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1<?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
2<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/xhtml/docbook.xsl"?>
3<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
4 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
5
6<!--
7 This file is part of systemd.
8
9 Copyright 2010 Lennart Poettering
10
11 systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
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12 under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
13 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
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14 (at your option) any later version.
15
16 systemd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
17 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
18 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
5430f7f2 19 Lesser General Public License for more details.
d1ab0ca0 20
5430f7f2 21 You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
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22 along with systemd; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
23-->
24
25<refentry id="systemd.service">
26 <refentryinfo>
27 <title>systemd.service</title>
28 <productname>systemd</productname>
29
30 <authorgroup>
31 <author>
32 <contrib>Developer</contrib>
33 <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
34 <surname>Poettering</surname>
35 <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
36 </author>
37 </authorgroup>
38 </refentryinfo>
39
40 <refmeta>
41 <refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle>
42 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
43 </refmeta>
44
45 <refnamediv>
46 <refname>systemd.service</refname>
34511ca7 47 <refpurpose>Service unit configuration</refpurpose>
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48 </refnamediv>
49
50 <refsynopsisdiv>
e670b166 51 <para><filename><replaceable>service</replaceable>.service</filename></para>
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52 </refsynopsisdiv>
53
54 <refsect1>
55 <title>Description</title>
56
1f812fea 57 <para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
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58 <filename>.service</filename> encodes information
59 about a process controlled and supervised by
60 systemd.</para>
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61
62 <para>This man page lists the configuration options
63 specific to this unit type. See
64 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
65 for the common options of all unit configuration
0d624a78 66 files. The common configuration items are configured
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67 in the generic <literal>[Unit]</literal> and
68 <literal>[Install]</literal> sections. The service
69 specific configuration options are configured in the
70 <literal>[Service]</literal> section.</para>
0d624a78 71
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72 <para>Additional options are listed in
73 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
74 which define the execution environment the commands
4819ff03 75 are executed in, and in
d868475a 76 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
4819ff03 77 which define the way the processes of the service are
d868475a 78 terminated, and in
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79 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
80 which configure resource control settings for the
d868475a 81 processes of the service.</para>
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82
83 <para>Unless <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname>
84 is set to <option>false</option>, service units will
85 implicitly have dependencies of type
86 <varname>Requires=</varname> and
87 <varname>After=</varname> on
88 <filename>basic.target</filename> as well as
89 dependencies of type <varname>Conflicts=</varname> and
90 <varname>Before=</varname> on
91 <filename>shutdown.target</filename>. These ensure
92 that normal service units pull in basic system
93 initialization, and are terminated cleanly prior to
94 system shutdown. Only services involved with early
95 boot or late system shutdown should disable this
96 option.</para>
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97
98 <para>If a service is requested under a certain name
99 but no unit configuration file is found, systemd looks
100 for a SysV init script by the same name (with the
101 <filename>.service</filename> suffix removed) and
102 dynamically creates a service unit from that
103 script. This is useful for compatibility with
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104 SysV. Note that this compatibility is quite
105 comprehensive but not 100%. For details about the
bcddd5bf 106 incompatibilities, see the <ulink
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107 url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Incompatibilities">Incompatibilities
108 with SysV</ulink> document.
109 </para>
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110 </refsect1>
111
112 <refsect1>
113 <title>Options</title>
114
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115 <para>Service files must include a
116 <literal>[Service]</literal> section, which carries
117 information about the service and the process it
118 supervises. A number of options that may be used in
119 this section are shared with other unit types. These
120 options are documented in
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121 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
122 and
123 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. The
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124 options specific to the <literal>[Service]</literal>
125 section of service units are the following:</para>
0d624a78 126
ccc9a4f9 127 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
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128 <varlistentry>
129 <term><varname>Type=</varname></term>
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130
131 <listitem><para>Configures the process
132 start-up type for this service
133 unit. One of <option>simple</option>,
134 <option>forking</option>,
34e9ba66 135 <option>oneshot</option>,
0d624a78 136 <option>dbus</option>,
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137 <option>notify</option> or
138 <option>idle</option>.</para>
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139
140 <para>If set to
141 <option>simple</option> (the default
96fb8242 142 if neither
12b25f30 143 <varname>Type=</varname> nor
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144 <varname>BusName=</varname>, but
145 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> are
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146 specified), it is expected that the
147 process configured with
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148 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> is the
149 main process of the service. In this
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150 mode, if the process offers
151 functionality to other processes on
79640424 152 the system, its communication channels
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153 should be installed before the daemon
154 is started up (e.g. sockets set up by
155 systemd, via socket activation), as
156 systemd will immediately proceed
157 starting follow-up units.</para>
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158
159 <para>If set to
79640424 160 <option>forking</option>, it is
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161 expected that the process configured
162 with <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
