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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.
229 systemd will not write to the file configured here.</para>
230 </listitem>
231 </varlistentry>
232
233 <varlistentry>
234 <term><varname>BusName=</varname></term>
235
236 <listitem><para>Takes a D-Bus bus name that this service is
237 reachable as. This option is mandatory for services where
238 <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
239 <option>dbus</option>.</para>
240 </listitem>
241 </varlistentry>
242
243 <varlistentry>
244 <term><varname>BusPolicy=</varname></term>
245
246 <listitem><para>If specified, a custom
247 <ulink url="https://code.google.com/p/d-bus/">kdbus</ulink>
248 endpoint will be created and installed as the default bus node
249 for the service. Such a custom endpoint can hold an own set of
250 policy rules that are enforced on top of the bus-wide ones.
251 The custom endpoint is named after the service it was created
252 for, and its node will be bind-mounted over the default bus
253 node location, so the service can only access the bus through
254 its own endpoint. Note that custom bus endpoints default to a
255 'deny all' policy. Hence, if at least one
256 <varname>BusPolicy=</varname> directive is given, you have to
257 make sure to add explicit rules for everything the service
258 should be able to do.</para>
259 <para>The value of this directive is comprised
260 of two parts; the bus name, and a verb to
261 specify to granted access, which is one of
262 <option>see</option>,
263 <option>talk</option>, or
264 <option>own</option>.
265 <option>talk</option> implies
266 <option>see</option>, and <option>own</option>
267 implies both <option>talk</option> and
268 <option>see</option>.
269 If multiple access levels are specified for the
270 same bus name, the most powerful one takes
271 effect.
272 </para>
273 <para>Examples:</para>
274 <programlisting>BusPolicy=org.freedesktop.systemd1 talk</programlisting>
275 <programlisting>BusPolicy=org.foo.bar see</programlisting>
276 <para>This option is only available on kdbus enabled systems.</para>
277 </listitem>
278 </varlistentry>
279
280 <varlistentry>
281 <term><varname>ExecStart=</varname></term>
282 <listitem><para>Commands with their arguments that are
283 executed when this service is started. The value is split into
284 zero or more command lines is according to the rules described
285 below (see section "Command Lines" below).
286 </para>
287
288 <para>When <varname>Type</varname> is not
289 <option>oneshot</option>, only one command may and must be
290 given. When <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is used, zero or
291 more commands may be specified. This can be specified by
292 providing multiple command lines in the same directive, or
293 alternatively, this directive may be specified more than once
294 with the same effect. If the empty string is assigned to this
295 option, the list of commands to start is reset, prior
296 assignments of this option will have no effect. If no
297 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> is specified, then the service
298 must have <varname>RemainAfterExit=yes</varname> set.</para>
299
300 <para>For each of the specified commands, the first argument
301 must be an absolute path to an executable. Optionally, if this
302 file name is prefixed with <literal>@</literal>, the second
303 token will be passed as <literal>argv[0]</literal> to the
304 executed process, followed by the further arguments specified.
305 If the absolute filename is prefixed with
306 <literal>-</literal>, an exit code of the command normally
307 considered a failure (i.e. non-zero exit status or abnormal
308 exit due to signal) is ignored and considered success. If both
309 <literal>-</literal> and <literal>@</literal> are used, they
310 can appear in either order.</para>
311
312 <para>If more than one command is specified, the commands are
313 invoked sequentially in the order they appear in the unit
314 file. If one of the commands fails (and is not prefixed with
315 <literal>-</literal>), other lines are not executed, and the
316 unit is considered failed.</para>
317
318 <para>Unless <varname>Type=forking</varname> is set, the
319 process started via this command line will be considered the
320 main process of the daemon.</para>
321 </listitem>
322 </varlistentry>
323
324 <varlistentry>
325 <term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
326 <term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
327 <listitem><para>Additional commands that are executed before
328 or after the command in <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
329 respectively. Syntax is the same as for
330 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, except that multiple command
331 lines are allowed and the commands are executed one after the
332 other, serially.</para>
333
334 <para>If any of those commands (not prefixed with
335 <literal>-</literal>) fail, the rest are not executed and the
336 unit is considered failed.</para>
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337
338 <para>Note that <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> may not be
339 used to start long-running processes. All processes forked
340 off by processes invoked via <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> will
341 be killed before the next service process is run.</para>
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342 </listitem>
343 </varlistentry>
344
345 <varlistentry>
346 <term><varname>ExecReload=</varname></term>
347 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to trigger a configuration
348 reload in the service. This argument takes multiple command
349 lines, following the same scheme as described for
350 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> above. Use of this setting is
351 optional. Specifier and environment variable substitution is
352 supported here following the same scheme as for
353 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>.</para>
354
355 <para>One additional, special environment variable is set: if
356 known, <varname>$MAINPID</varname> is set to the main process
357 of the daemon, and may be used for command lines like the
358 following:</para>
359
360 <programlisting>/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID</programlisting>
361
