
1758 with the specified size, adhering to the specified comparison operator. In containers compares the
1759 amount of memory assigned to the container instead.</para>
1760
1761 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/>
1762 </listitem>
1763 </varlistentry>
1764
1765 <varlistentry>
1766 <term><varname>ConditionCPUs=</varname></term>
1767
1768 <listitem><para>Verify that the specified number of CPUs is available to the current system. Takes
1769 a number of CPUs as argument, optionally prefixed with a comparison operator
1770 <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>=</literal> (or <literal>==</literal>),
1771 <literal>!=</literal> (or <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>), <literal>&gt;=</literal>,
1772 <literal>&gt;</literal>. Compares the number of CPUs in the CPU affinity mask configured of the
1773 service manager itself with the specified number, adhering to the specified comparison operator. On
1774 physical systems the number of CPUs in the affinity mask of the service manager usually matches the
1775 number of physical CPUs, but in special and virtual environments might differ. In particular, in
1776 containers the affinity mask usually matches the number of CPUs assigned to the container and not
1777 the physically available ones.</para>
1778
1779 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/></listitem>
1780 </varlistentry>
1781
1782 <varlistentry>
1783 <term><varname>ConditionCPUFeature=</varname></term>
1784
1785 <listitem><para>Verify that a given CPU feature is available via the <literal>CPUID</literal>
1786 instruction. This condition only does something on i386 and x86-64 processors. On other
1787 processors it is assumed that the CPU does not support the given feature. It checks the leaves
1788 <literal>1</literal>, <literal>7</literal>, <literal>0x80000001</literal>, and
1789 <literal>0x80000007</literal>. Valid values are:
1790 <literal>fpu</literal>,
1791 <literal>vme</literal>,
1792 <literal>de</literal>,
1793 <literal>pse</literal>,
1794 <literal>tsc</literal>,
1795 <literal>msr</literal>,
1796 <literal>pae</literal>,
1797 <literal>mce</literal>,
1798 <literal>cx8</literal>,
1799 <literal>apic</literal>,
1800 <literal>sep</literal>,
1801 <literal>mtrr</literal>,
1802 <literal>pge</literal>,
1803 <literal>mca</literal>,
1804 <literal>cmov</literal>,
1805 <literal>pat</literal>,
1806 <literal>pse36</literal>,
1807 <literal>clflush</literal>,
1808 <literal>mmx</literal>,
1809 <literal>fxsr</literal>,
1810 <literal>sse</literal>,
1811 <literal>sse2</literal>,
1812 <literal>ht</literal>,
1813 <literal>pni</literal>,
1814 <literal>pclmul</literal>,
1815 <literal>monitor</literal>,
1816 <literal>ssse3</literal>,
1817 <literal>fma3</literal>,
1818 <literal>cx16</literal>,
1819 <literal>sse4_1</literal>,
1820 <literal>sse4_2</literal>,
1821 <literal>movbe</literal>,
1822 <literal>popcnt</literal>,
1823 <literal>aes</literal>,
1824 <literal>xsave</literal>,
1825 <literal>osxsave</literal>,
1826 <literal>avx</literal>,
1827 <literal>f16c</literal>,
1828 <literal>rdrand</literal>,
1829 <literal>bmi1</literal>,
1830 <literal>avx2</literal>,
1831 <literal>bmi2</literal>,
1832 <literal>rdseed</literal>,
1833 <literal>adx</literal>,
1834 <literal>sha_ni</literal>,
1835 <literal>syscall</literal>,
1836 <literal>rdtscp</literal>,
1837 <literal>lm</literal>,
1838 <literal>lahf_lm</literal>,
1839 <literal>abm</literal>,
1840 <literal>constant_tsc</literal>.</para>
1841
1842 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v248"/>
1843 </listitem>
1844 </varlistentry>
1845
1846 <varlistentry>
1847 <term><varname>ConditionOSRelease=</varname></term>
1848
1849 <listitem><para>Verify that a specific <literal>key=value</literal> pair is set in the host's
1850 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>os-release</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
1851
1852 <para>Other than exact string matching (with <literal>=</literal> and <literal>!=</literal>),
1853 relative comparisons are supported for versioned parameters (e.g. <literal>VERSION_ID</literal>;
1854 with <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>==</literal>,
1855 <literal>&lt;&gt;</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;</literal>), and shell-style
1856 wildcard comparisons (<literal>*</literal>, <literal>?</literal>, <literal>[]</literal>) are
1857 supported with the <literal>$=</literal> (match) and <literal>!$=</literal> (non-match).</para>
1858
1859 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/>
1860 </listitem>
1861 </varlistentry>
1862
1863 <varlistentry>
1864 <term><varname>ConditionMemoryPressure=</varname></term>
1865 <term><varname>ConditionCPUPressure=</varname></term>
1866 <term><varname>ConditionIOPressure=</varname></term>
1867
1868 <listitem><para>Verify that the overall system (memory, CPU or IO) pressure is below or equal to a threshold.