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163 will call <function>fork()</function>
164 as part of its start-up. The parent process is
165 expected to exit when start-up is
166 complete and all communication
79640424 167 channels are set up. The child continues
b1690fe7 168 to run as the main daemon
c5315881 169 process. This is the behavior of
b1690fe7 170 traditional UNIX daemons. If this
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171 setting is used, it is recommended to
172 also use the
173 <varname>PIDFile=</varname> option, so
174 that systemd can identify the main
175 process of the daemon. systemd will
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176 proceed with starting follow-up units
177 as soon as the parent process
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178 exits.</para>
179
c5315881 180 <para>Behavior of
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181 <option>oneshot</option> is similar to
182 <option>simple</option>; however, it
183 is expected that the process has to
0d624a78 184 exit before systemd starts follow-up
02ee865a 185 units. <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname>
0d624a78 186 is particularly useful for this type
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187 of service. This is the implied
188 default if neither
189 <varname>Type=</varname> or
190 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> are
191 specified.</para>
0d624a78 192
c5315881 193 <para>Behavior of
0d624a78 194 <option>dbus</option> is similar to
bcddd5bf 195 <option>simple</option>; however, it is
62adf224 196 expected that the daemon acquires a
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197 name on the D-Bus bus, as configured
198 by
199 <varname>BusName=</varname>. systemd
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200 will proceed with starting follow-up
201 units after the D-Bus bus name has been
62adf224 202 acquired. Service units with this
b1690fe7 203 option configured implicitly gain
62adf224 204 dependencies on the
177b3ffe 205 <filename>dbus.socket</filename>
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206 unit. This type is the default if
207 <varname>BusName=</varname> is
208 specified.</para>
0d624a78 209
c5315881 210 <para>Behavior of
0d624a78 211 <option>notify</option> is similar to
bcddd5bf 212 <option>simple</option>; however, it is
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213 expected that the daemon sends a
214 notification message via
215 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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216 or an equivalent call when it has finished
217 starting up. systemd will proceed with
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218 starting follow-up units after this
219 notification message has been sent. If
79640424 220 this option is used,
62adf224 221 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see
b1690fe7 222 below) should be set to open access to
0d624a78 223 the notification socket provided by
62adf224 224 systemd. If
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225 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
226 not set, it will be implicitly set to
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227 <option>main</option>. Note that
228 currently
229 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option>
79640424 230 will not work if used in combination with
1361a3e3 231 <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname><option>yes</option>.</para>
a8ad0f89 232
c5315881 233 <para>Behavior of
a8ad0f89 234 <option>idle</option> is very similar
bcddd5bf 235 to <option>simple</option>; however,
bb31a4ac 236 actual execution of the service
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237 binary is delayed until all jobs are
238 dispatched. This may be used to avoid
239 interleaving of output of shell
240 services with the status output on the
241 console.</para>
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242 </listitem>
243 </varlistentry>
0d624a78 244
d1ab0ca0 245 <varlistentry>
02ee865a 246 <term><varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname></term>
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247
248 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value
249 that specifies whether the service
250 shall be considered active even when
251 all its processes exited. Defaults to
252 <option>no</option>.</para>
d1ab0ca0 253 </listitem>
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254 </varlistentry>
255
256 <varlistentry>
257 <term><varname>GuessMainPID=</varname></term>
258
259 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value
260 that specifies whether systemd should
261 try to guess the main PID of a service
bb31a4ac 262 if it cannot be determined
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263 reliably. This option is ignored
264 unless <option>Type=forking</option>
265 is set and <option>PIDFile=</option>
266 is unset because for the other types
267 or with an explicitly configured PID
bcddd5bf 268 file, the main PID is always known. The
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269 guessing algorithm might come to
270 incorrect conclusions if a daemon
271 consists of more than one process. If
79640424 272 the main PID cannot be determined,
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273 failure detection and automatic
274 restarting of a service will not work
275 reliably. Defaults to
276 <option>yes</option>.</para>
277 </listitem>
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278 </varlistentry>
279
280 <varlistentry>
281 <term><varname>PIDFile=</varname></term>
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282
283 <listitem><para>Takes an absolute file
284 name pointing to the PID file of this
285 daemon. Use of this option is
286 recommended for services where
287 <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
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288 <option>forking</option>. systemd will
289 read the PID of the main process of
290 the daemon after start-up of the
291 service. systemd will not write to the
292 file configured here.</para>
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293 </listitem>
294 </varlistentry>
295
296 <varlistentry>
297 <term><varname>BusName=</varname></term>
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298
299 <listitem><para>Takes a D-Bus bus
bcddd5bf 300 name that this service is reachable
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301 as. This option is mandatory for
302 services where
303 <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
304 <option>dbus</option>, but its use
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305 is otherwise recommended if the process
306 takes a name on the D-Bus bus.</para>
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307 </listitem>
308 </varlistentry>
309
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310 <varlistentry>
311 <term><varname>BusPolicy=</varname></term>
312
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313 <listitem><para>If specified, a custom
314 <ulink url="https://code.google.com/p/d-bus/">kdbus</ulink>
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315 endpoint will be created and installed as the
316 default bus node for the service. Such a custom
317 endpoint can hold an own set of policy rules
318 that are enforced on top of the bus-wide ones.
319 The custom endpoint is named after the service
320 it was created for, and its node will be
321 bind-mounted over the default bus node
322 location, so the service can only access the
323 bus through its own endpoint. Note that custom
324 bus endpoints default to a 'deny all' policy.
