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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
22065311 290 <para>When <varname>Type=</varname> is not
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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>
b481de3b 339
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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
22065311 424 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>. Use of these settings is
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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
22065311 489 <constant>SIGABRT</constant>. By setting
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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
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906 <varlistentry>
907 <term><varname>USBFunctionDescriptors=</varname></term>
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908 <listitem><para>Configure the location of a file containing
909 <ulink
910 url="https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/usb/functionfs.txt">USB
911 FunctionFS</ulink> descriptors, for implementation of USB
912 gadget functions. This is is used only in conjunction with a
913 socket unit with <varname>ListenUSBFunction=</varname>
914 configured. The contents of this file is written to the
915 <filename>ep0</filename> file after it is
916 opened.</para></listitem>
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917 </varlistentry>
918
919 <varlistentry>
920 <term><varname>USBFunctionStrings=</varname></term>
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921 <listitem><para>Configure the location of a file containing
922 USB FunctionFS strings. Behavior is similar to
923 <varname>USBFunctionDescriptors=</varname>
924 above.</para></listitem>
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925 </varlistentry>
926
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927 </variablelist>
928
929 <para>Check
930 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
931 and
932 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
933 for more settings.</para>
934
935 </refsect1>
936
937 <refsect1>
938 <title>Command lines</title>
939
940 <para>This section describes command line parsing and
ff9b60f3 941 variable and specifier substitutions for
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942 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>,
943 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
944 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
945 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
946 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>, and
947 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> options.</para>
948
949 <para>Multiple command lines may be concatenated in a single
950 directive by separating them with semicolons (these semicolons
951 must be passed as separate words). Lone semicolons may be escaped
952 as <literal>\;</literal>.</para>
953
954 <para>Each command line is split on whitespace, with the first
955 item being the command to execute, and the subsequent items being
956 the arguments. Double quotes ("...") and single quotes ('...') may
957 be used, in which case everything until the next matching quote
958 becomes part of the same argument. C-style escapes are also
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959 supported. The table below contains the list of allowed escape
960 patterns. Only patterns which match the syntax in the table are
961 allowed; others will result in an error, and must be escaped by
962 doubling the backslash. Quotes themselves are removed after
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963 parsing and escape sequences substituted. In addition, a trailing
964 backslash (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to merge lines.
965 </para>
966
967 <para>This syntax is intended to be very similar to shell syntax,
968 but only the meta-characters and expansions described in the
969 following paragraphs are understood. Specifically, redirection
970 using
971 <literal>&lt;</literal>,
972 <literal>&lt;&lt;</literal>,
973 <literal>&gt;</literal>, and
974 <literal>&gt;&gt;</literal>, pipes using
975 <literal>|</literal>, running programs in the background using
976 <literal>&amp;</literal>, and <emphasis>other elements of shell
977 syntax are not supported</emphasis>.</para>
978
388a91b0 979 <para>The command to execute must be an absolute path name. It may
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980 contain spaces, but control characters are not allowed.</para>
981
982 <para>The command line accepts <literal>%</literal> specifiers as
983 described in
984 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
985 Note that the first argument of the command line (i.e. the program
986 to execute) may not include specifiers.</para>
987
988 <para>Basic environment variable substitution is supported. Use
989 <literal>${FOO}</literal> as part of a word, or as a word of its
990 own, on the command line, in which case it will be replaced by the
991 value of the environment variable including all whitespace it
992 contains, resulting in a single argument. Use
993 <literal>$FOO</literal> as a separate word on the command line, in
994 which case it will be replaced by the value of the environment
995 variable split at whitespace resulting in zero or more arguments.
996 For this type of expansion, quotes and respected when splitting
997 into words, and afterwards removed.</para>
998
999 <para>Example:</para>
1000
1001 <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
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1002ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
1003
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1004 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
1005 arguments: <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two</literal>,
1006 <literal>two</literal>, and <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
5d9a2698 1007
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1008 <para>Example:</para>
1009 <programlisting>Environment=ONE='one' "TWO='two two' too" THREE=
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1010ExecStart=/bin/echo ${ONE} ${TWO} ${THREE}
1011ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO $THREE</programlisting>
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1012 <para>This results in <filename>echo</filename> being
1013 called twice, the first time with arguments
1014 <literal>'one'</literal>,
1015 <literal>'two two' too</literal>, <literal></literal>,
1016 and the second time with arguments
1017 <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two two</literal>,
1018 <literal>too</literal>.
