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7 This file is part of systemd.
9 Copyright 2010 Lennart Poettering
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25 <refentry id="systemd.service">
27 <title>systemd.service</title>
28 <productname>systemd</productname>
32 <contrib>Developer</contrib>
33 <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
34 <surname>Poettering</surname>
35 <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
41 <refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle>
42 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
46 <refname>systemd.service</refname>
47 <refpurpose>Service unit configuration</refpurpose>
51 <para><filename><replaceable>service</replaceable>.service</filename></para>
55 <title>Description</title>
57 <para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
58 <filename>.service</filename> encodes information
59 about a process controlled and supervised by
62 <para>This man page lists the configuration options
63 specific to this unit type. See
64 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
65 for the common options of all unit configuration
66 files. The common configuration items are configured
67 in the generic <literal>[Unit]</literal> and
68 <literal>[Install]</literal> sections. The service
69 specific configuration options are configured in the
70 <literal>[Service]</literal> section.</para>
72 <para>Additional options are listed in
73 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
74 which define the execution environment the commands
75 are executed in, and in
76 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
77 which define the way the processes of the service are
79 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
80 which configure resource control settings for the
81 processes of the service.</para>
83 <para>Unless <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname>
84 is set to <option>false</option>, service units will
85 implicitly have dependencies of type
86 <varname>Requires=</varname> and
87 <varname>After=</varname> on
88 <filename>basic.target</filename> as well as
89 dependencies of type <varname>Conflicts=</varname> and
90 <varname>Before=</varname> on
91 <filename>shutdown.target</filename>. These ensure
92 that normal service units pull in basic system
93 initialization, and are terminated cleanly prior to
94 system shutdown. Only services involved with early
95 boot or late system shutdown should disable this
98 <para>If a service is requested under a certain name
99 but no unit configuration file is found, systemd looks
100 for a SysV init script by the same name (with the
101 <filename>.service</filename> suffix removed) and
102 dynamically creates a service unit from that
103 script. This is useful for compatibility with
104 SysV. Note that this compatibility is quite
105 comprehensive but not 100%. For details about the
106 incompatibilities see the <ulink
107 url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Incompatibilities">Incompatibilities
108 with SysV</ulink> document.
113 <title>Options</title>
115 <para>Service files must include a
116 <literal>[Service]</literal> section, which carries
117 information about the service and the process it
118 supervises. A number of options that may be used in
119 this section are shared with other unit types. These
120 options are documented in
121 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
123 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. The
124 options specific to the <literal>[Service]</literal>
125 section of service units are the following:</para>
127 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
129 <term><varname>Type=</varname></term>
131 <listitem><para>Configures the process
132 start-up type for this service
133 unit. One of <option>simple</option>,
134 <option>forking</option>,
135 <option>oneshot</option>,
136 <option>dbus</option>,
137 <option>notify</option> or
138 <option>idle</option>.</para>
141 <option>simple</option> (the default
143 <varname>Type=</varname> nor
144 <varname>BusName=</varname> are
145 specified), it is expected that the
146 process configured with
147 <varname>ExecStart=</varname> is the
148 main process of the service. In this
149 mode, if the process offers
150 functionality to other processes on
151 the system, its communication channels
152 should be installed before the daemon
153 is started up (e.g. sockets set up by
154 systemd, via socket activation), as
155 systemd will immediately proceed
156 starting follow-up units.</para>
159 <option>forking</option>, it is
160 expected that the process configured
161 with <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
162 will call <function>fork()</function>
163 as part of its start-up. The parent process is
164 expected to exit when start-up is
165 complete and all communication
166 channels are set up. The child continues
167 to run as the main daemon
168 process. This is the behavior of
169 traditional UNIX daemons. If this
170 setting is used, it is recommended to
172 <varname>PIDFile=</varname> option, so
173 that systemd can identify the main
174 process of the daemon. systemd will
175 proceed starting follow-up units as
176 soon as the parent process
180 <option>oneshot</option> is similar
181 to <option>simple</option>, however
182 it is expected that the process has to
183 exit before systemd starts follow-up
184 units. <varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname>