1869 This setting takes a threshold value as argument. It can be specified as a simple percentage value,
1870 suffixed with <literal>%</literal>, in which case the pressure will be measured as an average over the last
1871 five minutes before the attempt to start the unit is performed.
1872 Alternatively, the average timespan can also be specified using <literal>/</literal> as a separator, for
1873 example: <literal>10%/1min</literal>. The supported timespans match what the kernel provides, and are
1874 limited to <literal>10sec</literal>, <literal>1min</literal> and <literal>5min</literal>. The
1875 <literal>full</literal> PSI will be checked first, and if not found <literal>some</literal> will be
1876 checked. For more details, see the documentation on <ulink
1877 url="https://docs.kernel.org/accounting/psi.html">PSI (Pressure Stall Information)
1878 </ulink>.</para>
1879
1880 <para>Optionally, the threshold value can be prefixed with the slice unit under which the pressure will be checked,
1881 followed by a <literal>:</literal>. If the slice unit is not specified, the overall system pressure will be measured,
1882 instead of a particular cgroup's.</para>
1883
1884 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v250"/>
1885 </listitem>
1886 </varlistentry>
1887
1888 <varlistentry>
1889 <term><varname>AssertArchitecture=</varname></term>
1890 <term><varname>AssertVirtualization=</varname></term>
1891 <term><varname>AssertHost=</varname></term>
1892 <term><varname>AssertKernelCommandLine=</varname></term>
1893 <term><varname>AssertKernelVersion=</varname></term>
1894 <term><varname>AssertCredential=</varname></term>
1895 <term><varname>AssertEnvironment=</varname></term>
1896 <term><varname>AssertSecurity=</varname></term>
1897 <term><varname>AssertCapability=</varname></term>
1898 <term><varname>AssertACPower=</varname></term>
1899 <term><varname>AssertNeedsUpdate=</varname></term>
1900 <term><varname>AssertFirstBoot=</varname></term>
1901 <term><varname>AssertPathExists=</varname></term>
1902 <term><varname>AssertPathExistsGlob=</varname></term>
1903 <term><varname>AssertPathIsDirectory=</varname></term>
1904 <term><varname>AssertPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname></term>
1905 <term><varname>AssertPathIsMountPoint=</varname></term>
1906 <term><varname>AssertPathIsReadWrite=</varname></term>
1907 <term><varname>AssertPathIsEncrypted=</varname></term>
1908 <term><varname>AssertDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname></term>
1909 <term><varname>AssertFileNotEmpty=</varname></term>
1910 <term><varname>AssertFileIsExecutable=</varname></term>
1911 <term><varname>AssertUser=</varname></term>
1912 <term><varname>AssertGroup=</varname></term>
1913 <term><varname>AssertControlGroupController=</varname></term>
1914 <term><varname>AssertMemory=</varname></term>
1915 <term><varname>AssertCPUs=</varname></term>
1916 <term><varname>AssertCPUFeature=</varname></term>
1917 <term><varname>AssertOSRelease=</varname></term>
1918 <term><varname>AssertMemoryPressure=</varname></term>
1919 <term><varname>AssertCPUPressure=</varname></term>
1920 <term><varname>AssertIOPressure=</varname></term>
1921
1922 <listitem><para>Similar to the <varname>ConditionArchitecture=</varname>,
1923 <varname>ConditionVirtualization=</varname>, …, condition settings described above, these settings
1924 add assertion checks to the start-up of the unit. However, unlike the conditions settings, any
1925 assertion setting that is not met results in failure of the start job (which means this is logged
1926 loudly). Note that hitting a configured assertion does not cause the unit to enter the
1927 <literal>failed</literal> state (or in fact result in any state change of the unit), it affects
1928 only the job queued for it. Use assertion expressions for units that cannot operate when specific
1929 requirements are not met, and when this is something the administrator or user should look
1930 into.</para>
1931
1932 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v218"/>
1933 </listitem>
1934 </varlistentry>
1935 </variablelist>
1936 </refsect2>
1937 </refsect1>
1938
1939 <refsect1>
1940 <title>Mapping of unit properties to their inverses</title>
1941
1942 <para>Unit settings that create a relationship with a second unit usually show up
1943 in properties of both units, for example in <command>systemctl show</command>