362 <para>Note however that reloading a daemon by sending a signal
363 (as with the example line above) is usually not a good choice,
364 because this is an asynchronous operation and hence not
365 suitable to order reloads of multiple services against each
366 other. It is strongly recommended to set
367 <varname>ExecReload=</varname> to a command that not only
368 triggers a configuration reload of the daemon, but also
369 synchronously waits for it to complete.</para>
370 </listitem>
371 </varlistentry>
372
373 <varlistentry>
374 <term><varname>ExecStop=</varname></term>
375 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to stop the service
376 started via <varname>ExecStart=</varname>. This argument takes
377 multiple command lines, following the same scheme as described
378 for <varname>ExecStart=</varname> above. Use of this setting
379 is optional. After the commands configured in this option are
380 run, all processes remaining for a service are terminated
381 according to the <varname>KillMode=</varname> setting (see
382 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
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383 If this option is not specified, the process is terminated by
384 sending the signal specified in <varname>KillSignal=</varname>
385 when service stop is requested. Specifier and environment
386 variable substitution is supported (including
387 <varname>$MAINPID</varname>, see above).</para>
388
389 <para>Note that it is usually not sufficient to specify a
390 command for this setting that only asks the service to
391 terminate (for example by queuing some form of termination
392 signal for it), but does not wait for it to do so. Since the
393 remaining processes of the services are killed using
394 <constant>SIGKILL</constant> immediately after the command
395 exited this would not result in a clean stop. The specified
396 command should hence be a synchronous operation, not an
397 asynchronous one.</para></listitem>
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398 </varlistentry>
399
400 <varlistentry>
401 <term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
402 <listitem><para>Additional commands that are executed after
403 the service was stopped. This includes cases where the
404 commands configured in <varname>ExecStop=</varname> were used,
405 where the service does not have any
406 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> defined, or where the service
407 exited unexpectedly. This argument takes multiple command
408 lines, following the same scheme as described for
409 <varname>ExecStart</varname>. Use of these settings is
410 optional. Specifier and environment variable substitution is
411 supported.</para></listitem>
412 </varlistentry>
413
414 <varlistentry>
415 <term><varname>RestartSec=</varname></term>
416 <listitem><para>Configures the time to sleep before restarting
417 a service (as configured with <varname>Restart=</varname>).
418 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
419 as "5min 20s". Defaults to 100ms.</para></listitem>
420 </varlistentry>
421
422 <varlistentry>
423 <term><varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname></term>
424 <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for start-up. If a
425 daemon service does not signal start-up completion within the
426 configured time, the service will be considered failed and
427 will be shut down again. Takes a unit-less value in seconds,
428 or a time span value such as "5min 20s". Pass
429 <literal>0</literal> to disable the timeout logic. Defaults to
430 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the manager
431 configuration file, except when
432 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is used, in which case the
433 timeout is disabled by default (see
434 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
435 </para></listitem>
436 </varlistentry>
437
438 <varlistentry>
439 <term><varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname></term>
440 <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for stop. If a
441 service is asked to stop, but does not terminate in the
442 specified time, it will be terminated forcibly via
443 <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and after another timeout of
444 equal duration with <constant>SIGKILL</constant> (see
445 <varname>KillMode=</varname> in
446 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
447 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
448 as "5min 20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to disable the
449 timeout logic. Defaults to
450 <varname>DefaultTimeoutStopSec=</varname> from the manager
451 configuration file (see
452 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
453 </para></listitem>
454 </varlistentry>
455
456 <varlistentry>
457 <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
458 <listitem><para>A shorthand for configuring both
459 <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> and
460 <varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname> to the specified value.
461 </para></listitem>
462 </varlistentry>
463
464 <varlistentry>
465 <term><varname>WatchdogSec=</varname></term>
466 <listitem><para>Configures the watchdog timeout for a service.
467 The watchdog is activated when the start-up is completed. The
468 service must call
469 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
470 regularly with <literal>WATCHDOG=1</literal> (i.e. the
471 "keep-alive ping"). If the time between two such calls is
472 larger than the configured time, then the service is placed in
473 a failed state and it will be terminated with
474 <varname>SIGABRT</varname>. By setting
475 <varname>Restart=</varname> to <option>on-failure</option> or
476 <option>always</option>, the service will be automatically
477 restarted. The time configured here will be passed to the
478 executed service process in the
479 <varname>WATCHDOG_USEC=</varname> environment variable. This
480 allows daemons to automatically enable the keep-alive pinging
481 logic if watchdog support is enabled for the service. If this
482 option is used, <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see below)
483 should be set to open access to the notification socket
484 provided by systemd. If <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
485 not set, it will be implicitly set to <option>main</option>.
