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8 Copyright 2010 Lennart Poettering
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23
24<refentry id="systemd.service">
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25 <refentryinfo>
26 <title>systemd.service</title>
27 <productname>systemd</productname>
28
29 <authorgroup>
30 <author>
31 <contrib>Developer</contrib>
32 <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
33 <surname>Poettering</surname>
34 <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
35 </author>
36 </authorgroup>
37 </refentryinfo>
38
39 <refmeta>
40 <refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle>
41 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
42 </refmeta>
43
44 <refnamediv>
45 <refname>systemd.service</refname>
46 <refpurpose>Service unit configuration</refpurpose>
47 </refnamediv>
48
49 <refsynopsisdiv>
50 <para><filename><replaceable>service</replaceable>.service</filename></para>
51 </refsynopsisdiv>
52
53 <refsect1>
54 <title>Description</title>
55
56 <para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
57 <filename>.service</filename> encodes information about a process
58 controlled and supervised by systemd.</para>
59
60 <para>This man page lists the configuration options specific to
61 this unit type. See
62 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
63 for the common options of all unit configuration files. The common
64 configuration items are configured in the generic
65 <literal>[Unit]</literal> and <literal>[Install]</literal>
66 sections. The service specific configuration options are
67 configured in the <literal>[Service]</literal> section.</para>
68
69 <para>Additional options are listed in
70 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
71 which define the execution environment the commands are executed
72 in, and in
73 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
74 which define the way the processes of the service are terminated,
75 and in
76 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
77 which configure resource control settings for the processes of the
78 service.</para>
79
80 <para>Unless <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> is set to
81 <option>false</option>, service units will implicitly have
82 dependencies of type <varname>Requires=</varname> and
83 <varname>After=</varname> on <filename>basic.target</filename> as
84 well as dependencies of type <varname>Conflicts=</varname> and
85 <varname>Before=</varname> on
86 <filename>shutdown.target</filename>. These ensure that normal
87 service units pull in basic system initialization, and are
88 terminated cleanly prior to system shutdown. Only services
89 involved with early boot or late system shutdown should disable
90 this option.</para>
91
92 <para>If a service is requested under a certain name but no unit
93 configuration file is found, systemd looks for a SysV init script
94 by the same name (with the <filename>.service</filename> suffix
95 removed) and dynamically creates a service unit from that script.
96 This is useful for compatibility with SysV. Note that this
97 compatibility is quite comprehensive but not 100%. For details
98 about the incompatibilities, see the <ulink
99 url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Incompatibilities">Incompatibilities
100 with SysV</ulink> document.
101 </para>
102 </refsect1>
103
104 <refsect1>
105 <title>Options</title>
106
107 <para>Service files must include a <literal>[Service]</literal>
108 section, which carries information about the service and the
109 process it supervises. A number of options that may be used in
110 this section are shared with other unit types. These options are
111 documented in
112 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
113 and
114 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
115 The options specific to the <literal>[Service]</literal> section
116 of service units are the following:</para>
117
118 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
119 <varlistentry>
120 <term><varname>Type=</varname></term>
121
122 <listitem><para>Configures the process start-up type for this
123 service unit. One of
124 <option>simple</option>,
125 <option>forking</option>,
126 <option>oneshot</option>,
127 <option>dbus</option>,
128 <option>notify</option> or
129 <option>idle</option>.</para>
130
131 <para>If set to <option>simple</option> (the default if
132 neither <varname>Type=</varname> nor
133 <varname>BusName=</varname>, but <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
134 are specified), it is expected that the process configured
135 with <varname>ExecStart=</varname> is the main process of the
136 service. In this mode, if the process offers functionality to
137 other processes on the system, its communication channels
138 should be installed before the daemon is started up (e.g.
139 sockets set up by systemd, via socket activation), as systemd
140 will immediately proceed starting follow-up units.</para>
141
142 <para>If set to <option>forking</option>, it is expected that
143 the process configured with <varname>ExecStart=</varname> will
144 call <function>fork()</function> as part of its start-up. The
145 parent process is expected to exit when start-up is complete
146 and all communication channels are set up. The child continues
147 to run as the main daemon process. This is the behavior of
148 traditional UNIX daemons. If this setting is used, it is
149 recommended to also use the <varname>PIDFile=</varname>
150 option, so that systemd can identify the main process of the
151 daemon. systemd will proceed with starting follow-up units as
152 soon as the parent process exits.</para>
153
154 <para>Behavior of <option>oneshot</option> is similar to
155 <option>simple</option>; however, it is expected that the
156 process has to exit before systemd starts follow-up units.
157 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname> is particularly useful for
158 this type of service. This is the implied default if neither
159 <varname>Type=</varname> or <varname>ExecStart=</varname> are
160 specified.</para>
161
162 <para>Behavior of <option>dbus</option> is similar to
163 <option>simple</option>; however, it is expected that the
164 daemon acquires a name on the D-Bus bus, as configured by
165 <varname>BusName=</varname>. systemd will proceed with
166 starting follow-up units after the D-Bus bus name has been
167 acquired. Service units with this option configured implicitly
168 gain dependencies on the <filename>dbus.socket</filename>
169 unit. This type is the default if <varname>BusName=</varname>
170 is specified.</para>
171
172 <para>Behavior of <option>notify</option> is similar to
173 <option>simple</option>; however, it is expected that the
174 daemon sends a notification message via
175 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
176 or an equivalent call when it has finished starting up.