325 Hence, if at least one
326 <varname>BusPolicy=</varname> directive is
327 given, you have to make sure to add explicit
328 rules for everything the service should be able
329 to do.</para>
330 <para>The value of this directive is comprised
331 of two parts; the bus name, and a verb to
332 specify to granted access, which is one of
333 <option>see</option>,
9c77924c 334 <option>talk</option>, or
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335 <option>own</option>.
336 <option>talk</option> implies
337 <option>see</option>, and <option>own</option>
338 implies both <option>talk</option> and
339 <option>see</option>.
340 If multiple access levels are specified for the
341 same bus name, the most powerful one takes
342 effect.
343 </para>
344 <para>Examples:</para>
345 <programlisting>BusPolicy=org.freedesktop.systemd1 talk</programlisting>
346 <programlisting>BusPolicy=org.foo.bar see</programlisting>
347 <para>This option is only available on kdbus enabled systems.</para>
348 </listitem>
349 </varlistentry>
350
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351 <varlistentry>
352 <term><varname>ExecStart=</varname></term>
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353 <listitem><para>Commands with their
354 arguments that are executed when this
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355 service is started. The value is split
356 into zero or more command lines is
357 according to the rules described below
358 (see section "Command Lines" below).
359 </para>
2480f0c6 360
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361 <para>When <varname>Type</varname> is
362 not <option>oneshot</option>, only one
96fb8242 363 command may and must be given. When
b1690fe7 364 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is
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365 used, zero or more commands may be
366 specified. This can be specified by
367 providing multiple command lines in
368 the same directive , or alternatively,
369 this directive may be specified more
370 than once with the same effect. If the
371 empty string is assigned to this
372 option, the list of commands to start
373 is reset, prior assignments of this
374 option will have no effect. If no
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375 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> is
376 specified, then the service must have
377 <varname>RemainAfterExit=yes</varname>
378 set.</para>
2480f0c6 379
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380 <para>For each of the specified
381 commands, the first argument must be
382 an absolute and literal path to an
383 executable. Optionally, if the
384 absolute file name is prefixed with
385 <literal>@</literal>, the second token
386 will be passed as
387 <literal>argv[0]</literal> to the
388 executed process, followed by the
389 further arguments specified. If the
390 absolute filename is prefixed with
391 <literal>-</literal>, an exit code of
392 the command normally considered a
393 failure (i.e. non-zero exit status or
394 abnormal exit due to signal) is
395 ignored and considered success. If
396 both <literal>-</literal> and
397 <literal>@</literal> are used, they
398 can appear in either order.</para>
ec6039bc 399
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400 <para>If more than one command is
401 specified, the commands are invoked
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402 sequentially in the order they appear
403 in the unit file. If one of the
404 commands fails (and is not prefixed
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405 with <literal>-</literal>), other
406 lines are not executed, and the unit
407 is considered failed.</para>
4c42e8e1 408
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409 <para>Unless
410 <varname>Type=forking</varname> is
411 set, the process started via this
412 command line will be considered the
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413 main process of the daemon.</para>
414
ec6039bc 415 </listitem>
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416 </varlistentry>
417
418 <varlistentry>
419 <term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
420 <term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
421 <listitem><para>Additional commands
16dad32e 422 that are executed before or after
0d624a78 423 the command in
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424 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, respectively.
425 Syntax is the same as for
426 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, except
427 that multiple command lines are allowed
428 and the commands are executed one
429 after the other, serially.</para>
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430
431 <para>If any of those commands (not
909f413d 432 prefixed with <literal>-</literal>)
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433 fail, the rest are not executed and
434 the unit is considered failed.</para>
2480f0c6 435 </listitem>
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436 </varlistentry>
437
438 <varlistentry>
439 <term><varname>ExecReload=</varname></term>
440 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to
441 trigger a configuration reload in the
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442 service. This argument takes multiple
443 command lines, following the same
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444 scheme as described for
445 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
b3eaa628 446 above. Use of this setting is
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447 optional. Specifier and environment
448 variable substitution is supported
449 here following the same scheme as for
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450 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>.</para>
451
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452 <para>One additional, special
453 environment variable is set: if known,
4c42e8e1 454 <varname>$MAINPID</varname> is set to
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455 the main process of the daemon, and
456 may be used for command lines like the
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457 following:</para>
458
459 <programlisting>/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID</programlisting>
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460
461 <para>Note however that reloading a
462 daemon by sending a signal (as with
463 the example line above) is usually not
464 a good choice, because this is an
465 asynchronous operation and hence not
466 suitable to order reloads of multiple
467 services against each other. It is
468 strongly recommended to set
469 <varname>ExecReload=</varname> to a
851fafe5 470 command that not only triggers a
33169701 471 configuration reload of the daemon,
851fafe5 472 but also synchronously waits for it to
33169701 473 complete.</para>
4c42e8e1 474 </listitem>
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475 </varlistentry>
476
477 <varlistentry>
478 <term><varname>ExecStop=</varname></term>
479 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to
480 stop the service started via
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481 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>. This
482 argument takes multiple command lines,
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483 following the same scheme as described
484 for <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
b3eaa628 485 above. Use of this setting is
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486 optional. After the commands configured
487 in this option are run, all processes
488 remaining for a service are
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489 terminated according to the
490 <varname>KillMode=</varname> setting