486 Defaults to 0, which disables this feature.</para></listitem>
487 </varlistentry>
488
489 <varlistentry>
490 <term><varname>Restart=</varname></term>
491 <listitem><para>Configures whether the service shall be
492 restarted when the service process exits, is killed, or a
493 timeout is reached. The service process may be the main
494 service process, but it may also be one of the processes
495 specified with <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
496 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
497 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
498 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>, or
499 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>. When the death of the process
500 is a result of systemd operation (e.g. service stop or
501 restart), the service will not be restarted. Timeouts include
502 missing the watchdog "keep-alive ping" deadline and a service
503 start, reload, and stop operation timeouts.</para>
504
505 <para>Takes one of
506 <option>no</option>,
507 <option>on-success</option>,
508 <option>on-failure</option>,
509 <option>on-abnormal</option>,
510 <option>on-watchdog</option>,
511 <option>on-abort</option>, or
512 <option>always</option>.
513 If set to <option>no</option> (the default), the service will
514 not be restarted. If set to <option>on-success</option>, it
515 will be restarted only when the service process exits cleanly.
516 In this context, a clean exit means an exit code of 0, or one
517 of the signals
518 <constant>SIGHUP</constant>,
519 <constant>SIGINT</constant>,
520 <constant>SIGTERM</constant> or
521 <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>, and
522 additionally, exit statuses and signals specified in
523 <varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname>. If set to
524 <option>on-failure</option>, the service will be restarted
525 when the process exits with a non-zero exit code, is
526 terminated by a signal (including on core dump, but excluding
ff9b60f3 527 the aforementioned four signals), when an operation (such as
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528 service reload) times out, and when the configured watchdog
529 timeout is triggered. If set to <option>on-abnormal</option>,
530 the service will be restarted when the process is terminated
531 by a signal (including on core dump, excluding the
532 aforementioned four signals), when an operation times out, or
533 when the watchdog timeout is triggered. If set to
534 <option>on-abort</option>, the service will be restarted only
535 if the service process exits due to an uncaught signal not
536 specified as a clean exit status. If set to
537 <option>on-watchdog</option>, the service will be restarted
538 only if the watchdog timeout for the service expires. If set
539 to <option>always</option>, the service will be restarted
540 regardless of whether it exited cleanly or not, got terminated
541 abnormally by a signal, or hit a timeout.</para>
542
543 <table>
544 <title>Exit causes and the effect of the <varname>Restart=</varname> settings on them</title>
545
546 <tgroup cols='2'>
547 <colspec colname='path' />
548 <colspec colname='expl' />
549 <thead>
550 <row>
551 <entry>Restart settings/Exit causes</entry>
552 <entry><option>no</option></entry>
553 <entry><option>always</option></entry>
554 <entry><option>on-success</option></entry>
555 <entry><option>on-failure</option></entry>
556 <entry><option>on-abnormal</option></entry>
557 <entry><option>on-abort</option></entry>
558 <entry><option>on-watchdog</option></entry>
559 </row>
560 </thead>
561 <tbody>
562 <row>
563 <entry>Clean exit code or signal</entry>
564 <entry/>
565 <entry>X</entry>
566 <entry>X</entry>
567 <entry/>
568 <entry/>
569 <entry/>
570 <entry/>
571 </row>
572 <row>
573 <entry>Unclean exit code</entry>
574 <entry/>
575 <entry>X</entry>
576 <entry/>
577 <entry>X</entry>
578 <entry/>
579 <entry/>
580 <entry/>
581 </row>
582 <row>
583 <entry>Unclean signal</entry>
584 <entry/>
585 <entry>X</entry>
586 <entry/>
587 <entry>X</entry>
588 <entry>X</entry>
589 <entry>X</entry>
590 <entry/>
591 </row>
592 <row>
593 <entry>Timeout</entry>
594 <entry/>
595 <entry>X</entry>
596 <entry/>
597 <entry>X</entry>
598 <entry>X</entry>
599 <entry/>
600 <entry/>
601 </row>
602 <row>
603 <entry>Watchdog</entry>
604 <entry/>
605 <entry>X</entry>
606 <entry/>
607 <entry>X</entry>
608 <entry>X</entry>
609 <entry/>
610 <entry>X</entry>
611 </row>
612 </tbody>
613 </tgroup>
614 </table>
615
616 <para>As exceptions to the setting above the service will not
617 be restarted if the exit code or signal is specified in
618 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname> (see below).
619 Also, the services will always be restarted if the exit code
620 or signal is specified in
621 <varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname> (see below).</para>
622
623 <para>Setting this to <option>on-failure</option> is the
624 recommended choice for long-running services, in order to
625 increase reliability by attempting automatic recovery from
626 errors. For services that shall be able to terminate on their
627 own choice (and avoid immediate restarting),
628 <option>on-abnormal</option> is an alternative choice.</para>
629 </listitem>
630 </varlistentry>
631
632 <varlistentry>
633 <term><varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname></term>
634 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that
635 when returned by the main service process will be considered
636 successful termination, in addition to the normal successful
637 exit code 0 and the signals <constant>SIGHUP</constant>,
638 <constant>SIGINT</constant>, <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and
639 <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>. Exit status definitions can
640 either be numeric exit codes or termination signal names,
641 separated by spaces. For example:
642 <programlisting>SuccessExitStatus=1 2 8
643 SIGKILL</programlisting> ensures that exit codes 1, 2, 8 and
644 the termination signal <constant>SIGKILL</constant> are
645 considered clean service terminations.
