From: Christoph Anton Mitterer Date: Sat, 18 Oct 2025 03:30:12 +0000 (+0200) Subject: man: improve BindsTo= documentation X-Git-Tag: v259-rc2~65 X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=b3d99e23089bd65e1f8c445127a0963f1008f8c0;p=thirdparty%2Fsystemd.git man: improve BindsTo= documentation Make “effect” plural to indicate that BindsTo= also includes the other effects of Requires= (like starting the listed units). The documentation of Requires= already describes that the configuring unit is stopped/restarted if any of the list units is explicitly stopped/restarted. This made the previous wording “in addition to the effect of Requires, it declares that if the unit bound to is stopped, this unit will be stopped too.” ambiguous – this is no in addition, Requires= already does that, at least for some (namely the explicit) cases. Resolve this by making it clear what the actual difference to Requires= is and further mention that this also includes failed units. Signed-off-by: Christoph Anton Mitterer --- diff --git a/man/systemd.unit.xml b/man/systemd.unit.xml index 3d4707cb2ce..a2969739e88 100644 --- a/man/systemd.unit.xml +++ b/man/systemd.unit.xml @@ -721,9 +721,10 @@ BindsTo= Configures requirement dependencies, very similar in style to - Requires=. However, this dependency type is stronger: in addition to the effect of - Requires= it declares that if the unit bound to is stopped, this unit will be stopped - too. This means a unit bound to another unit that suddenly enters inactive state will be stopped too. + Requires=. However, this dependency type is stronger: in addition to the effects of + Requires=, which already stops (or restarts) the configuring unit when a listed unit is + explicitly stopped (or restared), it also does so when a listed unit stops unexpectedly (which includes when it + fails). Units can suddenly, unexpectedly enter inactive state for different reasons: the main process of a service unit might terminate on its own choice, the backing device of a device unit might be unplugged or the mount point of a mount unit might be unmounted without involvement of the system and service manager.