1944 output. In some cases the name of the property is the same as the name of the
1945 configuration setting, but not always. This table lists the properties
1946 that are shown on two units which are connected through some dependency, and shows
1947 which property on "source" unit corresponds to which property on the "target" unit.
1948 </para>
1949
1950 <table>
1951 <title>
1952 "Forward" and "reverse" unit properties
1953 </title>
1954
1955 <tgroup cols='4'>
1956 <colspec colname='forward' />
1957 <colspec colname='reverse' />
1958 <colspec colname='fuse' />
1959 <colspec colname='ruse' />
1960 <thead>
1961 <row>
1962 <entry>"Forward" property</entry>
1963 <entry>"Reverse" property</entry>
1964 <entry namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>Where used</entry>
1965 </row>
1966 </thead>
1967 <tbody>
1968 <row>
1969 <entry><varname>Before=</varname></entry>
1970 <entry><varname>After=</varname></entry>
1971 <entry morerows='1' namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>[Unit] section</entry>
1972 </row>
1973 <row>
1974 <entry><varname>After=</varname></entry>
1975 <entry><varname>Before=</varname></entry>
1976 </row>
1977 <row>
1978 <entry><varname>Requires=</varname></entry>
1979 <entry><varname>RequiredBy=</varname></entry>
1980 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
1981 <entry>[Install] section</entry>
1982 </row>
1983 <row>
1984 <entry><varname>Wants=</varname></entry>
1985 <entry><varname>WantedBy=</varname></entry>
1986 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
1987 <entry>[Install] section</entry>
1988 </row>
1989 <row>
1990 <entry><varname>Upholds=</varname></entry>
1991 <entry><varname>UpheldBy=</varname></entry>
1992 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
1993 <entry>[Install] section</entry>
1994 </row>
1995 <row>
1996 <entry><varname>PartOf=</varname></entry>
1997 <entry><varname>ConsistsOf=</varname></entry>
1998 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
1999 <entry>an automatic property</entry>
2000 </row>
2001 <row>
2002 <entry><varname>BindsTo=</varname></entry>
2003 <entry><varname>BoundBy=</varname></entry>
2004 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2005 <entry>an automatic property</entry>
2006 </row>
2007 <row>
2008 <entry><varname>Requisite=</varname></entry>
2009 <entry><varname>RequisiteOf=</varname></entry>
2010 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2011 <entry>an automatic property</entry>
2012 </row>
2013 <row>
2014 <entry><varname>Triggers=</varname></entry>
2015 <entry><varname>TriggeredBy=</varname></entry>
2016 <entry namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>Automatic properties, see notes below</entry>
2017 </row>
2018 <row>
2019 <entry><varname>Conflicts=</varname></entry>
2020 <entry><varname>ConflictedBy=</varname></entry>
2021 <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
2022 <entry>an automatic property</entry>
2023 </row>
2024 <row>
2025 <entry><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></entry>
2026 <entry><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></entry>
2027 <entry morerows='1' namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>[Unit] section</entry>
2028 </row>
2029 <row>
2030 <entry><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></entry>
2031 <entry><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></entry>
2032 </row>
2033 <row>
2034 <entry><varname>Following=</varname></entry>
2035 <entry>n/a</entry>
2036 <entry>An automatic property</entry>
2037 </row>
2038 </tbody>
2039 </tgroup>
2040 </table>
2041
2042 <para>Note: <varname>WantedBy=</varname>, <varname>RequiredBy=</varname>, and <varname>UpheldBy=</varname>
2043 are used in the [Install] section to create symlinks in <filename>.wants/</filename>,
2044 <filename>.requires/</filename>, and <filename>.upholds/</filename> directories. They cannot be used
2045 directly as a unit configuration setting.</para>
2046
2047 <para>Note: <varname>ConsistsOf=</varname>, <varname>BoundBy=</varname>,
2048 <varname>RequisiteOf=</varname>, <varname>ConflictedBy=</varname> are created
2049 implicitly along with their reverses and cannot be specified directly.</para>
2050
2051 <para>Note: <varname>Triggers=</varname> is created implicitly between a socket,