646 </para>
647
648 <para>Note that if a process has a signal handler installed
649 and exits by calling
650 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>_exit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
651 in response to a signal, the information about the signal is
652 lost. Programs should instead perform cleanup and kill
653 themselves with the same signal instead. See
654 <ulink url="http://www.cons.org/cracauer/sigint.html">Proper
655 handling of SIGINT/SIGQUIT — How to be a proper
656 program</ulink>.</para>
657
658 <para>This option may appear more than once, in which case the
659 list of successful exit statuses is merged. If the empty
660 string is assigned to this option, the list is reset, all
661 prior assignments of this option will have no
662 effect.</para></listitem>
663 </varlistentry>
664
665 <varlistentry>
666 <term><varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname></term>
667 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that
668 when returned by the main service process will prevent
669 automatic service restarts, regardless of the restart setting
670 configured with <varname>Restart=</varname>. Exit status
671 definitions can either be numeric exit codes or termination
672 signal names, and are separated by spaces. Defaults to the
673 empty list, so that, by default, no exit status is excluded
674 from the configured restart logic. For example:
675 <programlisting>RestartPreventExitStatus=1 6
676 SIGABRT</programlisting> ensures that exit codes 1 and 6 and
677 the termination signal <constant>SIGABRT</constant> will not
678 result in automatic service restarting. This option may appear
679 more than once, in which case the list of restart-preventing
680 statuses is merged. If the empty string is assigned to this
681 option, the list is reset and all prior assignments of this
682 option will have no effect.</para></listitem>
683 </varlistentry>
684
685 <varlistentry>
686 <term><varname>RestartForceExitStatus=</varname></term>
687 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit status definitions that
688 when returned by the main service process will force automatic
689 service restarts, regardless of the restart setting configured
690 with <varname>Restart=</varname>. The argument format is
691 similar to
692 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>.</para></listitem>
693 </varlistentry>
694
695 <varlistentry>
696 <term><varname>PermissionsStartOnly=</varname></term>
697 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, the
698 permission-related execution options, as configured with
699 <varname>User=</varname> and similar options (see
700 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
701 for more information), are only applied to the process started
702 with
703 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not to the various other
704 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
705 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
706 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
707 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
708 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
709 commands. If false, the setting is applied to all configured
710 commands the same way. Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
711 </varlistentry>
712
713 <varlistentry>
714 <term><varname>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</varname></term>
715 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, the root
716 directory, as configured with the
717 <varname>RootDirectory=</varname> option (see
718 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
719 for more information), is only applied to the process started
720 with <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not to the various
721 other <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
722 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
723 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>, <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
724 and <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> commands. If false, the
725 setting is applied to all configured commands the same way.
726 Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
727 </varlistentry>
728
729 <varlistentry>
730 <term><varname>NonBlocking=</varname></term>
731 <listitem><para>Set the <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag
732 for all file descriptors passed via socket-based activation.