177 systemd will proceed with starting follow-up units after this
178 notification message has been sent. If this option is used,
179 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see below) should be set to
180 open access to the notification socket provided by systemd. If
181 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is not set, it will be
182 implicitly set to <option>main</option>. Note that currently
183 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> will not work
184 if used in combination with
185 <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname><option>yes</option>.</para>
186
187 <para>Behavior of <option>idle</option> is very similar to
188 <option>simple</option>; however, actual execution of the
189 service binary is delayed until all jobs are dispatched. This
190 may be used to avoid interleaving of output of shell services
191 with the status output on the console.</para>
192 </listitem>
193 </varlistentry>
194
195 <varlistentry>
196 <term><varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname></term>
197
198 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value that specifies whether
199 the service shall be considered active even when all its
200 processes exited. Defaults to <option>no</option>.</para>
201 </listitem>
202 </varlistentry>
203
204 <varlistentry>
205 <term><varname>GuessMainPID=</varname></term>
206
207 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value that specifies whether
208 systemd should try to guess the main PID of a service if it
209 cannot be determined reliably. This option is ignored unless
210 <option>Type=forking</option> is set and
211 <option>PIDFile=</option> is unset because for the other types
212 or with an explicitly configured PID file, the main PID is
213 always known. The guessing algorithm might come to incorrect
214 conclusions if a daemon consists of more than one process. If
215 the main PID cannot be determined, failure detection and
216 automatic restarting of a service will not work reliably.
217 Defaults to <option>yes</option>.</para>
218 </listitem>
219 </varlistentry>
220
221 <varlistentry>
222 <term><varname>PIDFile=</varname></term>
223
224 <listitem><para>Takes an absolute file name pointing to the
225 PID file of this daemon. Use of this option is recommended for
226 services where <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
227 <option>forking</option>. systemd will read the PID of the
228 main process of the daemon after start-up of the service.
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229 systemd will not write to the file configured here, although
230 it will remove the file after the service has shut down if it
231 still exists.
232 </para>
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233 </listitem>
234 </varlistentry>
235
236 <varlistentry>
237 <term><varname>BusName=</varname></term>
238
239 <listitem><para>Takes a D-Bus bus name that this service is
240 reachable as. This option is mandatory for services where
241 <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
242 <option>dbus</option>.</para>
243 </listitem>
244 </varlistentry>
245
246 <varlistentry>
247 <term><varname>BusPolicy=</varname></term>
248
b8332e7a 249 <listitem><para>If specified, a custom kdbus
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250 endpoint will be created and installed as the default bus node
251 for the service. Such a custom endpoint can hold an own set of
252 policy rules that are enforced on top of the bus-wide ones.
253 The custom endpoint is named after the service it was created
254 for, and its node will be bind-mounted over the default bus
255 node location, so the service can only access the bus through
256 its own endpoint. Note that custom bus endpoints default to a
257 'deny all' policy. Hence, if at least one
258 <varname>BusPolicy=</varname> directive is given, you have to
259 make sure to add explicit rules for everything the service
260 should be able to do.</para>
261 <para>The value of this directive is comprised
262 of two parts; the bus name, and a verb to
263 specify to granted access, which is one of
264 <option>see</option>,
265 <option>talk</option>, or
266 <option>own</option>.
267 <option>talk</option> implies
268 <option>see</option>, and <option>own</option>
269 implies both <option>talk</option> and
270 <option>see</option>.
271 If multiple access levels are specified for the
272 same bus name, the most powerful one takes
273 effect.
274 </para>
275 <para>Examples:</para>
276 <programlisting>BusPolicy=org.freedesktop.systemd1 talk</programlisting>
277 <programlisting>BusPolicy=org.foo.bar see</programlisting>
278 <para>This option is only available on kdbus enabled systems.</para>
279 </listitem>
280 </varlistentry>
281
282 <varlistentry>
283 <term><varname>ExecStart=</varname></term>
284 <listitem><para>Commands with their arguments that are
285 executed when this service is started. The value is split into
286 zero or more command lines is according to the rules described
287 below (see section "Command Lines" below).
288 </para>
289
290 <para>When <varname>Type</varname> is not
291 <option>oneshot</option>, only one command may and must be
292 given. When <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is used, zero or
293 more commands may be specified. This can be specified by
294 providing multiple command lines in the same directive, or
295 alternatively, this directive may be specified more than once
296 with the same effect. If the empty string is assigned to this
297 option, the list of commands to start is reset, prior
298 assignments of this option will have no effect. If no
299 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> is specified, then the service
300 must have <varname>RemainAfterExit=yes</varname> set.</para>
301
302 <para>For each of the specified commands, the first argument
303 must be an absolute path to an executable. Optionally, if this
304 file name is prefixed with <literal>@</literal>, the second
305 token will be passed as <literal>argv[0]</literal> to the
306 executed process, followed by the further arguments specified.