185 is particularly useful for this type
189 <option>dbus</option> is similar to
190 <option>simple</option>, however it is
191 expected that the daemon acquires a
192 name on the D-Bus bus, as configured
194 <varname>BusName=</varname>. systemd
195 will proceed starting follow-up units
196 after the D-Bus bus name has been
197 acquired. Service units with this
198 option configured implicitly gain
200 <filename>dbus.socket</filename>
201 unit. This type is the default if
202 <varname>BusName=</varname> is
206 <option>notify</option> is similar to
207 <option>simple</option>, however it is
208 expected that the daemon sends a
209 notification message via
210 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
211 or an equivalent call when it finished
212 starting up. systemd will proceed
213 starting follow-up units after this
214 notification message has been sent. If
216 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see
217 below) should be set to open access to
218 the notification socket provided by
220 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
221 not set, it will be implicitly set to
222 <option>main</option>. Note that
224 <varname>Type=</varname><option>notify</option>
225 will not work if used in combination with
226 <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname><option>yes</option>.</para>
229 <option>idle</option> is very similar
230 to <option>simple</option>, however
231 actual execution of the service
232 binary is delayed until all jobs are
233 dispatched. This may be used to avoid
234 interleaving of output of shell
235 services with the status output on the
241 <term><varname>RemainAfterExit=</varname></term>
243 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value
244 that specifies whether the service
245 shall be considered active even when
246 all its processes exited. Defaults to
247 <option>no</option>.</para>
252 <term><varname>GuessMainPID=</varname></term>
254 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value
255 that specifies whether systemd should
256 try to guess the main PID of a service
257 if it cannot be determined
258 reliably. This option is ignored
259 unless <option>Type=forking</option>
260 is set and <option>PIDFile=</option>
261 is unset because for the other types
262 or with an explicitly configured PID
263 file the main PID is always known. The
264 guessing algorithm might come to
265 incorrect conclusions if a daemon
266 consists of more than one process. If
267 the main PID cannot be determined,
268 failure detection and automatic
269 restarting of a service will not work
270 reliably. Defaults to
271 <option>yes</option>.</para>
276 <term><varname>PIDFile=</varname></term>
278 <listitem><para>Takes an absolute file
279 name pointing to the PID file of this
280 daemon. Use of this option is
281 recommended for services where
282 <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
283 <option>forking</option>. systemd will
284 read the PID of the main process of
285 the daemon after start-up of the
286 service. systemd will not write to the
287 file configured here.</para>
292 <term><varname>BusName=</varname></term>
294 <listitem><para>Takes a D-Bus bus
295 name, that this service is reachable
296 as. This option is mandatory for
298 <varname>Type=</varname> is set to
299 <option>dbus</option>, but its use
300 is otherwise recommended as well if
301 the process takes a name on the D-Bus
307 <term><varname>ExecStart=</varname></term>
308 <listitem><para>Commands with their
309 arguments that are executed when this
310 service is started. For each of the
311 specified commands, the first argument
312 must be an absolute and literal path
313 to an executable.</para>
315 <para>When <varname>Type</varname> is
316 not <option>oneshot</option>, only one
317 command may be given. When
318 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is
319 used, more than one command may be
320 specified. Multiple command lines may
321 be concatenated in a single directive,
322 by separating them with semicolons
323 (these semicolons must be passed as
324 separate words). Alternatively, this
325 directive may be specified more than
326 once with the same effect.
327 Lone semicolons may be escaped as
328 <literal>\;</literal>. If the empty
329 string is assigned to this option, the
330 list of commands to start is reset,
331 prior assignments of this option will
332 have no effect.</para>
334 <para>Each command line is split on
335 whitespace, with the first item being
336 the command to execute, and the
337 subsequent items being the arguments.
338 Double quotes ("...") and single
339 quotes ('...') may be used, in which
340 case everything until the next
341 matching quote becomes part of the
342 same argument. Quotes themselves are
343 removed after parsing. In addition, a
345 (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to
346 merge lines. This syntax is intended
347 to be very similar to shell syntax,
348 but only the meta-characters and
349 expansions described in the following
350 paragraphs are understood.
351 Specifically, redirection using
352 <literal><</literal>,
353 <literal><<</literal>,
354 <literal>></literal>, and
355 <literal>>></literal>, pipes
356 using <literal>|</literal>, and
357 running programs in the background
358 using <literal>&</literal>
359 and <emphasis>other elements of shell
360 syntax are not supported</emphasis>.