733 If true, all file descriptors >= 3 (i.e. all except stdin,
734 stdout, and stderr) will have the
735 <constant>O_NONBLOCK</constant> flag set and hence are in
736 non-blocking mode. This option is only useful in conjunction
737 with a socket unit, as described in
738 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
739 Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
740 </varlistentry>
741
742 <varlistentry>
743 <term><varname>NotifyAccess=</varname></term>
744 <listitem><para>Controls access to the service status
745 notification socket, as accessible via the
746 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
747 call. Takes one of <option>none</option> (the default),
748 <option>main</option> or <option>all</option>. If
749 <option>none</option>, no daemon status updates are accepted
750 from the service processes, all status update messages are
751 ignored. If <option>main</option>, only service updates sent
752 from the main process of the service are accepted. If
753 <option>all</option>, all services updates from all members of
754 the service's control group are accepted. This option should
755 be set to open access to the notification socket when using
756 <varname>Type=notify</varname> or
757 <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> (see above). If those options
758 are used but <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is not
759 configured, it will be implicitly set to
760 <option>main</option>.</para></listitem>
761 </varlistentry>
762
763 <varlistentry>
764 <term><varname>Sockets=</varname></term>
765 <listitem><para>Specifies the name of the socket units this
766 service shall inherit socket file descriptors from when the
767 service is started. Normally it should not be necessary to use
768 this setting as all socket file descriptors whose unit shares
769 the same name as the service (subject to the different unit
770 name suffix of course) are passed to the spawned
771 process.</para>
772
773 <para>Note that the same socket file descriptors may be passed
774 to multiple processes simultaneously. Also note that a
775 different service may be activated on incoming socket traffic
776 than the one which is ultimately configured to inherit the
777 socket file descriptors. Or in other words: the
778 <varname>Service=</varname> setting of
779 <filename>.socket</filename> units does not have to match the
780 inverse of the <varname>Sockets=</varname> setting of the
781 <filename>.service</filename> it refers to.</para>
782
783 <para>This option may appear more than once, in which case the
784 list of socket units is merged. If the empty string is
785 assigned to this option, the list of sockets is reset, and all
786 prior uses of this setting will have no
787 effect.</para></listitem>
788 </varlistentry>
789
790 <varlistentry>
791 <term><varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname></term>
792 <term><varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname></term>
793
794 <listitem><para>Configure service start rate limiting. By
795 default, services which are started more than 5 times within
796 10 seconds are not permitted to start any more times until the
797 10 second interval ends. With these two options, this rate
798 limiting may be modified. Use
799 <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname> to configure the
800 checking interval (defaults to
801 <varname>DefaultStartLimitInterval=</varname> in manager
802 configuration file, set to 0 to disable any kind of rate
803 limiting). Use <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to
804 configure how many starts per interval are allowed (defaults
805 to <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in manager
806 configuration file). These configuration options are
807 particularly useful in conjunction with
808 <varname>Restart=</varname>; however, they apply to all kinds
809 of starts (including manual), not just those triggered by the
810 <varname>Restart=</varname> logic. Note that units which are
811 configured for <varname>Restart=</varname> and which reach the
812 start limit are not attempted to be restarted anymore;
813 however, they may still be restarted manually at a later
814 point, from which point on, the restart logic is again
815 activated. Note that <command>systemctl reset-failed</command>
816 will cause the restart rate counter for a service to be
817 flushed, which is useful if the administrator wants to
818 manually start a service and the start limit interferes with
819 that.</para></listitem>
820 </varlistentry>
821
822 <varlistentry>
823 <term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
824
825 <listitem><para>Configure the action to take if the rate limit
826 configured with <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname> and
827 <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is hit. Takes one of
828 <option>none</option>,
829 <option>reboot</option>,
830 <option>reboot-force</option>,
831 <option>reboot-immediate</option>,
832 <option>poweroff</option>,
833 <option>poweroff-force</option> or
834 <option>poweroff-immediate</option>. If
835 <option>none</option> is set, hitting the rate limit will
836 trigger no action besides that the start will not be
837 permitted. <option>reboot</option> causes a reboot following
838 the normal shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to
839 <command>systemctl reboot</command>).
840 <option>reboot-force</option> causes a forced reboot which
841 will terminate all processes forcibly but should cause no
842 dirty file systems on reboot (i.e. equivalent to
843 <command>systemctl reboot -f</command>) and
844 <option>reboot-immediate</option> causes immediate execution
845 of the
846 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
847 system call, which might result in data loss. Similar,
848 <option>poweroff</option>, <option>poweroff-force</option>,
849 <option>poweroff-immediate</option> have the effect of
850 powering down the system with similar semantics. Defaults to
851 <option>none</option>.</para></listitem>
852 </varlistentry>
853
854 <varlistentry>
855 <term><varname>FailureAction=</varname></term>
856 <listitem><para>Configure the action to take when the service
857 enters a failed state. Takes the same values as
858 <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname> and executes the same
859 actions. Defaults to <option>none</option>. </para></listitem>
860 </varlistentry>
861
862 <varlistentry>
863 <term><varname>RebootArgument=</varname></term>
864 <listitem><para>Configure the optional argument for the
865 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
866 system call if <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname> or
867 <varname>FailureAction=</varname> is a reboot action. This
868 works just like the optional argument to <command>systemctl
869 reboot</command> command.</para></listitem>
870 </varlistentry>
871
872 <varlistentry>
873 <term><varname>FileDescriptorStoreMax=</varname></term>
874 <listitem><para>Configure how many file descriptors may be
875 stored in the service manager for the service using
876 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_pid_notify_with_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
877 <literal>FDSTORE=1</literal> messages. This is useful for
878 implementing service restart schemes where the state is
879 serialized to <filename>/run</filename> and the file
880 descriptors passed to the service manager, to allow restarts
881 without losing state. Defaults to 0, i.e. no file descriptors
882 may be stored in the service manager by default. All file
883 descriptors passed to the service manager from a specific
884 service are passed back to the service's main process on the
885 next service restart. Any file descriptors passed to the
886 service manager are automatically closed when POLLHUP or
887 POLLERR is seen on them, or when the service is fully stopped
888 and no job queued or being executed for it.</para></listitem>
889 </varlistentry>
890
891 </variablelist>
892
893 <para>Check
894 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
895 and
896 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
897 for more settings.</para>
898
899 </refsect1>
900
901 <refsect1>
902 <title>Command lines</title>
903
904 <para>This section describes command line parsing and
ff9b60f3 905 variable and specifier substitutions for
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906 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
907 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
908 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
909 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
910 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
911 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> options.</para>
912
913 <para>Multiple command lines may be concatenated in a single
914 directive by separating them with semicolons (these semicolons
915 must be passed as separate words). Lone semicolons may be escaped
916 as <literal>\;</literal>.</para>
917
918 <para>Each command line is split on whitespace, with the first
919 item being the command to execute, and the subsequent items being
920 the arguments. Double quotes ("...") and single quotes ('...') may
921 be used, in which case everything until the next matching quote
922 becomes part of the same argument. C-style escapes are also
923 supported, see table below. Quotes themselves are removed after
924 parsing and escape sequences substituted. In addition, a trailing
925 backslash (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to merge lines.