1019 </para>
1020
1021 <para>To pass a literal dollar sign, use <literal>$$</literal>.
1022 Variables whose value is not known at expansion time are treated
1023 as empty strings. Note that the first argument (i.e. the program
1024 to execute) may not be a variable.</para>
1025
1026 <para>Variables to be used in this fashion may be defined through
1027 <varname>Environment=</varname> and
1028 <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>. In addition, variables listed
1029 in the section "Environment variables in spawned processes" in
1030 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1031 which are considered "static configuration", may be used (this
1032 includes e.g. <varname>$USER</varname>, but not
1033 <varname>$TERM</varname>).</para>
1034
1035 <para>Note that shell command lines are not directly supported. If
1036 shell command lines are to be used, they need to be passed
1037 explicitly to a shell implementation of some kind. Example:</para>
1038 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
1039
1040 <para>Example:</para>
1041
1042 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"</programlisting>
1043
1044 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> two times,
1045 each time with one argument: <literal>one</literal> and
1046 <literal>two two</literal>, respectively. Because two commands are
1047 specified, <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must be used.</para>
1048
1049 <para>Example:</para>
1050
1051 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / &gt;/dev/null &amp; \; \
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1052/bin/ls</programlisting>
1053
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1054 <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
1055 with five arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
1056 <literal>&gt;/dev/null</literal>,
1057 <literal>&amp;</literal>, <literal>;</literal>, and
1058 <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
1059
1060 <table>
1061 <title>C escapes supported in command lines and environment variables</title>
1062 <tgroup cols='2'>
1063 <colspec colname='escape' />
1064 <colspec colname='meaning' />
1065 <thead>
1066 <row>
1067 <entry>Literal</entry>
1068 <entry>Actual value</entry>
1069 </row>
1070 </thead>
1071 <tbody>
1072 <row>
1073 <entry><literal>\a</literal></entry>
1074 <entry>bell</entry>
1075 </row>
1076 <row>
1077 <entry><literal>\b</literal></entry>
1078 <entry>backspace</entry>
1079 </row>
1080 <row>
1081 <entry><literal>\f</literal></entry>
1082 <entry>form feed</entry>
1083 </row>
1084 <row>
1085 <entry><literal>\n</literal></entry>
1086 <entry>newline</entry>
1087 </row>
1088 <row>
1089 <entry><literal>\r</literal></entry>
1090 <entry>carriage return</entry>
1091 </row>
1092 <row>
1093 <entry><literal>\t</literal></entry>
1094 <entry>tab</entry>
1095 </row>
1096 <row>
1097 <entry><literal>\v</literal></entry>
1098 <entry>vertical tab</entry>
1099 </row>
1100 <row>
1101 <entry><literal>\\</literal></entry>
1102 <entry>backslash</entry>
1103 </row>
1104 <row>
1105 <entry><literal>\"</literal></entry>
1106 <entry>double quotation mark</entry>
1107 </row>
1108 <row>
1109 <entry><literal>\'</literal></entry>
1110 <entry>single quotation mark</entry>
1111 </row>
1112 <row>
1113 <entry><literal>\s</literal></entry>
1114 <entry>space</entry>
1115 </row>
1116 <row>
1117 <entry><literal>\x<replaceable>xx</replaceable></literal></entry>
1118 <entry>character number <replaceable>xx</replaceable> in hexadecimal encoding</entry>
1119 </row>
1120 <row>
1121 <entry><literal>\<replaceable>nnn</replaceable></literal></entry>
1122 <entry>character number <replaceable>nnn</replaceable> in octal encoding</entry>
1123 </row>
1124 </tbody>
1125 </tgroup>
1126 </table>
1127 </refsect1>
1128
1129 <refsect1>
1130 <title>Examples</title>
1131
1132 <example>
1133 <title>Simple service</title>
1134
1135 <para>The following unit file creates a service that will
1136 execute <filename>/usr/sbin/foo-daemon</filename>. Since no
1137 <varname>Type=</varname> is specified, the default
1138 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> will be assumed.