307 If the absolute filename is prefixed with
308 <literal>-</literal>, an exit code of the command normally
309 considered a failure (i.e. non-zero exit status or abnormal
310 exit due to signal) is ignored and considered success. If both
311 <literal>-</literal> and <literal>@</literal> are used, they
312 can appear in either order.</para>
313
314 <para>If more than one command is specified, the commands are
315 invoked sequentially in the order they appear in the unit
316 file. If one of the commands fails (and is not prefixed with
317 <literal>-</literal>), other lines are not executed, and the
318 unit is considered failed.</para>
319
320 <para>Unless <varname>Type=forking</varname> is set, the
321 process started via this command line will be considered the
322 main process of the daemon.</para>
323 </listitem>
324 </varlistentry>
325
326 <varlistentry>
327 <term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
328 <term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
329 <listitem><para>Additional commands that are executed before
330 or after the command in <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
331 respectively. Syntax is the same as for
332 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, except that multiple command
333 lines are allowed and the commands are executed one after the
334 other, serially.</para>
335
336 <para>If any of those commands (not prefixed with
337 <literal>-</literal>) fail, the rest are not executed and the
338 unit is considered failed.</para>
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340 <para><varname>ExecStart=</varname> commands are only run after
341 all <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> commands that were not prefixed
342 with a <literal>-</literal> exit successfully.</para>
343
344 <para><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname> commands are only run after
345 the service has started, as determined by <varname>Type=</varname>
346 (i.e. The process has been started for <varname>Type=simple</varname>
347 or <varname>Type=idle</varname>, the process exits successfully for
348 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname>, the initial process exits successfully
349 for <varname>Type=forking</varname>, <literal>READY=1</literal> is sent
350 for <varname>Type=notify</varname>, or the <varname>BusName=</varname>
351 has been taken for <varname>Type=dbus</varname>).</para>
352
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353 <para>Note that <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> may not be
354 used to start long-running processes. All processes forked
355 off by processes invoked via <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> will
356 be killed before the next service process is run.</para>
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357 </listitem>
358 </varlistentry>
359
360 <varlistentry>
361 <term><varname>ExecReload=</varname></term>
362 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to trigger a configuration
363 reload in the service. This argument takes multiple command
364 lines, following the same scheme as described for
365 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> above. Use of this setting is
366 optional. Specifier and environment variable substitution is
367 supported here following the same scheme as for
368 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>.</para>
369
370 <para>One additional, special environment variable is set: if
371 known, <varname>$MAINPID</varname> is set to the main process
372 of the daemon, and may be used for command lines like the
373 following:</para>
374
375 <programlisting>/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID</programlisting>
376
377 <para>Note however that reloading a daemon by sending a signal
378 (as with the example line above) is usually not a good choice,
379 because this is an asynchronous operation and hence not
380 suitable to order reloads of multiple services against each
381 other. It is strongly recommended to set
382 <varname>ExecReload=</varname> to a command that not only
383 triggers a configuration reload of the daemon, but also
384 synchronously waits for it to complete.</para>
385 </listitem>
386 </varlistentry>
387
388 <varlistentry>
389 <term><varname>ExecStop=</varname></term>
390 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to stop the service
391 started via <varname>ExecStart=</varname>. This argument takes
392 multiple command lines, following the same scheme as described
393 for <varname>ExecStart=</varname> above. Use of this setting
394 is optional. After the commands configured in this option are
395 run, all processes remaining for a service are terminated
396 according to the <varname>KillMode=</varname> setting (see
397 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
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398 If this option is not specified, the process is terminated by
399 sending the signal specified in <varname>KillSignal=</varname>
400 when service stop is requested. Specifier and environment
401 variable substitution is supported (including
402 <varname>$MAINPID</varname>, see above).</para>
403
404 <para>Note that it is usually not sufficient to specify a
405 command for this setting that only asks the service to
406 terminate (for example by queuing some form of termination
407 signal for it), but does not wait for it to do so. Since the
408 remaining processes of the services are killed using
409 <constant>SIGKILL</constant> immediately after the command
410 exited this would not result in a clean stop. The specified
411 command should hence be a synchronous operation, not an
412 asynchronous one.</para></listitem>
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413 </varlistentry>
414
415 <varlistentry>
416 <term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
417 <listitem><para>Additional commands that are executed after
418 the service was stopped. This includes cases where the
419 commands configured in <varname>ExecStop=</varname> were used,
420 where the service does not have any
421 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> defined, or where the service
422 exited unexpectedly. This argument takes multiple command
423 lines, following the same scheme as described for
424 <varname>ExecStart</varname>. Use of these settings is
425 optional. Specifier and environment variable substitution is
426 supported.</para></listitem>
427 </varlistentry>
428
429 <varlistentry>
430 <term><varname>RestartSec=</varname></term>
431 <listitem><para>Configures the time to sleep before restarting
432 a service (as configured with <varname>Restart=</varname>).
433 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
434 as "5min 20s". Defaults to 100ms.</para></listitem>
435 </varlistentry>
436
437 <varlistentry>
438 <term><varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname></term>
439 <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for start-up. If a
440 daemon service does not signal start-up completion within the
441 configured time, the service will be considered failed and
442 will be shut down again. Takes a unit-less value in seconds,
443 or a time span value such as "5min 20s". Pass
444 <literal>0</literal> to disable the timeout logic. Defaults to
445 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the manager
446 configuration file, except when
447 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is used, in which case the
448 timeout is disabled by default (see
449 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
450 </para></listitem>
451 </varlistentry>
452
453 <varlistentry>
454 <term><varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname></term>
455 <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for stop. If a
456 service is asked to stop, but does not terminate in the
457 specified time, it will be terminated forcibly via
458 <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and after another timeout of
459 equal duration with <constant>SIGKILL</constant> (see
460 <varname>KillMode=</varname> in
461 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
462 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
463 as "5min 20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to disable the
464 timeout logic. Defaults to
465 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStopSec=</varname> from the manager
466 configuration file (see
467 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
468 </para></listitem>
469 </varlistentry>
470
471 <varlistentry>
472 <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
473 <listitem><para>A shorthand for configuring both
474 <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> and
475 <varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname> to the specified value.
476 </para></listitem>
477 </varlistentry>
478
479 <varlistentry>
480 <term><varname>WatchdogSec=</varname></term>
481 <listitem><para>Configures the watchdog timeout for a service.
482 The watchdog is activated when the start-up is completed. The
483 service must call
484 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
485 regularly with <literal>WATCHDOG=1</literal> (i.e. the
486 "keep-alive ping"). If the time between two such calls is
487 larger than the configured time, then the service is placed in
488 a failed state and it will be terminated with
489 <varname>SIGABRT</varname>. By setting
490 <varname>Restart=</varname> to <option>on-failure</option> or
491 <option>always</option>, the service will be automatically
492 restarted. The time configured here will be passed to the
493 executed service process in the
494 <varname>WATCHDOG_USEC=</varname> environment variable. This
495 allows daemons to automatically enable the keep-alive pinging
496 logic if watchdog support is enabled for the service. If this
497 option is used, <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see below)
498 should be set to open access to the notification socket
499 provided by systemd. If <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
500 not set, it will be implicitly set to <option>main</option>.