926 </para>
927
928 <para>This syntax is intended to be very similar to shell syntax,
929 but only the meta-characters and expansions described in the
930 following paragraphs are understood. Specifically, redirection
931 using
932 <literal>&lt;</literal>,
933 <literal>&lt;&lt;</literal>,
934 <literal>&gt;</literal>, and
935 <literal>&gt;&gt;</literal>, pipes using
936 <literal>|</literal>, running programs in the background using
937 <literal>&amp;</literal>, and <emphasis>other elements of shell
938 syntax are not supported</emphasis>.</para>
939
940 <para>The command to execute must an absolute path name. It may
941 contain spaces, but control characters are not allowed.</para>
942
943 <para>The command line accepts <literal>%</literal> specifiers as
944 described in
945 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
946 Note that the first argument of the command line (i.e. the program
947 to execute) may not include specifiers.</para>
948
949 <para>Basic environment variable substitution is supported. Use
950 <literal>${FOO}</literal> as part of a word, or as a word of its
951 own, on the command line, in which case it will be replaced by the
952 value of the environment variable including all whitespace it
953 contains, resulting in a single argument. Use
954 <literal>$FOO</literal> as a separate word on the command line, in
955 which case it will be replaced by the value of the environment
956 variable split at whitespace resulting in zero or more arguments.
957 For this type of expansion, quotes and respected when splitting
958 into words, and afterwards removed.</para>
959
960 <para>Example:</para>
961
962 <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
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963ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
964
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965 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
966 arguments: <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two</literal>,
967 <literal>two</literal>, and <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
5d9a2698 968
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969 <para>Example:</para>
970 <programlisting>Environment=ONE='one' "TWO='two two' too" THREE=
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971ExecStart=/bin/echo ${ONE} ${TWO} ${THREE}
972ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO $THREE</programlisting>
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973 <para>This results in <filename>echo</filename> being
974 called twice, the first time with arguments
975 <literal>'one'</literal>,
976 <literal>'two two' too</literal>, <literal></literal>,
977 and the second time with arguments
978 <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two two</literal>,
979 <literal>too</literal>.
980 </para>
981
982 <para>To pass a literal dollar sign, use <literal>$$</literal>.
983 Variables whose value is not known at expansion time are treated
984 as empty strings. Note that the first argument (i.e. the program
985 to execute) may not be a variable.</para>
986
987 <para>Variables to be used in this fashion may be defined through
988 <varname>Environment=</varname> and
989 <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>. In addition, variables listed
990 in the section "Environment variables in spawned processes" in
991 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
992 which are considered "static configuration", may be used (this
993 includes e.g. <varname>$USER</varname>, but not
994 <varname>$TERM</varname>).</para>
995
996 <para>Note that shell command lines are not directly supported. If
997 shell command lines are to be used, they need to be passed
998 explicitly to a shell implementation of some kind. Example:</para>
999 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
1000
1001 <para>Example:</para>
1002
1003 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"</programlisting>
1004
1005 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> two times,
1006 each time with one argument: <literal>one</literal> and
1007 <literal>two two</literal>, respectively. Because two commands are
1008 specified, <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must be used.</para>
1009
1010 <para>Example:</para>
1011
1012 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / &gt;/dev/null &amp; \; \
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1013/bin/ls</programlisting>
1014
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1015 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
1016 with five arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
1017 <literal>&gt;/dev/null</literal>,
1018 <literal>&amp;</literal>, <literal>;</literal>, and
1019 <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
1020
1021 <table>
1022 <title>C escapes supported in command lines and environment variables</title>
1023 <tgroup cols='2'>
1024 <colspec colname='escape' />
1025 <colspec colname='meaning' />
1026 <thead>
1027 <row>
1028 <entry>Literal</entry>
1029 <entry>Actual value</entry>
1030 </row>
1031 </thead>
1032 <tbody>
1033 <row>
1034 <entry><literal>\a</literal></entry>
1035 <entry>bell</entry>
1036 </row>
1037 <row>
1038 <entry><literal>\b</literal></entry>
1039 <entry>backspace</entry>
1040 </row>
1041 <row>
1042 <entry><literal>\f</literal></entry>
1043 <entry>form feed</entry>
1044 </row>
1045 <row>
1046 <entry><literal>\n</literal></entry>
1047 <entry>newline</entry>
1048 </row>
1049 <row>
1050 <entry><literal>\r</literal></entry>
1051 <entry>carriage return</entry>
1052 </row>
1053 <row>
1054 <entry><literal>\t</literal></entry>
1055 <entry>tab</entry>
1056 </row>
1057 <row>
1058 <entry><literal>\v</literal></entry>
1059 <entry>vertical tab</entry>
1060 </row>
1061 <row>
1062 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
1063 <entry>backslash</entry>
1064 </row>
1065 <row>
1066 <entry><literal>\"</literal></entry>
1067 <entry>double quotation mark</entry>
1068 </row>
1069 <row>
1070 <entry><literal>\'</literal></entry>
1071 <entry>single quotation mark</entry>
1072 </row>
1073 <row>
1074 <entry><literal>\s</literal></entry>
1075 <entry>space</entry>
1076 </row>
1077 <row>
1078 <entry><literal>\x<replaceable>xx</replaceable></literal></entry>
1079 <entry>character number <replaceable>xx</replaceable> in hexadecimal encoding</entry>
1080 </row>
1081 <row>
1082 <entry><literal>\<replaceable>nnn</replaceable></literal></entry>