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491 (see
492 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>). If
79640424 493 this option is not specified, the
bcddd5bf 494 process is terminated immediately when
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495 service stop is requested. Specifier
496 and environment variable substitution
497 is supported (including
4c42e8e1 498 <varname>$MAINPID</varname>, see
420a0166 499 above).</para></listitem>
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500 </varlistentry>
501
502 <varlistentry>
503 <term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
504 <listitem><para>Additional commands
505 that are executed after the service
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506 was stopped. This includes cases where
507 the commands configured in
508 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> were used,
6b4991cf 509 where the service does not have any
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510 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> defined, or
511 where the service exited unexpectedly. This
b3eaa628 512 argument takes multiple command lines,
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513 following the same scheme as described
514 for <varname>ExecStart</varname>. Use
b3eaa628 515 of these settings is
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516 optional. Specifier and environment
517 variable substitution is
518 supported.</para></listitem>
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519 </varlistentry>
520
521 <varlistentry>
522 <term><varname>RestartSec=</varname></term>
523 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
524 sleep before restarting a service (as
525 configured with
526 <varname>Restart=</varname>). Takes a
527 unit-less value in seconds, or a time
528 span value such as "5min
529 20s". Defaults to
530 100ms.</para></listitem>
531 </varlistentry>
532
533 <varlistentry>
d568a335 534 <term><varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname></term>
0d624a78 535 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
d568a335 536 wait for start-up. If a
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537 daemon service does not signal
538 start-up completion within the
d568a335 539 configured time, the service will be
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540 considered failed and will be shut
541 down again.
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542 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a
543 time span value such as "5min
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544 20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to
545 disable the timeout logic. Defaults to
5e34b37c 546 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname> from
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547 the manager configuration file, except
548 when <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is
63ba209d 549 used, in which case the timeout
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550 is disabled by default
551 (see <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-systemd.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
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552 </para></listitem>
553 </varlistentry>
554
555 <varlistentry>
556 <term><varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname></term>
557 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
558 wait for stop. If a service is asked
bcddd5bf 559 to stop, but does not terminate in the
d568a335 560 specified time, it will be terminated
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561 forcibly via <constant>SIGTERM</constant>,
562 and after another timeout of equal duration
563 with <constant>SIGKILL</constant> (see
62adf224 564 <varname>KillMode=</varname>
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565 in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
566 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a
0d624a78 567 time span value such as "5min
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568 20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to disable
569 the timeout logic. Defaults to
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570 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStopSec=</varname> from the
571 manager configuration file
572 (see <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-systemd.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
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573 </para></listitem>
574 </varlistentry>
575
576 <varlistentry>
577 <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
578 <listitem><para>A shorthand for configuring
579 both <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname>
580 and <varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname>
581 to the specified value.
582 </para></listitem>
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583 </varlistentry>
584
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585 <varlistentry>
586 <term><varname>WatchdogSec=</varname></term>
e8ab3ccb 587 <listitem><para>Configures the
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588 watchdog timeout for a service. The
589 watchdog is activated when the start-up is
e8ab3ccb 590 completed. The service must call
bb242b7b 591 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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592 regularly with <literal>WATCHDOG=1</literal>
593 (i.e. the "keep-alive ping"). If the time
dac051ad 594 between two such calls is larger than
79640424 595 the configured time, then the service
bcddd5bf 596 is placed in a failed state. By
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597 setting <varname>Restart=</varname> to
598 <option>on-failure</option> or
79640424 599 <option>always</option>, the service
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600 will be automatically restarted. The
601 time configured here will be passed to
602 the executed service process in the
603 <varname>WATCHDOG_USEC=</varname>
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604 environment variable. This allows
605 daemons to automatically enable the
606 keep-alive pinging logic if watchdog
607 support is enabled for the service. If
79640424 608 this option is used,
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609 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see
610 below) should be set to open access to
611 the notification socket provided by
612 systemd. If
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613 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
614 not set, it will be implicitly set to
02c4ef9c 615 <option>main</option>. Defaults to 0,
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616 which disables this
617 feature.</para></listitem>
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618 </varlistentry>
619
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620 <varlistentry>
621 <term><varname>Restart=</varname></term>
622 <listitem><para>Configures whether the
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623 service shall be restarted when the
624 service process exits, is killed,
625 or a timeout is reached. The service
626 process may be the main service
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627 process, but it may also be one of the
628 processes specified with
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629 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
630 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
c32acc96 631 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
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632 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>, or
633 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>.