1139 systemd will assume the unit to be started immediately after the
1140 program has begun executing.</para>
1141
1142 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1143Description=Foo
1144
1145[Service]
1146ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
1147
1148[Install]
1149WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1150
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1151 <para>Note that systemd assumes here that the process started by
1152 systemd will continue running until the service terminates. If
1153 the program daemonizes itself (i.e. forks), please use
1154 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> instead.</para>
1155
1156 <para>Since no <varname>ExecStop=</varname> was specified,
1157 systemd will send SIGTERM to all processes started from this
1158 service, and after a timeout also SIGKILL. This behavior can be
1159 modified, see
1160 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1161 for details.</para>
1162
1163 <para>Note that this unit type does not include any type of
1164 notification when a service has completed initialization. For
1165 this, you should use other unit types, such as
1166 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> if the service
1167 understands systemd's notification protocol,
1168 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> if the service
1169 can background itself or
1170 <varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option> if the unit
1171 acquires a DBus name once initialization is complete. See
1172 below.</para>
1173 </example>
1174
1175 <example>
1176 <title>Oneshot service</title>
1177
1178 <para>Sometimes units should just execute an action without
1179 keeping active processes, such as a filesystem check or a
1180 cleanup action on boot. For this,
1181 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> exists. Units
1182 of this type will wait until the process specified terminates
1183 and then fall back to being inactive. The following unit will
ff9b60f3 1184 perform a cleanup action:</para>
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1185
1186 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1187Description=Cleanup old Foo data
1188
1189[Service]
1190Type=oneshot
1191ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-cleanup
1192
1193[Install]
1194WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1195
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1196 <para>Note that systemd will consider the unit to be in the
1197 state 'starting' until the program has terminated, so ordered
1198 dependencies will wait for the program to finish before starting
1199 themselves. The unit will revert to the 'inactive' state after
1200 the execution is done, never reaching the 'active' state. That
1201 means another request to start the unit will perform the action
1202 again.</para>
1203
1204 <para><varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> are the
1205 only service units that may have more than one
1206 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> specified. They will be executed
1207 in order until either they are all successful or one of them
1208 fails.</para>
1209 </example>
1210
1211 <example>
1212 <title>Stoppable oneshot service</title>
1213
1214 <para>Similarly to the oneshot services, there are sometimes
1215 units that need to execute a program to set up something and
1216 then execute another to shut it down, but no process remains
1217 active while they are considered 'started'. Network
1218 configuration can sometimes fall into this category. Another use
1219 case is if a oneshot service shall not be executed a each time
1220 when they are pulled in as a dependency, but only the first
1221 time.</para>
1222
1223 <para>For this, systemd knows the setting
1224 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>yes</option>, which
1225 causes systemd to consider the unit to be active if the start
1226 action exited successfully. This directive can be used with all
1227 types, but is most useful with
1228 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> and
1229 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option>. With
1230 <varname>Type=</varname><option>oneshot</option> systemd waits
1231 until the start action has completed before it considers the
1232 unit to be active, so dependencies start only after the start
1233 action has succeeded. With
1234 <varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> dependencies
1235 will start immediately after the start action has been
1236 dispatched. The following unit provides an example for a simple
1237 static firewall.</para>
1238
1239 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1240Description=Simple firewall
1241
1242[Service]
1243Type=oneshot
1244RemainAfterExit=yes
1245ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-start
1246ExecStop=/usr/local/sbin/simple-firewall-stop
1247
1248[Install]
1249WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1250
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1251 <para>Since the unit is considered to be running after the start
1252 action has exited, invoking <command>systemctl start</command>
1253 on that unit again will cause no action to be taken.</para>
1254 </example>
1255
1256 <example>
1257 <title>Traditional forking services</title>
1258
1259 <para>Many traditional daemons/services background (i.e. fork,
1260 daemonize) themselves when starting. Set
1261 <varname>Type=</varname><option>forking</option> in the
1262 service's unit file to support this mode of operation. systemd
1263 will consider the service to be in the process of initialization
1264 while the original program is still running. Once it exits
1265 successfully and at least a process remains (and
1266 <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname><option>no</option>), the
1267 service is considered started.</para>
1268
1269 <para>Often a traditional daemon only consists of one process.
