From: Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek <zbyszek@amutable.com>
Date: Sat, 30 May 2026 19:44:58 +0000 (+0200)
Subject: man/systemd: reword description of 2/3/4/5
X-Git-Tag: v261-rc3~28^2~2
X-Git-Url: http://git.ipfire.org/cgi-bin/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=ff1721325dfdf76640130513e7a14b4c08291f35;p=thirdparty%2Fsystemd.git

man/systemd: reword description of 2/3/4/5

We shouldn't say that that they boot into "a … legacy target", because
they boot into the standard targets. Those names are just aliases now.
(And also the user is not required to know what SysV even is, so it
shouldn't be used in the main explanation.)
---

diff --git a/man/systemd.xml b/man/systemd.xml
index 30ae385029b..9020579d73c 100644
--- a/man/systemd.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.xml
@@ -996,10 +996,10 @@
         <term><varname>rd.emergency</varname></term>
         <term><varname>-b</varname></term>
 
-        <listitem><para>Boot into emergency mode. This is equivalent
-        to <varname>systemd.unit=emergency.target</varname> or
-        <varname>rd.systemd.unit=emergency.target</varname>, respectively, and
-        provided for compatibility reasons and to be easier to type.</para>
+        <listitem><para>Boot into emergency mode. Those options are equivalent to
+        <varname>systemd.unit=emergency.target</varname> or
+        <varname>rd.systemd.unit=emergency.target</varname>, respectively. They were initially
+        provided for compatibility with SysV, but are retained as convenient shortcuts.</para>
 
         <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v186"/></listitem>
       </varlistentry>
@@ -1012,10 +1012,10 @@
         <term><varname>S</varname></term>
         <term><varname>1</varname></term>
 
-        <listitem><para>Boot into rescue mode. This is equivalent to
-        <varname>systemd.unit=rescue.target</varname> or
-        <varname>rd.systemd.unit=rescue.target</varname>, respectively, and
-        provided for compatibility reasons and to be easier to type.</para>
+        <listitem><para>Boot into rescue mode. Those options are equivalent to either
+        <varname>systemd.unit=rescue.target</varname> or <varname>rd.systemd.unit=rescue.target</varname>.
+        They were initially provided for compatibility with SysV, but are retained as convenient
+        shortcuts.</para>
 
         <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v186"/></listitem>
       </varlistentry>
@@ -1026,11 +1026,11 @@
         <term><varname>4</varname></term>
         <term><varname>5</varname></term>
 
-        <listitem><para>Boot into the specified legacy SysV runlevel.
+        <listitem><para>Shortcuts to boot into specific targets:
         <varname>2</varname>, <varname>3</varname>, and <varname>4</varname> are equivalent to
         <varname>systemd.unit=multi-user.target</varname>; and <varname>5</varname> is equivalent to
-        <varname>systemd.unit=graphical.target</varname>, and provided for compatibility reasons and to be
-        easier to type.</para>
+        <varname>systemd.unit=graphical.target</varname>. Those options were initially provided
+        for compatibility with SysV, but are retained as convenient shortcuts.</para>
 
         <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v186"/></listitem>
       </varlistentry>