2052 path unit, or an automount unit, and the unit they activate. By default a unit
2053 with the same name is triggered, but this can be overridden using
2054 <varname>Sockets=</varname>, <varname>Service=</varname>, and <varname>Unit=</varname>
2055 settings. See
2056 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2057 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2058 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2059 and
2060 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
2061 for details. <varname>TriggeredBy=</varname> is created implicitly on the
2062 triggered unit.</para>
2063
2064 <para>Note: <varname>Following=</varname> is used to group device aliases and points to the
2065 "primary" device unit that systemd is using to track device state, usually corresponding to a
2066 sysfs path. It does not show up in the "target" unit.</para>
2067 </refsect1>
2068
2069 <refsect1>
2070 <title>[Install] Section Options</title>
2071
2072 <para>Unit files may include an [Install] section, which carries installation information for
2073 the unit. This section is not interpreted by
2074 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> during runtime; it is
2075 used by the <command>enable</command> and <command>disable</command> commands of the
2076 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> tool during
2077 installation of a unit.</para>
2078
2079 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
2080 <varlistentry>
2081 <term><varname>Alias=</varname></term>
2082
2083 <listitem><para>A space-separated list of additional names this unit shall be installed under. The names listed
2084 here must have the same suffix (i.e. type) as the unit filename. This option may be specified more than once,
2085 in which case all listed names are used. At installation time, <command>systemctl enable</command> will create
2086 symlinks from these names to the unit filename. Note that not all unit types support such alias names, and this
2087 setting is not supported for them. Specifically, mount, slice, swap, and automount units do not support
2088 aliasing.</para>
2089
2090 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
2091 </varlistentry>
2092
2093 <varlistentry>
2094 <term><varname>WantedBy=</varname></term>
2095 <term><varname>RequiredBy=</varname></term>
2096 <term><varname>UpheldBy=</varname></term>
2097
2098 <listitem><para>This option may be used more than once, or a space-separated list of unit names may
2099 be given. A symbolic link is created in the <filename>.wants/</filename>, <filename>.requires/</filename>,
2100 or <filename>.upholds/</filename> directory of each of the listed units when this unit is installed
2101 by <command>systemctl enable</command>. This has the effect of a dependency of type
2102 <varname>Wants=</varname>, <varname>Requires=</varname>, or <varname>Upholds=</varname> being added
2103 from the listed unit to the current unit. See the description of the mentioned dependency types
2104 in the [Unit] section for details.</para>
2105
2106 <para>In case of template units listing non template units, the listing unit must have
2107 <varname>DefaultInstance=</varname> set, or <command>systemctl enable</command> must be called with
2108 an instance name. The instance (default or specified) will be added to the
2109 <filename>.wants/</filename>, <filename>.requires/</filename>, or <filename>.upholds/</filename>
2110 list of the listed unit. For example, <command>WantedBy=getty.target</command> in a service
2111 <filename>getty@.service</filename> will result in <command>systemctl enable getty@tty2.service</command>
2112 creating a <filename>getty.target.wants/getty@tty2.service</filename> link to
2113 <filename>getty@.service</filename>. This also applies to listing specific instances of templated
2114 units: this specific instance will gain the dependency. A template unit may also list a template
2115 unit, in which case a generic dependency will be added where each instance of the listing unit will
2116 have a dependency on an instance of the listed template with the same instance value. For example,
2117 <command>WantedBy=container@.target</command> in a service <filename>monitor@.service</filename> will
2118 result in <command>systemctl enable monitor@.service</command> creating a
2119 <filename>container@.target.wants/monitor@.service</filename> link to