634 When the death of the process is a
635 result of systemd operation (e.g. service
636 stop or restart), the service will not be
637 restarted. Timeouts include missing
638 the watchdog "keep-alive ping"
639 deadline and a service start, reload,
640 and stop operation timeouts.</para>
641
642 <para>Takes one of
525ee6f4 643 <option>no</option>,
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644 <option>on-success</option>,
645 <option>on-failure</option>,
6cfe2fde 646 <option>on-abnormal</option>,
dc99a976 647 <option>on-watchdog</option>,
a827e373 648 <option>on-abort</option>, or
50caaedb 649 <option>always</option>. If set to
79640424 650 <option>no</option> (the default), the
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651 service will not be restarted. If set
652 to <option>on-success</option>, it
653 will be restarted only when the
654 service process exits cleanly. In
655 this context, a clean exit means an
656 exit code of 0, or one of the signals
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657 <constant>SIGHUP</constant>,
658 <constant>SIGINT</constant>,
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659 <constant>SIGTERM</constant> or
660 <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>, and
661 additionally, exit statuses and
662 signals specified in
663 <varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname>.
79640424 664 If set to <option>on-failure</option>,
a827e373 665 the service will be restarted when the
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666 process exits with a non-zero exit
667 code, is terminated by a signal
668 (including on core dump, but excluding
669 the aforementiond four signals), when
670 an operation (such as service reload)
671 times out, and when the configured
672 watchdog timeout is triggered. If set
673 to <option>on-abnormal</option>, the
674 service will be restarted when the
675 process is terminated by a signal
676 (including on core dump, excluding the
677 aforementioned four signals), when an
678 operation times out, or when the
679 watchdog timeout is triggered. If set
680 to <option>on-abort</option>, the
681 service will be restarted only if the
682 service process exits due to an
683 uncaught signal not specified as a
684 clean exit status. If set to
685 <option>on-watchdog</option>, the
686 service will be restarted only if the
687 watchdog timeout for the service
688 expires. If set to
79640424 689 <option>always</option>, the service
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690 will be restarted regardless of
691 whether it exited cleanly or not, got
bcddd5bf 692 terminated abnormally by a signal, or
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693 hit a timeout.</para>
694
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695 <table>
696 <title>Exit causes and the effect of the <varname>Restart=</varname> settings on them</title>
697
698 <tgroup cols='2'>
699 <colspec colname='path' />
700 <colspec colname='expl' />
701 <thead>
702 <row>
703 <entry>Restart settings/Exit causes</entry>
704 <entry><option>no</option></entry>
705 <entry><option>always</option></entry>
706 <entry><option>on-success</option></entry>
707 <entry><option>on-failure</option></entry>
708 <entry><option>on-abnormal</option></entry>
709 <entry><option>on-abort</option></entry>
710 <entry><option>on-watchdog</option></entry>
711 </row>
712 </thead>
713 <tbody>
714 <row>
715 <entry>Clean exit code or signal</entry>
716 <entry/>
717 <entry>X</entry>
718 <entry>X</entry>
719 <entry/>
720 <entry/>
721 <entry/>
722 <entry/>
723 </row>
724 <row>
725 <entry>Unclean exit code</entry>
726 <entry/>
727 <entry>X</entry>
728 <entry/>
729 <entry>X</entry>
730 <entry/>
731 <entry/>
732 <entry/>
733 </row>
734 <row>
735 <entry>Unclean signal</entry>
736 <entry/>
737 <entry>X</entry>
738 <entry/>
739 <entry>X</entry>
740 <entry>X</entry>
741 <entry>X</entry>
742 <entry/>
743 </row>
744 <row>
745 <entry>Timeout</entry>
746 <entry/>
747 <entry>X</entry>
748 <entry/>
749 <entry>X</entry>
750 <entry>X</entry>
751 <entry/>
752 <entry/>
753 </row>
754 <row>
755 <entry>Watchdog</entry>
756 <entry/>
757 <entry>X</entry>
758 <entry/>
759 <entry>X</entry>
760 <entry>X</entry>
761 <entry/>
762 <entry>X</entry>
763 </row>
764 </tbody>
765 </tgroup>
766 </table>
767
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768 <para>As exceptions to the setting
769 above the service will not be
770 restarted if the exit code or signal
771 is specified in
a827e373 772 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>
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773 (see below). Also, the services will
774 always be restarted if the exit code
775 or signal is specified in
776 <varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname>
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777 (see below).</para>
778
779 <para>Setting this to
780 <option>on-failure</option> is the
781 recommended choice for long-running
782 services, in order to increase
783 reliability by attempting automatic
784 recovery from errors. For services
785 that shall be able to terminate on
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786 their own choice (and avoid
787 immediate restarting),
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788 <option>on-abnormal</option> is an
789 alternative choice.</para>
790 </listitem>
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791 </varlistentry>
792
96342de6 793 <varlistentry>
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794 <term><varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname></term>
795 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
796 status definitions that when returned
797 by the main service process will be
798 considered successful termination, in
799 addition to the normal successful exit
05cc7267 800 code 0 and the signals <constant>SIGHUP</constant>, <constant>SIGINT</constant>,
a9a30533 801 <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>. Exit status
abdf7993 802 definitions can either be numeric exit
a827e373 803 codes or termination signal names,
4a3fa6ac 804 separated by spaces. For example:
37520c1b 805 <programlisting>SuccessExitStatus=1 2 8 SIGKILL</programlisting>
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806 ensures that exit codes 1, 2, 8 and
807 the termination signal
808 <constant>SIGKILL</constant> are
809 considered clean service terminations.