363 <para>If more than one command is
364 specified, the commands are invoked
365 one by one sequentially in the order
366 they appear in the unit file. If one
367 of the commands fails (and is not
368 prefixed with <literal>-</literal>),
369 other lines are not executed and the
370 unit is considered failed.</para>
373 <varname>Type=forking</varname> is
374 set, the process started via this
375 command line will be considered the
376 main process of the daemon.</para>
378 <para>The command line accepts
379 <literal>%</literal> specifiers as
381 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
382 Note that the first argument of the
383 command line (i.e. the program to
384 execute) may not include
387 <para>Basic environment variable
388 substitution is supported. Use
389 <literal>${FOO}</literal> as part of a
390 word, or as a word of its own on the
391 command line, in which case it will be
392 replaced by the value of the
393 environment variable including all
394 whitespace it contains, resulting in a
396 <literal>$FOO</literal> as a separate
397 word on the command line, in which
398 case it will be replaced by the value
399 of the environment variable split at
400 whitespace, resulting in zero or more
401 arguments. To pass a literal dollar
402 sign, use <literal>$$</literal>.
403 Variables whose value is not known at
404 expansion time are treated as empty
405 strings. Note that the first argument
406 (i.e. the program to execute) may not
407 be a variable.</para>
409 <para>Variables to be used in this
410 fashion may be defined through
411 <varname>Environment=</varname> and
412 <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>.
413 In addition, variables listed in
414 section "Environment variables in
415 spawned processes" in
416 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
417 which are considered "static
418 configuration" may used (this includes
419 e.g. <varname>$USER</varname>, but not
420 <varname>$TERM</varname>).</para>
422 <para>Optionally, if the absolute file
423 name is prefixed with
424 <literal>@</literal>, the second token
426 <literal>argv[0]</literal> to the
427 executed process, followed by the
428 further arguments specified. If the
429 absolute filename is prefixed with
430 <literal>-</literal>, an exit code of
431 the command normally considered a
432 failure (i.e. non-zero exit status or
433 abnormal exit due to signal) is ignored
434 and considered success. If both
435 <literal>-</literal> and
436 <literal>@</literal> are used, they
437 can appear in either order.</para>
439 <para>Note that this setting does not
440 directly support shell command
441 lines. If shell command lines are to
442 be used, they need to be passed
443 explicitly to a shell implementation
444 of some kind. Example:</para>
445 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
446 <para>Example:</para>
447 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"</programlisting>
448 <para>This will execute
449 <command>/bin/echo</command> two
450 times, each time with one argument,
451 <literal>one</literal> and
452 <literal>two two</literal>,
453 respectively. Since two commands are
455 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must
458 <para>Example:</para>
459 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / >/dev/null & \; \
460 /bin/ls</programlisting>
461 <para>This will execute
462 <command>/bin/echo</command> with five
463 arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
464 <literal>>/dev/null</literal>,
465 <literal>&</literal>,
466 <literal>;</literal>, and
467 <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
469 <para>Example:</para>
470 <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
471 ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
472 <para>This will execute
473 <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
474 arguments: <literal>one</literal>,
475 <literal>two</literal>,
476 <literal>two</literal>, and
477 <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
482 <term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
483 <term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
484 <listitem><para>Additional commands
485 that are executed before or after
487 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, respectively.
488 Syntax is the same as for
489 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, except
490 that multiple command lines are allowed
491 and the commands are executed one
492 after the other, serially.</para>
494 <para>If any of those commands (not
495 prefixed with <literal>-</literal>)
496 fail, the rest are not executed and
497 the unit is considered failed.</para>
502 <term><varname>ExecReload=</varname></term>
503 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to
504 trigger a configuration reload in the
505 service. This argument takes multiple
506 command lines, following the same
507 scheme as described for
508 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
509 above. Use of this setting is
510 optional. Specifier and environment
511 variable substitution is supported
512 here following the same scheme as for
513 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>.</para>
515 <para>One additional special
516 environment variables is set: if known
517 <varname>$MAINPID</varname> is set to
518 the main process of the daemon, and
519 may be used for command lines like the
522 <programlisting>/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID</programlisting>
527 <term><varname>ExecStop=</varname></term>
528 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to
529 stop the service started via
530 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>. This
531 argument takes multiple command lines,
532 following the same scheme as described
533 for <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
534 above. Use of this setting is
535 optional. All processes remaining for
536 a service after the commands
537 configured in this option are run are
538 terminated according to the
539 <varname>KillMode=</varname> setting
541 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>). If
542 this option is not specified, the
543 process is terminated right-away when
544 service stop is requested. Specifier
545 and environment variable substitution
546 is supported (including
547 <varname>$MAINPID</varname>, see
548 above).</para></listitem>
552 <term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
553 <listitem><para>Additional commands
554 that are executed after the service
555 was stopped. This includes cases where
556 the commands configured in
557 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> were used,
558 where the service does not have any
559 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> defined, or
560 where the service exited unexpectedly. This
561 argument takes multiple command lines,
562 following the same scheme as described
563 for <varname>ExecStart</varname>. Use
565 optional. Specifier and environment
566 variable substitution is
567 supported.</para></listitem>
571 <term><varname>RestartSec=</varname></term>
572 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
573 sleep before restarting a service (as
575 <varname>Restart=</varname>). Takes a
576 unit-less value in seconds, or a time
577 span value such as "5min
579 100ms.</para></listitem>
583 <term><varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname></term>
584 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
585 wait for start-up. If a
586 daemon service does not signal
587 start-up completion within the
588 configured time, the service will be
589 considered failed and be shut down
591 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a
592 time span value such as "5min
593 20s". Pass 0 to disable the timeout
594 logic. Defaults to <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the
595 manager configuration file, except when
596 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is
597 used, in which case the timeout
598 is disabled by default.