2120 <filename>monitor@.service</filename>, which applies to all instances of
2121 <filename>container@.target</filename>.</para>
2122
2123 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
2124 </varlistentry>
2125
2126 <varlistentry>
2127 <term><varname>Also=</varname></term>
2128
2129 <listitem><para>Additional units to install/deinstall when
2130 this unit is installed/deinstalled. If the user requests
2131 installation/deinstallation of a unit with this option
2132 configured, <command>systemctl enable</command> and
2133 <command>systemctl disable</command> will automatically
2134 install/uninstall units listed in this option as well.</para>
2135
2136 <para>This option may be used more than once, or a
2137 space-separated list of unit names may be
2138 given.</para>
2139
2140 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v201"/></listitem>
2141 </varlistentry>
2142
2143 <varlistentry>
2144 <term><varname>DefaultInstance=</varname></term>
2145
2146 <listitem><para>In template unit files, this specifies for
2147 which instance the unit shall be enabled if the template is
2148 enabled without any explicitly set instance. This option has
2149 no effect in non-template unit files. The specified string
2150 must be usable as instance identifier.</para>
2151
2152 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v215"/></listitem>
2153 </varlistentry>
2154 </variablelist>
2155
2156 <para>The following specifiers are interpreted in the Install section:
2157 %a, %b, %B, %g, %G, %H, %i, %j, %l, %m, %n, %N, %o, %p, %u, %U, %v, %w, %W, %%.
2158 For their meaning see the next section.</para>
2159 </refsect1>
2160
2161 <refsect1>
2162 <title>Specifiers</title>
2163
2164 <para>Many settings resolve specifiers which may be used to write
2165 generic unit files referring to runtime or unit parameters that
2166 are replaced when the unit files are loaded. Specifiers must be known
2167 and resolvable for the setting to be valid. The following
2168 specifiers are understood:</para>
2169
2170 <table class='specifiers'>
2171 <title>Specifiers available in unit files</title>
2172 <tgroup cols='3' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
2173 <colspec colname="spec" />
2174 <colspec colname="mean" />
2175 <colspec colname="detail" />
2176 <thead>
2177 <row>
2178 <entry>Specifier</entry>
2179 <entry>Meaning</entry>
2180 <entry>Details</entry>
2181 </row>
2182 </thead>
2183 <tbody>
2184 <row>
2185 <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since it includes a
2186 reference onto our own man page, which would make the rendered version self-referential. -->
2187 <entry><literal>%a</literal></entry>
2188 <entry>Architecture</entry>
2189 <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>
2190 </row>
2191 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="A"/>
2192 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="b"/>
2193 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="B"/>
2194 <row>
2195 <entry><literal>%C</literal></entry>
2196 <entry>Cache directory root</entry>
2197 <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>
2198 </row>
2199 <row>
2200 <entry><literal>%d</literal></entry>
2201 <entry>Credentials directory</entry>
2202 <entry>This is the value of the <literal>$CREDENTIALS_DIRECTORY</literal> environment variable if available. See section "Credentials" in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for more information.</entry>
2203 </row>
2204 <row>
2205 <entry><literal>%E</literal></entry>
2206 <entry>Configuration directory root</entry>
2207 <entry>This is either <filename>/etc/</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</literal> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
2208 </row>
2209 <row>
2210 <entry><literal>%f</literal></entry>
2211 <entry>Unescaped filename</entry>
2212 <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>
2213 </row>
2214 <row>
2215 <entry><literal>%g</literal></entry>
2216 <entry>User group</entry>
2217 <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>
2218 </row>
2219 <row>
2220 <entry><literal>%G</literal></entry>
2221 <entry>User GID</entry>
2222 <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>
2223 </row>
2224 <row>
2225 <entry><literal>%h</literal></entry>
2226 <entry>User home directory</entry>
2227 <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>.