1083 <entry>character number <replaceable>nnn</replaceable> in octal encoding</entry>
1084 </row>
1085 </tbody>
1086 </tgroup>
1087 </table>
1088 </refsect1>
1089
1090 <refsect1>
1091 <title>Examples</title>
1092
1093 <example>
1094 <title>Simple service</title>
1095
1096 <para>The following unit file creates a service that will
1097 execute <filename>/usr/sbin/foo-daemon</filename>. Since no
1098 <varname>Type=</varname> is specified, the default
1099 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> will be assumed.
1100 systemd will assume the unit to be started immediately after the
1101 program has begun executing.</para>
1102
1103 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1104Description=Foo
1105
1106[Service]
1107ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
1108
1109[Install]
1110WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1111
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1112 <para>Note that systemd assumes here that the process started by
1113 systemd will continue running until the service terminates. If
1114 the program daemonizes itself (i.e. forks), please use
1115 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> instead.</para>
1116
1117 <para>Since no <varname>ExecStop=</varname> was specified,
1118 systemd will send SIGTERM to all processes started from this
1119 service, and after a timeout also SIGKILL. This behavior can be
1120 modified, see
1121 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1122 for details.</para>
1123
1124 <para>Note that this unit type does not include any type of
1125 notification when a service has completed initialization. For
1126 this, you should use other unit types, such as
1127 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> if the service
1128 understands systemd's notification protocol,
1129 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> if the service
1130 can background itself or
1131 <varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option> if the unit
1132 acquires a DBus name once initialization is complete. See
1133 below.</para>
1134 </example>
1135
1136 <example>
1137 <title>Oneshot service</title>
1138
1139 <para>Sometimes units should just execute an action without
1140 keeping active processes, such as a filesystem check or a
1141 cleanup action on boot. For this,
1142 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> exists. Units
1143 of this type will wait until the process specified terminates
1144 and then fall back to being inactive. The following unit will
ff9b60f3 1145 perform a cleanup action:</para>
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1146
1147 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1148Description=Cleanup old Foo data
1149
1150[Service]
1151Type=oneshot
1152ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-cleanup
1153
1154[Install]
1155WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1156
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1157 <para>Note that systemd will consider the unit to be in the
1158 state 'starting' until the program has terminated, so ordered
1159 dependencies will wait for the program to finish before starting
1160 themselves. The unit will revert to the 'inactive' state after
1161 the execution is done, never reaching the 'active' state. That
1162 means another request to start the unit will perform the action
1163 again.</para>
1164
1165 <para><varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> are the
1166 only service units that may have more than one
1167 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> specified. They will be executed
1168 in order until either they are all successful or one of them
1169 fails.</para>
1170 </example>
1171
1172 <example>
1173 <title>Stoppable oneshot service</title>
1174
1175 <para>Similarly to the oneshot services, there are sometimes
1176 units that need to execute a program to set up something and
1177 then execute another to shut it down, but no process remains
1178 active while they are considered 'started'. Network
1179 configuration can sometimes fall into this category. Another use
1180 case is if a oneshot service shall not be executed a each time
1181 when they are pulled in as a dependency, but only the first
1182 time.</para>
1183
1184 <para>For this, systemd knows the setting
1185 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>yes</option>, which
1186 causes systemd to consider the unit to be active if the start
1187 action exited successfully. This directive can be used with all
1188 types, but is most useful with
1189 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> and
1190 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>. With
1191 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> systemd waits
1192 until the start action has completed before it considers the
1193 unit to be active, so dependencies start only after the start
1194 action has succeeded. With
1195 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> dependencies
1196 will start immediately after the start action has been
1197 dispatched. The following unit provides an example for a simple
1198 static firewall.</para>
1199
1200 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1201Description=Simple firewall
1202
1203[Service]
1204Type=oneshot
1205RemainAfterExit=yes
1206ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-start
1207ExecStop=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-stop
1208
1209[Install]
1210WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1211
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1212 <para>Since the unit is considered to be running after the start
1213 action has exited, invoking <command>systemctl start</command>
1214 on that unit again will cause no action to be taken.</para>
1215 </example>
1216
1217 <example>
1218 <title>Traditional forking services</title>
1219
1220 <para>Many traditional daemons/services background (i.e. fork,
1221 daemonize) themselves when starting. Set
1222 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> in the
1223 service's unit file to support this mode of operation. systemd
1224 will consider the service to be in the process of initialization
1225 while the original program is still running. Once it exits
1226 successfully and at least a process remains (and
1227 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>no</option>), the
1228 service is considered started.</para>
1229
1230 <para>Often a traditional daemon only consists of one process.