1270 Therefore, if only one process is left after the original
1271 process terminates, systemd will consider that process the main
1272 process of the service. In that case, the
1273 <varname>$MAINPID</varname> variable will be available in
1274 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>, <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
1275 etc.</para>
1276
1277 <para>In case more than one process remains, systemd will be
1278 unable to determine the main process, so it will not assume
1279 there is one. In that case, <varname>$MAINPID</varname> will not
1280 expand to anything. However, if the process decides to write a
1281 traditional PID file, systemd will be able to read the main PID
1282 from there. Please set <varname>PIDFile=</varname> accordingly.
1283 Note that the daemon should write that file before finishing
1284 with its initialization, otherwise systemd might try to read the
1285 file before it exists.</para>
1286
1287 <para>The following example shows a simple daemon that forks and
1288 just starts one process in the background:</para>
1289
1290 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1291Description=Some simple daemon
1292
1293[Service]
1294Type=forking
1295ExecStart=/usr/sbin/my-simple-daemon -d
1296
1297[Install]
1298WantedBy=multi-user.target</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>DBus services</title>
1308
1309 <para>For services that acquire a name on the DBus system bus,
1310 use <varname>Type=</varname><option>dbus</option> and set
1311 <varname>BusName=</varname> accordingly. The service should not
1312 fork (daemonize). systemd will consider the service to be
1313 initialized once the name has been acquired on the system bus.
1314 The following example shows a typical DBus service:</para>
1315
1316 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1317Description=Simple DBus service
1318
1319[Service]
1320Type=dbus
1321BusName=org.example.simple-dbus-service
1322ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
1323
1324[Install]
1325WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1326
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1327 <para>For <emphasis>bus-activatable</emphasis> services, don't
1328 include a <literal>[Install]</literal> section in the systemd
1329 service file, but use the <varname>SystemdService=</varname>
1330 option in the corresponding DBus service file, for example
1331 (<filename>/usr/share/dbus-1/system-services/org.example.simple-dbus-service.service</filename>):</para>
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798d3a52 1333 <programlisting>[D-BUS Service]
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1334Name=org.example.simple-dbus-service
1335Exec=/usr/sbin/simple-dbus-service
1336User=root
1337SystemdService=simple-dbus-service.service</programlisting>
1338
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1339 <para>Please see
1340 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1341 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1342 the service.</para>
1343 </example>
1344
1345 <example>
1346 <title>Services that notify systemd about their initialization</title>
1347
1348 <para><varname>Type=</varname><option>simple</option> services
1349 are really easy to write, but have the major disadvantage of
1350 systemd not being able to tell when initialization of the given
1351 service is complete. For this reason, systemd supports a simple
1352 notification protocol that allows daemons to make systemd aware
1353 that they are done initializing. Use
1354 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option> for this. A
1355 typical service file for such a daemon would look like
1356 this:</para>
1357
1358 <programlisting>[Unit]
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1359Description=Simple notifying service
1360
1361[Service]
1362Type=notify
1363ExecStart=/usr/sbin/simple-notifying-service
1364
1365[Install]
1366WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
1367
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1368 <para>Note that the daemon has to support systemd's notification
1369 protocol, else systemd will think the service hasn't started yet
1370 and kill it after a timeout. For an example of how to update
1371 daemons to support this protocol transparently, take a look at
1372 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
1373 systemd will consider the unit to be in the 'starting' state
1374 until a readiness notification has arrived.</para>
1375
1376 <para>Please see
1377 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1378 for details on how you can influence the way systemd terminates
1379 the service.</para>
1380 </example>
1381 </refsect1>
1382
1383 <refsect1>
1384 <title>See Also</title>
1385 <para>
1386 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1387 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1388 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1389 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1390 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1391 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1392 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1393 </para>
1394 </refsect1>
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1395
1396</refentry>