810 </para>
811
812 <para>Note that if a process has a
813 signal handler installed and exits by
814 calling
815 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>_exit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
816 in response to a signal, the
817 information about the signal is lost.
818 Programs should instead perform cleanup and kill themselves with the same signal instead. See
819 <ulink url="http://www.cons.org/cracauer/sigint.html">Proper handling of SIGINT/SIGQUIT — How to be a proper program</ulink>.</para>
820
821 <para>This option may appear more than once,
822 in which case the list of successful
823 exit statuses is merged. If the empty
824 string is assigned to this option, the
825 list is reset, all prior assignments
826 of this option will have no
827 effect.</para></listitem>
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828 </varlistentry>
829
830 <varlistentry>
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831 <term><varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname></term>
832 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
833 status definitions that when returned
834 by the main service process will
bcddd5bf 835 prevent automatic service restarts,
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836 regardless of the restart setting
837 configured with
838 <varname>Restart=</varname>. Exit
839 status definitions can either be
840 numeric exit codes or termination
841 signal names, and are separated by
842 spaces. Defaults to the empty list, so
bcddd5bf 843 that, by default, no exit status is
abdf7993 844 excluded from the configured restart
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845 logic. For example:
846 <programlisting>RestartPreventExitStatus=1 6 SIGABRT</programlisting> ensures that exit
74051b9b 847 codes 1 and 6 and the termination
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848 signal <constant>SIGABRT</constant> will
849 not result in automatic service
850 restarting. This
851 option may appear more than once, in
852 which case the list of restart-preventing
74051b9b 853 statuses is merged. If the empty
79640424 854 string is assigned to this option, the
bcddd5bf 855 list is reset and all prior assignments
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856 of this option will have no
857 effect.</para></listitem>
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858 </varlistentry>
859
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860 <varlistentry>
861 <term><varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname></term>
862 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
863 status definitions that when returned
864 by the main service process will force
865 automatic service restarts, regardless
866 of the restart setting configured with
867 <varname>Restart=</varname>. The
868 argument format is similar to
869 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>.</para></listitem>
870 </varlistentry>
871
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872 <varlistentry>
873 <term><varname>PermissionsStartOnly=</varname></term>
874 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
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875 argument. If true, the permission-related
876 execution options, as
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877 configured with
878 <varname>User=</varname> and similar
879 options (see
880 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
bcddd5bf 881 for more information), are only applied
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882 to the process started with
883 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not
884 to the various other
885 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
886 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
887 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
bcddd5bf 888 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
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889 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
890 commands. If false, the setting is
891 applied to all configured commands the
892 same way. Defaults to
893 false.</para></listitem>
894 </varlistentry>
895
896 <varlistentry>
897 <term><varname>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</varname></term>
898 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
bcddd5bf 899 argument. If true, the root directory,
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900 as configured with the
901 <varname>RootDirectory=</varname>
902 option (see
903 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
bcddd5bf 904 for more information), is only applied
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905 to the process started with
906 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not
907 to the various other
908 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
909 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
910 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
bcddd5bf 911 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
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912 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
913 commands. If false, the setting is
914 applied to all configured commands the
915 same way. Defaults to
916 false.</para></listitem>
917 </varlistentry>
918
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919 <varlistentry>
920 <term><varname>NonBlocking=</varname></term>
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921 <listitem><para>Set the
922 <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag
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923 for all file descriptors passed via
924 socket-based activation. If true, all
925 file descriptors >= 3 (i.e. all except
6db27428 926 stdin, stdout, and stderr) will have
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927 the <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag
928 set and hence are in
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929 non-blocking mode. This option is only
930 useful in conjunction with a socket
931 unit, as described in
932 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Defaults
933 to false.</para></listitem>
934 </varlistentry>
935
936 <varlistentry>
937 <term><varname>NotifyAccess=</varname></term>
938 <listitem><para>Controls access to the
939 service status notification socket, as
940 accessible via the
941 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
942 call. Takes one of
943 <option>none</option> (the default),
944 <option>main</option> or
945 <option>all</option>. If
79640424 946 <option>none</option>, no daemon status
f8553ccb 947 updates are accepted from the service
0d624a78 948 processes, all status update messages
79640424 949 are ignored. If <option>main</option>,
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950 only service updates sent from the
951 main process of the service are
79640424 952 accepted. If <option>all</option>, all
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953 services updates from all members of
954 the service's control group are
02c4ef9c 955 accepted. This option should be set to