2228
2229 Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
2230 </row>
2231 <row>
2232 <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since we want a
2233 slightly more verbose explanation here, referring to the reload cycle. -->
2234 <entry><literal>%H</literal></entry>
2235 <entry>Host name</entry>
2236 <entry>The hostname of the running system at the point in time the unit configuration is loaded.</entry>
2237 </row>
2238 <row>
2239 <entry><literal>%i</literal></entry>
2240 <entry>Instance name</entry>
2241 <entry>For instantiated units this is the string between the first <literal>@</literal> character and the type suffix. Empty for non-instantiated units.</entry>
2242 </row>
2243 <row>
2244 <entry><literal>%I</literal></entry>
2245 <entry>Unescaped instance name</entry>
2246 <entry>Same as <literal>%i</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
2247 </row>
2248 <row>
2249 <entry><literal>%j</literal></entry>
2250 <entry>Final component of the prefix</entry>
2251 <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>
2252 </row>
2253 <row>
2254 <entry><literal>%J</literal></entry>
2255 <entry>Unescaped final component of the prefix</entry>
2256 <entry>Same as <literal>%j</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
2257 </row>
2258 <row>
2259 <entry><literal>%l</literal></entry>
2260 <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since we want a
2261 slightly more verbose explanation here, referring to the reload cycle. -->
2262 <entry>Short host name</entry>
2263 <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>
2264 </row>
2265 <row>
2266 <entry><literal>%L</literal></entry>
2267 <entry>Log directory root</entry>
2268 <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>
2269 </row>
2270 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="m"/>
2271 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="M"/>
2272 <row>
2273 <entry><literal>%n</literal></entry>
2274 <entry>Full unit name</entry>
2275 <entry></entry>
2276 </row>
2277 <row>
2278 <entry><literal>%N</literal></entry>
2279 <entry>Full unit name</entry>
2280 <entry>Same as <literal>%n</literal>, but with the type suffix removed.</entry>
2281 </row>
2282 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="o"/>
2283 <row>
2284 <entry><literal>%p</literal></entry>
2285 <entry>Prefix name</entry>
2286 <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>
2287 </row>
2288 <row>
2289 <entry><literal>%P</literal></entry>
2290 <entry>Unescaped prefix name</entry>
2291 <entry>Same as <literal>%p</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
2292 </row>
2293 <row>
2294 <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since we want a
2295 slightly more verbose explanation here, referring to the reload cycle. -->
2296 <entry><literal>%q</literal></entry>
2297 <entry>Pretty host name</entry>
2298 <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>
2299 </row>
2300 <row>
2301 <entry><literal>%s</literal></entry>
2302 <entry>User shell</entry>
2303 <entry>This is the shell of the user running the service manager instance.</entry>
2304 </row>
2305 <row>
2306 <entry><literal>%S</literal></entry>
2307 <entry>State directory root</entry>
2308 <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>
2309 </row>
2310 <row>
2311 <entry><literal>%t</literal></entry>
2312 <entry>Runtime directory root</entry>
2313 <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>
2314 </row>
2315 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="T"/>
2316 <row>
2317 <entry><literal>%u</literal></entry>
2318 <entry>User name</entry>
2319 <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>.
2320
2321 Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
2322 </row>
2323 <row>
2324 <entry><literal>%U</literal></entry>
2325 <entry>User UID</entry>
2326 <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>.
2327
2328 Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
2329 </row>
2330 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="v"/>
2331 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="V"/>
2332 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="w"/>
2333 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="W"/>
2334 <row>
2335 <entry><literal>%y</literal></entry>
2336 <entry>The path to the fragment</entry>
2337 <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>
2338 </row>
2339 <row>
2340 <entry><literal>%Y</literal></entry>
2341 <entry>The directory of the fragment</entry>
2342 <entry>This is the directory part of <literal>%y</literal>.</entry>
2343 </row>
2344 <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="percent"/>
2345 </tbody>
2346 </tgroup>
2347 </table>
2348 </refsect1>
2349
2350 <refsect1>
2351 <title>Examples</title>
2352
2353 <example>
2354 <title>Allowing units to be enabled</title>
2355
2356 <para>The following snippet (highlighted) allows a unit (e.g.