603 <term><varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname></term>
604 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
605 wait for stop. If a service is asked
606 to stop but does not terminate in the
607 specified time, it will be terminated
608 forcibly via <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and after
609 another delay of this time with
610 <constant>SIGKILL</constant> (See
611 <varname>KillMode=</varname>
612 in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
613 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a
614 time span value such as "5min
615 20s". Pass 0 to disable the timeout
616 logic. Defaults to <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the
617 manager configuration file.
622 <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
623 <listitem><para>A shorthand for configuring
624 both <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname>
625 and <varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname>
626 to the specified value.
631 <term><varname>WatchdogSec=</varname></term>
632 <listitem><para>Configures the
633 watchdog timeout for a service. The
634 watchdog is activated when the start-up is
635 completed. The service must call
636 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
637 regularly with "WATCHDOG=1" (i.e. the
638 "keep-alive ping"). If the time
639 between two such calls is larger than
640 the configured time, then the service
641 is placed in a failure state. By
642 setting <varname>Restart=</varname> to
643 <option>on-failure</option> or
644 <option>always</option>, the service
645 will be automatically restarted. The
646 time configured here will be passed to
647 the executed service process in the
648 <varname>WATCHDOG_USEC=</varname>
649 environment variable. This allows
650 daemons to automatically enable the
651 keep-alive pinging logic if watchdog
652 support is enabled for the service. If
654 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see
655 below) should be set to open access to
656 the notification socket provided by
658 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
659 not set, it will be implicitly set to
660 <option>main</option>. Defaults to 0,
662 feature.</para></listitem>
666 <term><varname>Restart=</varname></term>
667 <listitem><para>Configures whether the
668 service shall be restarted when the
669 service process exits, is killed,
670 or a timeout is reached. The service
671 process may be the main service
672 process, but also one of the processes
674 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
675 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
676 <varname>ExecStopPre=</varname>,
677 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>, or
678 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>.
679 When the death of the process is a
680 result of systemd operation (e.g. service
681 stop or restart), the service will not be
682 restarted. Timeouts include missing
683 the watchdog "keep-alive ping"
684 deadline and a service start, reload,
685 and stop operation timeouts.</para>
689 <option>on-success</option>,
690 <option>on-failure</option>,
691 <option>on-watchdog</option>,
692 <option>on-abort</option>, or
693 <option>always</option>. If set to
694 <option>no</option> (the default), the
695 service will not be restarted. If set to
696 <option>on-success</option>, it will be
697 restarted only when the service process
699 In this context, a clean exit means
700 an exit code of 0, or one of the signals
701 <constant>SIGHUP</constant>, <constant>SIGINT</constant>, <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, or <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>, and
702 additionally, exit statuses and signals
703 specified in <varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname>.
704 If set to <option>on-failure</option>,
705 the service will be restarted when the
706 process exits with an nonzero exit code,
707 is terminated by a signal (including on
708 core dump), when an operation (such as
709 service reload) times out, and when the
710 configured watchdog timeout is triggered.
712 <option>on-abort</option>, the service
713 will be restarted only if the service
714 process exits due to an uncaught
715 signal not specified as a clean exit
718 <option>on-watchdog</option>, the service
719 will be restarted only if the watchdog
720 timeout for the service expires.