501 Defaults to 0, which disables this feature.</para></listitem>
502 </varlistentry>
503
504 <varlistentry>
505 <term><varname>Restart=</varname></term>
506 <listitem><para>Configures whether the service shall be
507 restarted when the service process exits, is killed, or a
508 timeout is reached. The service process may be the main
509 service process, but it may also be one of the processes
510 specified with <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
511 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
512 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
513 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>, or
514 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>. When the death of the process
515 is a result of systemd operation (e.g. service stop or
516 restart), the service will not be restarted. Timeouts include
517 missing the watchdog "keep-alive ping" deadline and a service
518 start, reload, and stop operation timeouts.</para>
519
520 <para>Takes one of
521 <option>no</option>,
522 <option>on-success</option>,
523 <option>on-failure</option>,
524 <option>on-abnormal</option>,
525 <option>on-watchdog</option>,
526 <option>on-abort</option>, or
527 <option>always</option>.
528 If set to <option>no</option> (the default), the service will
529 not be restarted. If set to <option>on-success</option>, it
530 will be restarted only when the service process exits cleanly.
531 In this context, a clean exit means an exit code of 0, or one
532 of the signals
533 <constant>SIGHUP</constant>,
534 <constant>SIGINT</constant>,
535 <constant>SIGTERM</constant> or
536 <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>, and
537 additionally, exit statuses and signals specified in
538 <varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname>. If set to
539 <option>on-failure</option>, the service will be restarted
540 when the process exits with a non-zero exit code, is
541 terminated by a signal (including on core dump, but excluding
ff9b60f3 542 the aforementioned four signals), when an operation (such as
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543 service reload) times out, and when the configured watchdog
544 timeout is triggered. If set to <option>on-abnormal</option>,
545 the service will be restarted when the process is terminated
546 by a signal (including on core dump, excluding the
547 aforementioned four signals), when an operation times out, or
548 when the watchdog timeout is triggered. If set to
549 <option>on-abort</option>, the service will be restarted only
550 if the service process exits due to an uncaught signal not
551 specified as a clean exit status. If set to
552 <option>on-watchdog</option>, the service will be restarted
553 only if the watchdog timeout for the service expires. If set
554 to <option>always</option>, the service will be restarted
555 regardless of whether it exited cleanly or not, got terminated
556 abnormally by a signal, or hit a timeout.</para>
557
558 <table>
559 <title>Exit causes and the effect of the <varname>Restart=</varname> settings on them</title>
560
561 <tgroup cols='2'>
562 <colspec colname='path' />
563 <colspec colname='expl' />
564 <thead>
565 <row>
566 <entry>Restart settings/Exit causes</entry>
567 <entry><option>no</option></entry>
568 <entry><option>always</option></entry>
569 <entry><option>on-success</option></entry>
570 <entry><option>on-failure</option></entry>
571 <entry><option>on-abnormal</option></entry>
572 <entry><option>on-abort</option></entry>
573 <entry><option>on-watchdog</option></entry>
574 </row>
575 </thead>
576 <tbody>
577 <row>
578 <entry>Clean exit code or signal</entry>
579 <entry/>
580 <entry>X</entry>
581 <entry>X</entry>
582 <entry/>
583 <entry/>
584 <entry/>
585 <entry/>
586 </row>
587 <row>
588 <entry>Unclean exit code</entry>
589 <entry/>
590 <entry>X</entry>
591 <entry/>
592 <entry>X</entry>
593 <entry/>
594 <entry/>
595 <entry/>
596 </row>
597 <row>
598 <entry>Unclean signal</entry>
599 <entry/>
600 <entry>X</entry>
601 <entry/>
602 <entry>X</entry>
603 <entry>X</entry>
604 <entry>X</entry>
605 <entry/>
606 </row>
607 <row>
608 <entry>Timeout</entry>
609 <entry/>
610 <entry>X</entry>
611 <entry/>
612 <entry>X</entry>
613 <entry>X</entry>
614 <entry/>
615 <entry/>
616 </row>
617 <row>
618 <entry>Watchdog</entry>
619 <entry/>
620 <entry>X</entry>
621 <entry/>
622 <entry>X</entry>
623 <entry>X</entry>
624 <entry/>
625 <entry>X</entry>
626 </row>
627 </tbody>
628 </tgroup>
629 </table>
630
631 <para>As exceptions to the setting above the service will not
632 be restarted if the exit code or signal is specified in
633 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname> (see below).
634 Also, the services will always be restarted if the exit code
635 or signal is specified in
636 <varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname> (see below).</para>
637
638 <para>Setting this to <option>on-failure</option> is the
639 recommended choice for long-running services, in order to
640 increase reliability by attempting automatic recovery from
641 errors. For services that shall be able to terminate on their
642 own choice (and avoid immediate restarting),
643 <option>on-abnormal</option> is an alternative choice.</para>
644 </listitem>
645 </varlistentry>
646
647 <varlistentry>
648 <term><varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname></term>
649 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that
650 when returned by the main service process will be considered
651 successful termination, in addition to the normal successful
652 exit code 0 and the signals <constant>SIGHUP</constant>,
653 <constant>SIGINT</constant>, <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and
654 <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>. Exit status definitions can
655 either be numeric exit codes or termination signal names,
656 separated by spaces. For example:
657 <programlisting>SuccessExitStatus=1 2 8
658 SIGKILL</programlisting> ensures that exit codes 1, 2, 8 and
659 the termination signal <constant>SIGKILL</constant> are
660 considered clean service terminations.