2357 <filename>foo.service</filename>) to be enabled via
2358 <command>systemctl enable</command>:</para>
2359
2360 <programlisting>[Unit]
2361 Description=Foo
2362
2363 [Service]
2364 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
2365
2366 <emphasis>[Install]</emphasis>
2367 <emphasis>WantedBy=multi-user.target</emphasis></programlisting>
2368
2369 <para>After running <command>systemctl enable</command>, a
2370 symlink
2371 <filename index="false">/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/foo.service</filename>
2372 linking to the actual unit will be created. It tells systemd to
2373 pull in the unit when starting
2374 <filename>multi-user.target</filename>. The inverse
2375 <command>systemctl disable</command> will remove that symlink
2376 again.</para>
2377 </example>
2378
2379 <example>
2380 <title>Overriding vendor settings</title>
2381
2382 <para>There are two methods of overriding vendor settings in
2383 unit files: copying the unit file from
2384 <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename> to
2385 <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename> and modifying the
2386 chosen settings. Alternatively, one can create a directory named
2387 <filename><replaceable>unit</replaceable>.d/</filename> within
2388 <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename> and place a drop-in
2389 file <filename><replaceable>name</replaceable>.conf</filename>
2390 there that only changes the specific settings one is interested
2391 in. Note that multiple such drop-in files are read if
2392 present, processed in lexicographic order of their filename.</para>
2393
2394 <para>The advantage of the first method is that one easily
2395 overrides the complete unit, the vendor unit is not parsed at
2396 all anymore. It has the disadvantage that improvements to the
2397 unit file by the vendor are not automatically incorporated on
2398 updates.</para>
2399
2400 <para>The advantage of the second method is that one only
2401 overrides the settings one specifically wants, where updates to
2402 the unit by the vendor automatically apply. This has the
2403 disadvantage that some future updates by the vendor might be
2404 incompatible with the local changes.</para>
2405
2406 <para>This also applies for user instances of systemd, but with
2407 different locations for the unit files. See the section on unit
2408 load paths for further details.</para>
2409
2410 <para>Suppose there is a vendor-supplied unit
2411 <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename> with
2412 the following contents:</para>
2413
2414 <programlisting>[Unit]
2415 Description=Some HTTP server
2416 After=remote-fs.target sqldb.service
2417 Requires=sqldb.service
2418 AssertPathExists=/srv/webserver
2419
2420 [Service]
2421 Type=notify
2422 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/some-fancy-httpd-server
2423 Nice=5
2424
2425 [Install]
2426 WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
2427
2428 <para>Now one wants to change some settings as an administrator:
2429 firstly, in the local setup, <filename>/srv/webserver</filename>
2430 might not exist, because the HTTP server is configured to use
2431 <filename>/srv/www</filename> instead. Secondly, the local
2432 configuration makes the HTTP server also depend on a memory
2433 cache service, <filename>memcached.service</filename>, that
2434 should be pulled in (<varname>Requires=</varname>) and also be
2435 ordered appropriately (<varname>After=</varname>). Thirdly, in
2436 order to harden the service a bit more, the administrator would
2437 like to set the <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> setting (see
2438 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
2439 for details). And lastly, the administrator would like to reset
2440 the niceness of the service to its default value of 0.</para>
2441
2442 <para>The first possibility is to copy the unit file to
2443 <filename>/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename> and
2444 change the chosen settings:</para>
2445
2446 <programlisting>[Unit]
2447 Description=Some HTTP server
2448 After=remote-fs.target sqldb.service <emphasis>memcached.service</emphasis>
2449 Requires=sqldb.service <emphasis>memcached.service</emphasis>
2450 AssertPathExists=<emphasis>/srv/www</emphasis>
2451
2452 [Service]
2453 Type=notify
2454 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/some-fancy-httpd-server
2455 <emphasis>Nice=0</emphasis>
2456 <emphasis>PrivateTmp=yes</emphasis>
2457
2458 [Install]
2459 WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
2460
2461 <para>Alternatively, the administrator could create a drop-in
2462 file
2463 <filename>/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d/local.conf</filename>
2464 with the following contents:</para>
2465
2466 <programlisting>[Unit]
2467 After=memcached.service
2468 Requires=memcached.service
2469 # Reset all assertions and then re-add the condition we want
2470 AssertPathExists=
2471 AssertPathExists=/srv/www
2472
2473 [Service]
2474 Nice=0
2475 PrivateTmp=yes</programlisting>
2476
2477 <para>Note that for drop-in files, if one wants to remove
2478 entries from a setting that is parsed as a list (and is not a
2479 dependency), such as <varname>AssertPathExists=</varname> (or
2480 e.g. <varname>ExecStart=</varname> in service units), one needs
2481 to first clear the list before re-adding all entries except the
2482 one that is to be removed. Dependencies (<varname>After=</varname>, etc.)