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956 open access to the notification socket
957 when using
02c4ef9c 958 <varname>Type=notify</varname> or
28137202 959 <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> (see
02c4ef9c 960 above). If those options are used but
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961 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is not
962 configured, it will be implicitly set
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963 to
964 <option>main</option>.</para></listitem>
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965 </varlistentry>
966
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967 <varlistentry>
968 <term><varname>Sockets=</varname></term>
969 <listitem><para>Specifies the name of
970 the socket units this service shall
971 inherit the sockets from when the
4f025f4c 972 service is started. Normally it
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973 should not be necessary to use this
974 setting as all sockets whose unit
975 shares the same name as the service
4f025f4c 976 (ignoring the different suffix of course)
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977 are passed to the spawned
978 process.</para>
979
980 <para>Note that the same socket may be
981 passed to multiple processes at the
982 same time. Also note that a different
983 service may be activated on incoming
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984 traffic than that which inherits the
985 sockets. Or in other words: the
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986 <varname>Service=</varname> setting of
987 <filename>.socket</filename> units
6b4991cf 988 does not have to match the inverse of
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989 the <varname>Sockets=</varname>
990 setting of the
991 <filename>.service</filename> it
992 refers to.</para>
993
994 <para>This option may appear more than
995 once, in which case the list of socket
996 units is merged. If the empty string
79640424 997 is assigned to this option, the list of
bcddd5bf 998 sockets is reset, and all prior uses of
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999 this setting will have no
1000 effect.</para></listitem>
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1001 </varlistentry>
1002
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1003 <varlistentry>
1004 <term><varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname></term>
1005 <term><varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname></term>
1006
1007 <listitem><para>Configure service
79640424 1008 start rate limiting. By default,
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1009 services which are started more
1010 than 5 times within 10 seconds are not
092317d0 1011 permitted to start any more times
bcddd5bf 1012 until the 10 second interval ends. With
79640424 1013 these two options, this rate limiting
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1014 may be modified. Use
1015 <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
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1016 to configure the checking interval (defaults to
1017 <varname>DefaultStartLimitInterval=</varname> in
1018 manager configuration file, set to 0 to disable
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1019 any kind of rate limiting). Use
1020 <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to
1021 configure how many starts per interval
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1022 are allowed (defaults to
1023 <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in
1024 manager configuration file). These
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1025 configuration options are particularly
1026 useful in conjunction with
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1027 <varname>Restart=</varname>; however,
1028 they apply to all kinds of starts
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1029 (including manual), not just those
1030 triggered by the
1031 <varname>Restart=</varname> logic.
1032 Note that units which are configured
1033 for <varname>Restart=</varname> and
1034 which reach the start limit are not
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1035 attempted to be restarted anymore;
1036 however, they may still be restarted
1037 manually at a later point, from which
1038 point on, the restart logic is again
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1039 activated. Note that
1040 <command>systemctl
1041 reset-failed</command> will cause the
1042 restart rate counter for a service to
1043 be flushed, which is useful if the
1044 administrator wants to manually start
1045 a service and the start limit
1046 interferes with
1047 that.</para></listitem>
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1048 </varlistentry>
1049
1050 <varlistentry>
1051 <term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
1052
1053 <listitem><para>Configure the action
1054 to take if the rate limit configured
1055 with
1056 <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
1057 and
1058 <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is
1059 hit. Takes one of
1060 <option>none</option>,
1061 <option>reboot</option>,
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1062 <option>reboot-force</option>,
1063 <option>reboot-immediate</option>,
1064 <option>poweroff</option>,
1065 <option>poweroff-force</option> or
1066 <option>poweroff-immediate</option>. If
1067 <option>none</option> is set, hitting
1068 the rate limit will trigger no action
1069 besides that the start will not be
1070 permitted. <option>reboot</option>
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1071 causes a reboot following the normal
1072 shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to
bcddd5bf 1073 <command>systemctl reboot</command>).
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1074 <option>reboot-force</option> causes a
1075 forced reboot which will terminate all
1076 processes forcibly but should cause no
1077 dirty file systems on reboot
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1078 (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl
1079 reboot -f</command>) and
1080 <option>reboot-immediate</option>
1081 causes immediate execution of the
1082 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1083 system call, which might result in
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1084 data loss. Similar,
1085 <option>poweroff</option>,
1086 <option>poweroff-force</option>,
1087 <option>poweroff-immediate</option>
1088 have the effect of powering down the
1089 system with similar
1090 semantics. Defaults to
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1091 <option>none</option>.</para></listitem>
1092 </varlistentry>
1093
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1094 <varlistentry>
1095 <term><varname>FailureAction=</varname></term>
1096 <listitem><para>Configure the action
1097 to take when the service enters a failed
1098 state. Takes the same values as
1099 <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname>
1100 and executes the same actions.