661 </para>
662
663 <para>Note that if a process has a signal handler installed
664 and exits by calling
665 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>_exit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
666 in response to a signal, the information about the signal is
667 lost. Programs should instead perform cleanup and kill
668 themselves with the same signal instead. See
669 <ulink url="http://www.cons.org/cracauer/sigint.html">Proper
670 handling of SIGINT/SIGQUIT — How to be a proper
671 program</ulink>.</para>
672
673 <para>This option may appear more than once, in which case the
674 list of successful exit statuses is merged. If the empty
675 string is assigned to this option, the list is reset, all
676 prior assignments of this option will have no
677 effect.</para></listitem>
678 </varlistentry>
679
680 <varlistentry>
681 <term><varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname></term>
682 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that
683 when returned by the main service process will prevent
684 automatic service restarts, regardless of the restart setting
685 configured with <varname>Restart=</varname>. Exit status
686 definitions can either be numeric exit codes or termination
687 signal names, and are separated by spaces. Defaults to the
688 empty list, so that, by default, no exit status is excluded
689 from the configured restart logic. For example:
690 <programlisting>RestartPreventExitStatus=1 6
691 SIGABRT</programlisting> ensures that exit codes 1 and 6 and
692 the termination signal <constant>SIGABRT</constant> will not
693 result in automatic service restarting. This option may appear
694 more than once, in which case the list of restart-preventing
695 statuses is merged. If the empty string is assigned to this
696 option, the list is reset and all prior assignments of this
697 option will have no effect.</para></listitem>
698 </varlistentry>
699
700 <varlistentry>
701 <term><varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname></term>
702 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that
703 when returned by the main service process will force automatic
704 service restarts, regardless of the restart setting configured
705 with <varname>Restart=</varname>. The argument format is
706 similar to
707 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>.</para></listitem>
708 </varlistentry>
709
710 <varlistentry>
711 <term><varname>PermissionsStartOnly=</varname></term>
712 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, the
713 permission-related execution options, as configured with
714 <varname>User=</varname> and similar options (see
715 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
716 for more information), are only applied to the process started
717 with
718 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not to the various other
719 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
720 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
721 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
722 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
723 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
724 commands. If false, the setting is applied to all configured
725 commands the same way. Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
726 </varlistentry>
727
728 <varlistentry>
729 <term><varname>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</varname></term>
730 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, the root
731 directory, as configured with the
732 <varname>RootDirectory=</varname> option (see
733 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
734 for more information), is only applied to the process started
735 with <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not to the various
736 other <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
737 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
738 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>, <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
739 and <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> commands. If false, the
740 setting is applied to all configured commands the same way.
741 Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
742 </varlistentry>
743
744 <varlistentry>
745 <term><varname>NonBlocking=</varname></term>
746 <listitem><para>Set the <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag
747 for all file descriptors passed via socket-based activation.
748 If true, all file descriptors >= 3 (i.e. all except stdin,
749 stdout, and stderr) will have the
750 <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag set and hence are in
751 non-blocking mode. This option is only useful in conjunction
752 with a socket unit, as described in
753 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
754 Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
755 </varlistentry>
756
757 <varlistentry>
758 <term><varname>NotifyAccess=</varname></term>
759 <listitem><para>Controls access to the service status
760 notification socket, as accessible via the
761 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
762 call. Takes one of <option>none</option> (the default),
763 <option>main</option> or <option>all</option>. If
764 <option>none</option>, no daemon status updates are accepted
765 from the service processes, all status update messages are
766 ignored. If <option>main</option>, only service updates sent
767 from the main process of the service are accepted. If
768 <option>all</option>, all services updates from all members of
769 the service's control group are accepted. This option should
770 be set to open access to the notification socket when using
771 <varname>Type=notify</varname> or
772 <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> (see above). If those options
773 are used but <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is not
774 configured, it will be implicitly set to
775 <option>main</option>.</para></listitem>
776 </varlistentry>
777
778 <varlistentry>
779 <term><varname>Sockets=</varname></term>
780 <listitem><para>Specifies the name of the socket units this
781 service shall inherit socket file descriptors from when the
782 service is started. Normally it should not be necessary to use
783 this setting as all socket file descriptors whose unit shares
784 the same name as the service (subject to the different unit
785 name suffix of course) are passed to the spawned
786 process.</para>
787
788 <para>Note that the same socket file descriptors may be passed
789 to multiple processes simultaneously. Also note that a
790 different service may be activated on incoming socket traffic
791 than the one which is ultimately configured to inherit the
792 socket file descriptors. Or in other words: the
793 <varname>Service=</varname> setting of
794 <filename>.socket</filename> units does not have to match the
795 inverse of the <varname>Sockets=</varname> setting of the
796 <filename>.service</filename> it refers to.</para>
797
798 <para>This option may appear more than once, in which case the
799 list of socket units is merged. If the empty string is
800 assigned to this option, the list of sockets is reset, and all
801 prior uses of this setting will have no
802 effect.</para></listitem>
803 </varlistentry>
804
805 <varlistentry>
806 <term><varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname></term>
807 <term><varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname></term>
808
809 <listitem><para>Configure service start rate limiting. By
810 default, services which are started more than 5 times within
811 10 seconds are not permitted to start any more times until the
812 10 second interval ends. With these two options, this rate
813 limiting may be modified. Use
814 <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname> to configure the
815 checking interval (defaults to
816 <varname>DefaultStartLimitInterval=</varname> in manager
817 configuration file, set to 0 to disable any kind of rate
818 limiting). Use <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to
819 configure how many starts per interval are allowed (defaults
820 to <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in manager
821 configuration file). These configuration options are
822 particularly useful in conjunction with
823 <varname>Restart=</varname>; however, they apply to all kinds
824 of starts (including manual), not just those triggered by the
825 <varname>Restart=</varname> logic. Note that units which are
826 configured for <varname>Restart=</varname> and which reach the
827 start limit are not attempted to be restarted anymore;
828 however, they may still be restarted manually at a later
829 point, from which point on, the restart logic is again
830 activated. Note that <command>systemctl reset-failed</command>
831 will cause the restart rate counter for a service to be
832 flushed, which is useful if the administrator wants to
833 manually start a service and the start limit interferes with
834 that.</para></listitem>
835 </varlistentry>
836
837 <varlistentry>
838 <term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
839
840 <listitem><para>Configure the action to take if the rate limit
841 configured with <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname> and
842 <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is hit. Takes one of
843 <option>none</option>,
844 <option>reboot</option>,
845 <option>reboot-force</option>,
846 <option>reboot-immediate</option>,
847 <option>poweroff</option>,
848 <option>poweroff-force</option> or
849 <option>poweroff-immediate</option>. If
850 <option>none</option> is set, hitting the rate limit will
851 trigger no action besides that the start will not be
852 permitted. <option>reboot</option> causes a reboot following
853 the normal shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to
854 <command>systemctl reboot</command>).