2483 cannot be reset to an empty list, so dependencies can only be
2484 added in drop-ins. If you want to remove dependencies, you have
2485 to override the entire unit.</para>
2486
2487 </example>
2488
2489 <example>
2490 <title>Top level drop-ins with template units</title>
2491
2492 <para>Top level per-type drop-ins can be used to change some aspect of
2493 all units of a particular type. For example, by creating the
2494 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/service.d/</filename>
2495 directory with a drop-in file, the contents of the drop-in file can be
2496 applied to all service units. We can take this further by having the
2497 top-level drop-in instantiate a secondary helper unit. Consider for
2498 example the following set of units and drop-in files where we install
2499 an <varname>OnFailure=</varname> dependency for all service units.</para>
2500
2501 <para>
2502 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/failure-handler@.service</filename>:</para>
2503
2504 <programlisting>[Unit]
2505 Description=My failure handler for %i
2506
2507 [Service]
2508 Type=oneshot
2509 # Perform some special action for when %i exits unexpectedly.
2510 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/myfailurehandler %i
2511 </programlisting>
2512
2513 <para>We can then add an instance of
2514 <filename index='false'>failure-handler@.service</filename> as an
2515 <varname>OnFailure=</varname> dependency for all service units.</para>
2516
2517 <para>
2518 <filename index='false'>/etc/systemd/system/service.d/10-all.conf</filename>:</para>
2519
2520 <programlisting>[Unit]
2521 OnFailure=failure-handler@%N.service
2522 </programlisting>
2523
2524 <para>Now, after running <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command> all
2525 services will have acquired an <varname>OnFailure=</varname> dependency on
2526 <filename index='false'>failure-handler@%N.service</filename>. The
2527 template instance units will also have gained the dependency which results
2528 in the creation of a recursive dependency chain. systemd will try to detect
2529 these recursive dependency chains where a template unit directly and
2530 recursively depends on itself and will remove such dependencies
2531 automatically if it finds them. If systemd doesn't detect the recursive
2532 dependency chain, we can break the chain ourselves by disabling the drop-in
2533 for the template instance units via a symlink to
2534 <filename index='false'>/dev/null</filename>:</para>
2535
2536 <programlisting>
2537 <command>mkdir /etc/systemd/system/failure-handler@.service.d/</command>
2538 <command>ln -s /dev/null /etc/systemd/system/failure-handler@.service.d/10-all.conf</command>
2539 <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command>
2540 </programlisting>
2541
2542 <para>This ensures that if a <filename index='false'>failure-handler@.service</filename> instance fails it will not trigger an instance named
2543 <filename index='false'>failure-handler@failure-handler.service</filename>.</para>
2544
2545 </example>
2546
2547 </refsect1>
2548
2549 <refsect1>
2550 <title>See Also</title>
2551 <para>
2552 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2553 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2554 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2555 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2556 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2557 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2558 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2559 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2560 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2561 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.swap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2562 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2563 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2564 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.timer</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2565 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.scope</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2566 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.slice</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2567 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2568 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-analyze</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2569 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2570 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
2571 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
2572 </para>
2573 </refsect1>
2574
2575 </refentry>