1231 Therefore, if only one process is left after the original
1232 process terminates, systemd will consider that process the main
1233 process of the service. In that case, the
1234 <varname>$MAINPID</varname> variable will be available in
1235 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>, <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
1236 etc.</para>
1237
1238 <para>In case more than one process remains, systemd will be
1239 unable to determine the main process, so it will not assume
1240 there is one. In that case, <varname>$MAINPID</varname> will not
1241 expand to anything. However, if the process decides to write a
1242 traditional PID file, systemd will be able to read the main PID
1243 from there. Please set <varname>PIDFile=</varname> accordingly.
1244 Note that the daemon should write that file before finishing
1245 with its initialization, otherwise systemd might try to read the
1246 file before it exists.</para>
1247
1248 <para>The following example shows a simple daemon that forks and
1249 just starts one process in the background:</para>
1250
1251 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1252Description=Some simple daemon
1253
1254[Service]
1255Type=forking
1256ExecStart=/usr/sbin/my-simple-daemon -d
1257
1258[Install]
1259WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1260
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1261 <para>Please see
1262 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1263 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1264 the service.</para>
1265 </example>
1266
1267 <example>
1268 <title>DBus services</title>
1269
1270 <para>For services that acquire a name on the DBus system bus,
1271 use <varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option> and set
1272 <varname>BusName=</varname> accordingly. The service should not
1273 fork (daemonize). systemd will consider the service to be
1274 initialized once the name has been acquired on the system bus.
1275 The following example shows a typical DBus service:</para>
1276
1277 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1278Description=Simple DBus service
1279
1280[Service]
1281Type=dbus
1282BusName=org.example.simple-dbus-service
1283ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
1284
1285[Install]
1286WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1287
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1288 <para>For <emphasis>bus-activatable</emphasis> services, don't
1289 include a <literal>[Install]</literal> section in the systemd
1290 service file, but use the <varname>SystemdService=</varname>
1291 option in the corresponding DBus service file, for example
1292 (<filename>/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.example.simple-dbus-service.service</filename>):</para>
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1295Name=org.example.simple-dbus-service
1296Exec=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
1297User=root
1298SystemdService=simple-dbus-service.service</programlisting>
1299
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1300 <para>Please see
1301 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1302 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1303 the service.</para>
1304 </example>
1305
1306 <example>
1307 <title>Services that notify systemd about their initialization</title>
1308
1309 <para><varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> services
1310 are really easy to write, but have the major disadvantage of
1311 systemd not being able to tell when initialization of the given
1312 service is complete. For this reason, systemd supports a simple
1313 notification protocol that allows daemons to make systemd aware
1314 that they are done initializing. Use
1315 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> for this. A
1316 typical service file for such a daemon would look like
1317 this:</para>
1318
1319 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1320Description=Simple notifying service
1321
1322[Service]
1323Type=notify
1324ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-notifying-service
1325
1326[Install]
1327WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1328
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1329 <para>Note that the daemon has to support systemd's notification
1330 protocol, else systemd will think the service hasn't started yet
1331 and kill it after a timeout. For an example of how to update
1332 daemons to support this protocol transparently, take a look at
1333 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1334 systemd will consider the unit to be in the 'starting' state
1335 until a readiness notification has arrived.</para>
1336
1337 <para>Please see
1338 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1339 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1340 the service.</para>
1341 </example>
1342 </refsect1>
1343
1344 <refsect1>
1345 <title>See Also</title>
1346 <para>
1347 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1348 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1349 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1350 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1351 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1352 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1353 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1354 </para>
1355 </refsect1>
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1356
1357</refentry>