855 <option>reboot-force</option> causes a forced reboot which
856 will terminate all processes forcibly but should cause no
857 dirty file systems on reboot (i.e. equivalent to
858 <command>systemctl reboot -f</command>) and
859 <option>reboot-immediate</option> causes immediate execution
860 of the
861 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
862 system call, which might result in data loss. Similar,
863 <option>poweroff</option>, <option>poweroff-force</option>,
864 <option>poweroff-immediate</option> have the effect of
865 powering down the system with similar semantics. Defaults to
866 <option>none</option>.</para></listitem>
867 </varlistentry>
868
869 <varlistentry>
870 <term><varname>FailureAction=</varname></term>
871 <listitem><para>Configure the action to take when the service
872 enters a failed state. Takes the same values as
873 <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname> and executes the same
874 actions. Defaults to <option>none</option>. </para></listitem>
875 </varlistentry>
876
877 <varlistentry>
878 <term><varname>RebootArgument=</varname></term>
879 <listitem><para>Configure the optional argument for the
880 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
881 system call if <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname> or
882 <varname>FailureAction=</varname> is a reboot action. This
883 works just like the optional argument to <command>systemctl
884 reboot</command> command.</para></listitem>
885 </varlistentry>
886
887 <varlistentry>
888 <term><varname>FileDescriptorStoreMax=</varname></term>
889 <listitem><para>Configure how many file descriptors may be
890 stored in the service manager for the service using
891 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_pid_notify_with_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
892 <literal>FDSTORE=1</literal> messages. This is useful for
893 implementing service restart schemes where the state is
894 serialized to <filename>/run</filename> and the file
895 descriptors passed to the service manager, to allow restarts
896 without losing state. Defaults to 0, i.e. no file descriptors
897 may be stored in the service manager by default. All file
898 descriptors passed to the service manager from a specific
899 service are passed back to the service's main process on the
900 next service restart. Any file descriptors passed to the
901 service manager are automatically closed when POLLHUP or
902 POLLERR is seen on them, or when the service is fully stopped
903 and no job queued or being executed for it.</para></listitem>
904 </varlistentry>
905
906 </variablelist>
907
908 <para>Check
909 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
910 and
911 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
912 for more settings.</para>
913
914 </refsect1>
915
916 <refsect1>
917 <title>Command lines</title>
918
919 <para>This section describes command line parsing and
ff9b60f3 920 variable and specifier substitutions for
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921 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
922 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
923 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
924 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
925 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
926 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> options.</para>
927
928 <para>Multiple command lines may be concatenated in a single
929 directive by separating them with semicolons (these semicolons
930 must be passed as separate words). Lone semicolons may be escaped
931 as <literal>\;</literal>.</para>
932
933 <para>Each command line is split on whitespace, with the first
934 item being the command to execute, and the subsequent items being
935 the arguments. Double quotes ("...") and single quotes ('...') may
936 be used, in which case everything until the next matching quote
937 becomes part of the same argument. C-style escapes are also
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938 supported. The table below contains the list of allowed escape
939 patterns. Only patterns which match the syntax in the table are
940 allowed; others will result in an error, and must be escaped by
941 doubling the backslash. Quotes themselves are removed after
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942 parsing and escape sequences substituted. In addition, a trailing
943 backslash (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to merge lines.
944 </para>
945
946 <para>This syntax is intended to be very similar to shell syntax,
947 but only the meta-characters and expansions described in the
948 following paragraphs are understood. Specifically, redirection
949 using
950 <literal>&lt;</literal>,
951 <literal>&lt;&lt;</literal>,
952 <literal>&gt;</literal>, and
953 <literal>&gt;&gt;</literal>, pipes using
954 <literal>|</literal>, running programs in the background using
955 <literal>&amp;</literal>, and <emphasis>other elements of shell
956 syntax are not supported</emphasis>.</para>
957
388a91b0 958 <para>The command to execute must be an absolute path name. It may
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959 contain spaces, but control characters are not allowed.</para>
960
961 <para>The command line accepts <literal>%</literal> specifiers as
962 described in
963 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
964 Note that the first argument of the command line (i.e. the program
965 to execute) may not include specifiers.</para>
966
967 <para>Basic environment variable substitution is supported. Use
968 <literal>${FOO}</literal> as part of a word, or as a word of its
969 own, on the command line, in which case it will be replaced by the
970 value of the environment variable including all whitespace it
971 contains, resulting in a single argument. Use
972 <literal>$FOO</literal> as a separate word on the command line, in
973 which case it will be replaced by the value of the environment
974 variable split at whitespace resulting in zero or more arguments.
975 For this type of expansion, quotes and respected when splitting
976 into words, and afterwards removed.</para>
977
978 <para>Example:</para>
979
980 <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
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981ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
982
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983 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
984 arguments: <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two</literal>,
985 <literal>two</literal>, and <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
5d9a2698 986
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987 <para>Example:</para>
988 <programlisting>Environment=ONE='one' "TWO='two two' too" THREE=
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989ExecStart=/bin/echo ${ONE} ${TWO} ${THREE}
990ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO $THREE</programlisting>
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991 <para>This results in <filename>echo</filename> being
992 called twice, the first time with arguments
993 <literal>'one'</literal>,
994 <literal>'two two' too</literal>, <literal></literal>,
995 and the second time with arguments
996 <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two two</literal>,
997 <literal>too</literal>.