722 <option>always</option>, the service
723 will be restarted regardless of whether
724 it exited cleanly or not, got
725 terminated abnormally by a signal or
726 hit a timeout.</para>
728 <para>In addition to the above settings,
729 the service will not be restarted if the
730 exit code or signal is specified in
731 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>
732 (see below).</para></listitem>
736 <term><varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname></term>
737 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
738 status definitions that when returned
739 by the main service process will be
740 considered successful termination, in
741 addition to the normal successful exit
742 code 0 and the signals <constant>SIGHUP</constant>, <constant>SIGINT</constant>,
743 <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>. Exit status
744 definitions can either be numeric exit
745 codes or termination signal names,
746 separated by spaces. Signals will only
747 be considered if the service does not implement
748 a signal handler and exits as a direct result
749 of receiving the signal. For example:
750 <programlisting>SuccessExitStatus=1 2 8 <constant>SIGKILL</constant></programlisting>
751 ensures that exit codes 1, 2, 8 and
752 the termination signal
753 <constant>SIGKILL</constant> are
754 considered clean service terminations.
757 <para>Note that if a process has a
758 signal handler installed and exits by
760 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>_exit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
761 in response to a signal, the
762 information about the signal is lost.
763 Programs should instead perform cleanup and kill themselves with the same signal instead. See
764 <ulink url="http://www.cons.org/cracauer/sigint.html">Proper handling of SIGINT/SIGQUIT — How to be a proper program</ulink>.</para>
766 <para>This option may appear more than once
767 in which case the list of successful
768 exit statuses is merged. If the empty
769 string is assigned to this option, the
770 list is reset, all prior assignments
771 of this option will have no
772 effect.</para></listitem>
776 <term><varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname></term>
777 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
778 status definitions that when returned
779 by the main service process will
780 prevent automatic service restarts
781 regardless of the restart setting
783 <varname>Restart=</varname>. Exit
784 status definitions can either be
785 numeric exit codes or termination
786 signal names, and are separated by
787 spaces. Defaults to the empty list, so
788 that by default no exit status is
789 excluded from the configured restart
791 <literal>RestartPreventExitStatus=1 6
792 SIGABRT</literal>, ensures that exit
793 codes 1 and 6 and the termination
794 signal SIGABRT will not result in
795 automatic service restarting. This
796 option may appear more than once in
797 which case the list of restart preventing
798 statuses is merged. If the empty
799 string is assigned to this option, the
800 list is reset, all prior assignments
801 of this option will have no
802 effect.</para></listitem>
806 <term><varname>PermissionsStartOnly=</varname></term>
807 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
808 argument. If true, the permission
809 related execution options as
811 <varname>User=</varname> and similar
813 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
814 for more information) are only applied
815 to the process started with
816 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not
818 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
819 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
820 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
821 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
822 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
823 commands. If false, the setting is
824 applied to all configured commands the
825 same way. Defaults to
826 false.</para></listitem>
830 <term><varname>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</varname></term>
831 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
832 argument. If true, the root directory
833 as configured with the
834 <varname>RootDirectory=</varname>
836 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
837 for more information) is only applied
838 to the process started with
839 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not
841 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
842 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
843 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
844 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
845 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
846 commands. If false, the setting is
847 applied to all configured commands the
848 same way. Defaults to
849 false.</para></listitem>
853 <term><varname>NonBlocking=</varname></term>
854 <listitem><para>Set O_NONBLOCK flag
855 for all file descriptors passed via
856 socket-based activation. If true, all
857 file descriptors >= 3 (i.e. all except
858 STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR) will have
859 the O_NONBLOCK flag set and hence are in
860 non-blocking mode. This option is only
861 useful in conjunction with a socket
862 unit, as described in
863 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Defaults
864 to false.</para></listitem>
868 <term><varname>NotifyAccess=</varname></term>
869 <listitem><para>Controls access to the
870 service status notification socket, as
872 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
874 <option>none</option> (the default),
875 <option>main</option> or
876 <option>all</option>. If
877 <option>none</option>, no daemon status
878 updates are accepted from the service
879 processes, all status update messages
880 are ignored. If <option>main</option>,
881 only service updates sent from the
882 main process of the service are
883 accepted. If <option>all</option>, all
884 services updates from all members of