1101 Defaults to <option>none</option>.
1102 </para></listitem>
1103 </varlistentry>
1104
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1105 <varlistentry>
1106 <term><varname>RebootArgument=</varname></term>
1107 <listitem><para>Configure the optional
1108 argument for the
1109 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1110 system call if
1111 <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname>
2928b0a8 1112 or <varname>FailureAction=</varname>
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1113 is a reboot action. This works just
1114 like the optional argument to
1115 <command>systemctl reboot</command>
1116 command.</para></listitem>
1117 </varlistentry>
1118
d1ab0ca0 1119 </variablelist>
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1120
1121 <para>Check
1122 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1123 and
1124 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1125 for more settings.</para>
1126
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1127 </refsect1>
1128
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1129 <refsect1>
1130 <title>Compatibility Options</title>
1131
1132 <para>The following options are also available in the
1133 <literal>[Service]</literal> section, but exist purely
1134 for compatibility reasons and should not be used in
1135 newly written service files.</para>
1136
ccc9a4f9 1137 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
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1138 <varlistentry>
1139 <term><varname>SysVStartPriority=</varname></term>
1140 <listitem><para>Set the SysV start
1141 priority to use to order this service
1142 in relation to SysV services lacking
1143 LSB headers. This option is only
1144 necessary to fix ordering in relation
bcddd5bf 1145 to legacy SysV services that have no
c485d3ba 1146 ordering information encoded in the
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1147 script headers. As such, it should only
1148 be used as a temporary compatibility
1149 option and should not be used in new unit
1150 files. Almost always, it is a better
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1151 choice to add explicit ordering
1152 directives via
1153 <varname>After=</varname> or
1154 <varname>Before=</varname>,
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1155 instead. For more details, see
1156 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1157 If used, pass an integer value in the
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1158 range 0-99.</para></listitem>
1159 </varlistentry>
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1160 </variablelist>
1161 </refsect1>
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1162
1163 <refsect1>
1164 <title>Command lines</title>
1165
1166 <para>This section describes command line parsing and
1167 variable and specifier substitions for
1168 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
1169 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
1170 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
1171 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
1172 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
1173 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> options.</para>
1174
1175 <para>Multiple command lines may be concatenated in a
1176 single directive by separating them with semicolons
1177 (these semicolons must be passed as separate words).
1178 Lone semicolons may be escaped as
1179 <literal>\;</literal>.</para>
1180
1181 <para>Each command line is split on whitespace, with
1182 the first item being the command to execute, and the
1183 subsequent items being the arguments. Double quotes
1184 ("...") and single quotes ('...') may be used, in
1185 which case everything until the next matching quote
1186 becomes part of the same argument. Quotes themselves
1187 are removed after parsing. In addition, a trailing
1188 backslash (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to merge
1189 lines. </para>
1190
1191 <para>This syntax is intended to be very similar to
1192 shell syntax, but only the meta-characters and
1193 expansions described in the following paragraphs are
1194 understood. Specifically, redirection using
1195 <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;&lt;</literal>,
1196 <literal>&gt;</literal>, and
1197 <literal>&gt;&gt;</literal>, pipes using
1198 <literal>|</literal>, running programs in the
1199 background using <literal>&amp;</literal>, and
1200 <emphasis>other elements of shell syntax are not
1201 supported</emphasis>.</para>
1202
1203 <para>The command line accepts <literal>%</literal>
1204 specifiers as described in
1205 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1206 Note that the first argument of the command line
1207 (i.e. the program to execute) may not include
1208 specifiers.</para>
1209
1210 <para>Basic environment variable substitution is
1211 supported. Use <literal>${FOO}</literal> as part of a
1212 word, or as a word of its own, on the command line, in
1213 which case it will be replaced by the value of the
1214 environment variable including all whitespace it
1215 contains, resulting in a single argument. Use
1216 <literal>$FOO</literal> as a separate word on the
1217 command line, in which case it will be replaced by the
1218 value of the environment variable split at whitespace,
1219 resulting in zero or more arguments. To pass a literal
1220 dollar sign, use <literal>$$</literal>. Variables
1221 whose value is not known at expansion time are treated
1222 as empty strings. Note that the first argument
1223 (i.e. the program to execute) may not be a
1224 variable.</para>
1225
1226 <para>Variables to be used in this fashion may be
1227 defined through <varname>Environment=</varname> and
1228 <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>. In addition,
1229 variables listed in the section "Environment variables
1230 in spawned processes" in
1231 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1232 which are considered "static configuration", may be
1233 used (this includes e.g. <varname>$USER</varname>, but
1234 not <varname>$TERM</varname>).</para>
1235
1236 <para>Note that shell command lines are not directly
1237 supported. If shell command lines are to be used, they
1238 need to be passed explicitly to a shell implementation
1239 of some kind. Example:</para>
1240 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
1241
1242 <para>Example:</para>
1243
1244 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"</programlisting>
1245
1246 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
1247 two times, each time with one argument:
1248 <literal>one</literal> and <literal>two two</literal>,
1249 respectively. Because two commands are specified,
1250 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must be used.</para>
1251
1252 <para>Example:</para>
1253
1254 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / &gt;/dev/null &amp; \; \
1255/bin/ls</programlisting>
1256
1257 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
1258 with five arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
1259 <literal>&gt;/dev/null</literal>,
1260 <literal>&amp;</literal>, <literal>;</literal>, and
1261 <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
1262
1263 <para>Example:</para>
1264
1265 <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
1266ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
1267
1268 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
1269 with four arguments: <literal>one</literal>,
1270 <literal>two</literal>, <literal>two</literal>, and
1271 <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
1272 </refsect1>
c485d3ba 1273
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1274 <refsect1>
1275 <title>See Also</title>
1276 <para>
f3e219a2 1277 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
67826132 1278 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
0d624a78 1279 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
4819ff03 1280 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
3fde5f30 1281 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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1282 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1283 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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1284 </para>
1285 </refsect1>
1286
1287</refentry>