998 </para>
999
1000 <para>To pass a literal dollar sign, use <literal>$$</literal>.
1001 Variables whose value is not known at expansion time are treated
1002 as empty strings. Note that the first argument (i.e. the program
1003 to execute) may not be a variable.</para>
1004
1005 <para>Variables to be used in this fashion may be defined through
1006 <varname>Environment=</varname> and
1007 <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>. In addition, variables listed
1008 in the section "Environment variables in spawned processes" in
1009 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1010 which are considered "static configuration", may be used (this
1011 includes e.g. <varname>$USER</varname>, but not
1012 <varname>$TERM</varname>).</para>
1013
1014 <para>Note that shell command lines are not directly supported. If
1015 shell command lines are to be used, they need to be passed
1016 explicitly to a shell implementation of some kind. Example:</para>
1017 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
1018
1019 <para>Example:</para>
1020
1021 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"</programlisting>
1022
1023 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> two times,
1024 each time with one argument: <literal>one</literal> and
1025 <literal>two two</literal>, respectively. Because two commands are
1026 specified, <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must be used.</para>
1027
1028 <para>Example:</para>
1029
1030 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / &gt;/dev/null &amp; \; \
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1031/bin/ls</programlisting>
1032
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1033 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
1034 with five arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
1035 <literal>&gt;/dev/null</literal>,
1036 <literal>&amp;</literal>, <literal>;</literal>, and
1037 <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
1038
1039 <table>
1040 <title>C escapes supported in command lines and environment variables</title>
1041 <tgroup cols='2'>
1042 <colspec colname='escape' />
1043 <colspec colname='meaning' />
1044 <thead>
1045 <row>
1046 <entry>Literal</entry>
1047 <entry>Actual value</entry>
1048 </row>
1049 </thead>
1050 <tbody>
1051 <row>
1052 <entry><literal>\a</literal></entry>
1053 <entry>bell</entry>
1054 </row>
1055 <row>
1056 <entry><literal>\b</literal></entry>
1057 <entry>backspace</entry>
1058 </row>
1059 <row>
1060 <entry><literal>\f</literal></entry>
1061 <entry>form feed</entry>
1062 </row>
1063 <row>
1064 <entry><literal>\n</literal></entry>
1065 <entry>newline</entry>
1066 </row>
1067 <row>
1068 <entry><literal>\r</literal></entry>
1069 <entry>carriage return</entry>
1070 </row>
1071 <row>
1072 <entry><literal>\t</literal></entry>
1073 <entry>tab</entry>
1074 </row>
1075 <row>
1076 <entry><literal>\v</literal></entry>
1077 <entry>vertical tab</entry>
1078 </row>
1079 <row>
1080 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
1081 <entry>backslash</entry>
1082 </row>
1083 <row>
1084 <entry><literal>\"</literal></entry>
1085 <entry>double quotation mark</entry>
1086 </row>
1087 <row>
1088 <entry><literal>\'</literal></entry>
1089 <entry>single quotation mark</entry>
1090 </row>
1091 <row>
1092 <entry><literal>\s</literal></entry>
1093 <entry>space</entry>
1094 </row>
1095 <row>
1096 <entry><literal>\x<replaceable>xx</replaceable></literal></entry>
1097 <entry>character number <replaceable>xx</replaceable> in hexadecimal encoding</entry>
1098 </row>
1099 <row>
1100 <entry><literal>\<replaceable>nnn</replaceable></literal></entry>
1101 <entry>character number <replaceable>nnn</replaceable> in octal encoding</entry>
1102 </row>
1103 </tbody>
1104 </tgroup>
1105 </table>
1106 </refsect1>
1107
1108 <refsect1>
1109 <title>Examples</title>
1110
1111 <example>
1112 <title>Simple service</title>
1113
1114 <para>The following unit file creates a service that will
1115 execute <filename>/usr/sbin/foo-daemon</filename>. Since no
1116 <varname>Type=</varname> is specified, the default
1117 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> will be assumed.