885 the service's control group are
886 accepted. This option should be set to
887 open access to the notification socket
889 <varname>Type=notify</varname> or
890 <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> (see
891 above). If those options are used but
892 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is not
893 configured, it will be implicitly set
895 <option>main</option>.</para></listitem>
899 <term><varname>Sockets=</varname></term>
900 <listitem><para>Specifies the name of
901 the socket units this service shall
902 inherit the sockets from when the
903 service is started. Normally it
904 should not be necessary to use this
905 setting as all sockets whose unit
906 shares the same name as the service
907 (ignoring the different suffix of course)
908 are passed to the spawned
911 <para>Note that the same socket may be
912 passed to multiple processes at the
913 same time. Also note that a different
914 service may be activated on incoming
915 traffic than inherits the sockets. Or
917 <varname>Service=</varname> setting of
918 <filename>.socket</filename> units
919 does not have to match the inverse of
920 the <varname>Sockets=</varname>
922 <filename>.service</filename> it
925 <para>This option may appear more than
926 once, in which case the list of socket
927 units is merged. If the empty string
928 is assigned to this option, the list of
929 sockets is reset, all prior uses of
930 this setting will have no
931 effect.</para></listitem>
935 <term><varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname></term>
936 <term><varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname></term>
938 <listitem><para>Configure service
939 start rate limiting. By default,
940 services which are started more often
941 than 5 times within 10s are not
942 permitted to start any more times
943 until the 10s interval ends. With
944 these two options, this rate limiting
946 <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
947 to configure the checking interval (defaults to
948 <varname>DefaultStartLimitInterval=</varname> in
949 manager configuration file, set to 0 to disable
950 any kind of rate limiting). Use
951 <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to
952 configure how many starts per interval
953 are allowed (defaults to
954 <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in
955 manager configuration file). These
956 configuration options are particularly
957 useful in conjunction with
958 <varname>Restart=</varname>, however
959 apply to all kinds of starts
960 (including manual), not just those
962 <varname>Restart=</varname> logic.
963 Note that units which are configured
964 for <varname>Restart=</varname> and
965 which reach the start limit are not
966 attempted to be restarted anymore,
967 however they may still be restarted
968 manually at a later point from which
969 point on the restart logic is again
972 reset-failed</command> will cause the
973 restart rate counter for a service to
974 be flushed, which is useful if the
975 administrator wants to manually start
976 a service and the start limit
978 that.</para></listitem>
982 <term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
984 <listitem><para>Configure the action
985 to take if the rate limit configured
987 <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
989 <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is
991 <option>none</option>,
992 <option>reboot</option>,
993 <option>reboot-force</option> or
994 <option>reboot-immediate</option>. If
995 <option>none</option> is set,
996 hitting the rate limit will trigger no
997 action besides that the start will not
999 permitted. <option>reboot</option>
1000 causes a reboot following the normal
1001 shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to
1002 <command>systemctl reboot</command>),
1003 <option>reboot-force</option> causes
1004 an forced reboot which will terminate
1005 all processes forcibly but should
1006 cause no dirty file systems on reboot
1007 (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl
1008 reboot -f</command>) and
1009 <option>reboot-immediate</option>
1010 causes immediate execution of the
1011 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1012 system call, which might result in
1013 data loss. Defaults to
1014 <option>none</option>.</para></listitem>
1020 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1022 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1023 for more settings.</para>
1028 <title>Compatibility Options</title>
1030 <para>The following options are also available in the
1031 <literal>[Service]</literal> section, but exist purely
1032 for compatibility reasons and should not be used in
1033 newly written service files.</para>
1035 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
1037 <term><varname>SysVStartPriority=</varname></term>
1038 <listitem><para>Set the SysV start
1039 priority to use to order this service
1040 in relation to SysV services lacking
1041 LSB headers. This option is only
1042 necessary to fix ordering in relation
1043 to legacy SysV services, that have no
1044 ordering information encoded in the
1045 script headers. As such it should only
1046 be used as temporary compatibility
1047 option, and not be used in new unit
1048 files. Almost always it is a better
1049 choice to add explicit ordering
1051 <varname>After=</varname> or
1052 <varname>Before=</varname>,
1053 instead. For more details see
1054 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. If
1055 used, pass an integer value in the
1056 range 0-99.</para></listitem>
1063 <title>See Also</title>
1065 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1066 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1067 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1068 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1069 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1070 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1071 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>