<term><varname>ExecStart=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Commands with their
arguments that are executed when this
- service is started. The first
- argument must be an absolute path
- name.</para>
+ service is started. For each of the
+ specified commands, the first argument
+ must be an absolute and literal path
+ to an executable.</para>
<para>When <varname>Type</varname> is
not <option>oneshot</option>, only one
(these semicolons must be passed as
separate words). Alternatively, this
directive may be specified more than
- once with the same effect. However,
- the latter syntax is not recommended
- for compatibility with parsers
- suitable for XDG
- <filename>.desktop</filename> files.
+ once with the same effect.
Lone semicolons may be escaped as
<literal>\;</literal>. If the empty
string is assigned to this option, the
prior assignments of this option will
have no effect.</para>
+ <para>Each command line is split on
+ whitespace, with the first item being
+ the command to execute, and the
+ subsequent items being the arguments.
+ Double quotes ("...") and single
+ quotes ('...') may be used, in which
+ case everything until the next
+ matching quote becomes part of the
+ same argument. Quotes themselves are
+ removed after parsing. In addition, a
+ trailing backslash
+ (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to
+ merge lines. This syntax is intended
+ to be very similar to shell syntax,
+ but only the meta-characters and
+ expansions described in the following
+ paragraphs are understood.
+ Specifically, redirection using
+ <literal><</literal>,
+ <literal><<</literal>,
+ <literal>></literal>, and
+ <literal>>></literal>, pipes
+ using <literal>|</literal>, and
+ running programs in the background
+ using <literal>&</literal>
+ and <emphasis>other elements of shell
+ syntax are not supported</emphasis>.
+ </para>
+
<para>If more than one command is
specified, the commands are invoked
one by one sequentially in the order
<para>The command line accepts
<literal>%</literal> specifiers as
described in
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Note
- that the first argument of the command
- line (i.e. the program to execute) may
- not include specifiers.</para>
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ Note that the first argument of the
+ command line (i.e. the program to
+ execute) may not include
+ specifiers.</para>
<para>Basic environment variable
substitution is supported. Use
more arguments. To pass a literal dollar sign,
use <literal>$$</literal>. Note that the first
argument (i.e. the program to execute)
- may not be a variable, since it must
- be a literal and absolute path
- name.</para>
+ may not be a variable.</para>
<para>Optionally, if the absolute file
name is prefixed with
<programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'
</programlisting>
- <para>For services run by a user
- instance of systemd the special
- environment variable
- <varname>$MANAGERPID</varname> is set
- to the PID of the systemd
- instance.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>Only select environment variables
+ are set for executed commands. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>Example:</para>
+ <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"
+ </programlisting>
+ <para>This will execute
+ <command>/bin/echo</command> two
+ times, each time with one argument,
+ <literal>one</literal> and
+ <literal>two two</literal>,
+ respectively. Since two commands are
+ specified
+ <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must
+ be used.</para>
+
+ <para>Example:</para>
+ <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / >/dev/null & \; \
+/bin/ls
+ </programlisting>
+ <para>This will execute
+ <command>/bin/echo</command> with five
+ arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
+ <literal>>/dev/null</literal>,
+ <literal>&</literal>,
+ <literal>;</literal>, and
+ <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
+
+ <para>Example:</para>
+ <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
+ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}
+ </programlisting>
+ <para>This will execute
+ <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
+ arguments: <literal>one</literal>,
+ <literal>two</literal>,
+ <literal>two</literal>, and
+ <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
timeout for the service expires.
If set to
<option>always</option>, the service
- will be restarted regardless whether
+ will be restarted regardless of whether
it exited cleanly or not, got
terminated abnormally by a signal or
hit a timeout.</para>
these two options, this rate limiting
may be modified. Use
<varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
- to configure the checking interval
- (defaults to 10s, set to 0 to disable
+ to configure the checking interval (defaults to
+ <varname>DefaultStartLimitInterval=</varname> in
+ manager configuration file, set to 0 to disable
any kind of rate limiting). Use
<varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to
configure how many starts per interval
- are allowed (defaults to 5). These
+ are allowed (defaults to
+ <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in
+ manager configuration file). These
configuration options are particularly
useful in conjunction with
<varname>Restart=</varname>, however
~ianmdlvl / elogind.git / blobdiff