1118 systemd will assume the unit to be started immediately after the
1119 program has begun executing.</para>
1120
1121 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1122Description=Foo
1123
1124[Service]
1125ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
1126
1127[Install]
1128WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1129
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1130 <para>Note that systemd assumes here that the process started by
1131 systemd will continue running until the service terminates. If
1132 the program daemonizes itself (i.e. forks), please use
1133 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> instead.</para>
1134
1135 <para>Since no <varname>ExecStop=</varname> was specified,
1136 systemd will send SIGTERM to all processes started from this
1137 service, and after a timeout also SIGKILL. This behavior can be
1138 modified, see
1139 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1140 for details.</para>
1141
1142 <para>Note that this unit type does not include any type of
1143 notification when a service has completed initialization. For
1144 this, you should use other unit types, such as
1145 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> if the service
1146 understands systemd's notification protocol,
1147 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> if the service
1148 can background itself or
1149 <varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option> if the unit
1150 acquires a DBus name once initialization is complete. See
1151 below.</para>
1152 </example>
1153
1154 <example>
1155 <title>Oneshot service</title>
1156
1157 <para>Sometimes units should just execute an action without
1158 keeping active processes, such as a filesystem check or a
1159 cleanup action on boot. For this,
1160 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> exists. Units
1161 of this type will wait until the process specified terminates
1162 and then fall back to being inactive. The following unit will
ff9b60f3 1163 perform a cleanup action:</para>
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1164
1165 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1166Description=Cleanup old Foo data
1167
1168[Service]
1169Type=oneshot
1170ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-cleanup
1171
1172[Install]
1173WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1174
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1175 <para>Note that systemd will consider the unit to be in the
1176 state 'starting' until the program has terminated, so ordered
1177 dependencies will wait for the program to finish before starting
1178 themselves. The unit will revert to the 'inactive' state after
1179 the execution is done, never reaching the 'active' state. That
1180 means another request to start the unit will perform the action
1181 again.</para>
1182
1183 <para><varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> are the
1184 only service units that may have more than one
1185 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> specified. They will be executed
1186 in order until either they are all successful or one of them
1187 fails.</para>
1188 </example>
1189
1190 <example>
1191 <title>Stoppable oneshot service</title>
1192
1193 <para>Similarly to the oneshot services, there are sometimes
1194 units that need to execute a program to set up something and
1195 then execute another to shut it down, but no process remains
1196 active while they are considered 'started'. Network
1197 configuration can sometimes fall into this category. Another use
1198 case is if a oneshot service shall not be executed a each time
1199 when they are pulled in as a dependency, but only the first
1200 time.</para>
1201
1202 <para>For this, systemd knows the setting
1203 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>yes</option>, which
1204 causes systemd to consider the unit to be active if the start
1205 action exited successfully. This directive can be used with all
1206 types, but is most useful with
1207 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> and
1208 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>. With
1209 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> systemd waits
1210 until the start action has completed before it considers the
1211 unit to be active, so dependencies start only after the start
1212 action has succeeded. With
1213 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> dependencies
1214 will start immediately after the start action has been
1215 dispatched. The following unit provides an example for a simple
1216 static firewall.</para>
1217
1218 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1219Description=Simple firewall
1220
1221[Service]
1222Type=oneshot
1223RemainAfterExit=yes
1224ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-start
1225ExecStop=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-stop
1226
1227[Install]
1228WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1229
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1230 <para>Since the unit is considered to be running after the start
1231 action has exited, invoking <command>systemctl start</command>
1232 on that unit again will cause no action to be taken.</para>
1233 </example>
1234
1235 <example>
1236 <title>Traditional forking services</title>
1237
1238 <para>Many traditional daemons/services background (i.e. fork,
1239 daemonize) themselves when starting. Set
1240 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> in the
1241 service's unit file to support this mode of operation. systemd
1242 will consider the service to be in the process of initialization
1243 while the original program is still running. Once it exits
1244 successfully and at least a process remains (and
1245 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>no</option>), the
1246 service is considered started.</para>
1247
1248 <para>Often a traditional daemon only consists of one process.
1249 Therefore, if only one process is left after the original
1250 process terminates, systemd will consider that process the main
1251 process of the service. In that case, the
1252 <varname>$MAINPID</varname> variable will be available in
1253 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>, <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
1254 etc.</para>
1255
1256 <para>In case more than one process remains, systemd will be
1257 unable to determine the main process, so it will not assume
1258 there is one. In that case, <varname>$MAINPID</varname> will not
1259 expand to anything. However, if the process decides to write a
1260 traditional PID file, systemd will be able to read the main PID
1261 from there. Please set <varname>PIDFile=</varname> accordingly.
1262 Note that the daemon should write that file before finishing
1263 with its initialization, otherwise systemd might try to read the
1264 file before it exists.</para>
1265
1266 <para>The following example shows a simple daemon that forks and
1267 just starts one process in the background:</para>
1268
1269 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1270Description=Some simple daemon
1271
1272[Service]
1273Type=forking
1274ExecStart=/usr/sbin/my-simple-daemon -d
1275
1276[Install]
1277WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1278
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1279 <para>Please see
1280 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1281 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1282 the service.</para>
1283 </example>
1284
1285 <example>
1286 <title>DBus services</title>
1287
1288 <para>For services that acquire a name on the DBus system bus,
1289 use <varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option> and set
1290 <varname>BusName=</varname> accordingly. The service should not
1291 fork (daemonize). systemd will consider the service to be
1292 initialized once the name has been acquired on the system bus.
1293 The following example shows a typical DBus service:</para>
1294
1295 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1296Description=Simple DBus service
1297
1298[Service]
1299Type=dbus
1300BusName=org.example.simple-dbus-service
1301ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
1302
1303[Install]
1304WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1305
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1306 <para>For <emphasis>bus-activatable</emphasis> services, don't
1307 include a <literal>[Install]</literal> section in the systemd
1308 service file, but use the <varname>SystemdService=</varname>
1309 option in the corresponding DBus service file, for example
1310 (<filename>/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.example.simple-dbus-service.service</filename>):</para>
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1313Name=org.example.simple-dbus-service
1314Exec=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
1315User=root
1316SystemdService=simple-dbus-service.service</programlisting>
1317
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1318 <para>Please see
1319 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1320 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1321 the service.</para>
1322 </example>
1323
1324 <example>
1325 <title>Services that notify systemd about their initialization</title>
1326
1327 <para><varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> services
1328 are really easy to write, but have the major disadvantage of
1329 systemd not being able to tell when initialization of the given
1330 service is complete. For this reason, systemd supports a simple
1331 notification protocol that allows daemons to make systemd aware
1332 that they are done initializing. Use
1333 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> for this. A
1334 typical service file for such a daemon would look like
1335 this:</para>
1336
1337 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1338Description=Simple notifying service
1339
1340[Service]
1341Type=notify
1342ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-notifying-service
1343
1344[Install]
1345WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1346
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1347 <para>Note that the daemon has to support systemd's notification
1348 protocol, else systemd will think the service hasn't started yet
1349 and kill it after a timeout. For an example of how to update
1350 daemons to support this protocol transparently, take a look at
1351 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1352 systemd will consider the unit to be in the 'starting' state
1353 until a readiness notification has arrived.</para>
1354
1355 <para>Please see
1356 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1357 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1358 the service.</para>
1359 </example>
1360 </refsect1>
1361
1362 <refsect1>
1363 <title>See Also</title>
1364 <para>
1365 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1366 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1367 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1368 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1369 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1370 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1371 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1372 </para>
1373 </refsect1>
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1374
1375</refentry>