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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'
448 <para>Example:</para>
449 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"
451 <para>This will execute
452 <command>/bin/echo</command> two
453 times, each time with one argument,
454 <literal>one</literal> and
455 <literal>two two</literal>,
456 respectively. Since two commands are
458 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must
461 <para>Example:</para>
462 <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / >/dev/null & \; \
465 <para>This will execute
466 <command>/bin/echo</command> with five
467 arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
468 <literal>>/dev/null</literal>,
469 <literal>&</literal>,
470 <literal>;</literal>, and
471 <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
473 <para>Example:</para>
474 <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
475 ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}
477 <para>This will execute
478 <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
479 arguments: <literal>one</literal>,
480 <literal>two</literal>,
481 <literal>two</literal>, and
482 <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
487 <term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
488 <term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
489 <listitem><para>Additional commands
490 that are executed before or after
492 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, respectively.
493 Syntax is the same as for
494 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, except
495 that multiple command lines are allowed
496 and the commands are executed one
497 after the other, serially.</para>
499 <para>If any of those commands (not
500 prefixed with <literal>-</literal>)
501 fail, the rest are not executed and
502 the unit is considered failed.</para>
507 <term><varname>ExecReload=</varname></term>
508 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to
509 trigger a configuration reload in the
510 service. This argument takes multiple
511 command lines, following the same
512 scheme as described for
513 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
514 above. Use of this setting is
515 optional. Specifier and environment
516 variable substitution is supported
517 here following the same scheme as for
518 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>.</para>
520 <para>One additional special
521 environment variables is set: if known
522 <varname>$MAINPID</varname> is set to
523 the main process of the daemon, and
524 may be used for command lines like the
527 <programlisting>/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID</programlisting>
532 <term><varname>ExecStop=</varname></term>
533 <listitem><para>Commands to execute to
534 stop the service started via
535 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>. This
536 argument takes multiple command lines,
537 following the same scheme as described
538 for <varname>ExecStart=</varname>
539 above. Use of this setting is
540 optional. All processes remaining for
541 a service after the commands
542 configured in this option are run are
543 terminated according to the
544 <varname>KillMode=</varname> setting
546 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>). If
547 this option is not specified, the
548 process is terminated right-away when
549 service stop is requested. Specifier
550 and environment variable substitution
551 is supported (including
552 <varname>$MAINPID</varname>, see
553 above).</para></listitem>
557 <term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
558 <listitem><para>Additional commands
559 that are executed after the service
560 was stopped. This includes cases where
561 the commands configured in
562 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> were used,
563 where the service does not have any
564 <varname>ExecStop=</varname> defined, or
565 where the service exited unexpectedly. This
566 argument takes multiple command lines,
567 following the same scheme as described
568 for <varname>ExecStart</varname>. Use
570 optional. Specifier and environment
571 variable substitution is
572 supported.</para></listitem>
576 <term><varname>RestartSec=</varname></term>
577 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
578 sleep before restarting a service (as
580 <varname>Restart=</varname>). Takes a
581 unit-less value in seconds, or a time
582 span value such as "5min
584 100ms.</para></listitem>
588 <term><varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname></term>
589 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
590 wait for start-up. If a
591 daemon service does not signal
592 start-up completion within the
593 configured time, the service will be
594 considered failed and be shut down
596 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a
597 time span value such as "5min
598 20s". Pass 0 to disable the timeout
599 logic. Defaults to <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the
600 manager configuration file, except when
601 <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> is
602 used, in which case the timeout
603 is disabled by default.
608 <term><varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname></term>
609 <listitem><para>Configures the time to
610 wait for stop. If a service is asked
611 to stop but does not terminate in the
612 specified time, it will be terminated
613 forcibly via <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and after
614 another delay of this time with
615 <constant>SIGKILL</constant> (See
616 <varname>KillMode=</varname>
617 in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
618 Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a
619 time span value such as "5min
620 20s". Pass 0 to disable the timeout
621 logic. Defaults to <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the
622 manager configuration file.
627 <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
628 <listitem><para>A shorthand for configuring
629 both <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname>
630 and <varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname>
631 to the specified value.
636 <term><varname>WatchdogSec=</varname></term>
637 <listitem><para>Configures the
638 watchdog timeout for a service. The
639 watchdog is activated when the start-up is
640 completed. The service must call
641 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
642 regularly with "WATCHDOG=1" (i.e. the
643 "keep-alive ping"). If the time
644 between two such calls is larger than
645 the configured time, then the service
646 is placed in a failure state. By
647 setting <varname>Restart=</varname> to
648 <option>on-failure</option> or
649 <option>always</option>, the service
650 will be automatically restarted. The
651 time configured here will be passed to
652 the executed service process in the
653 <varname>WATCHDOG_USEC=</varname>
654 environment variable. This allows
655 daemons to automatically enable the
656 keep-alive pinging logic if watchdog
657 support is enabled for the service. If
659 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> (see
660 below) should be set to open access to
661 the notification socket provided by
663 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is
664 not set, it will be implicitly set to
665 <option>main</option>. Defaults to 0,
667 feature.</para></listitem>
671 <term><varname>Restart=</varname></term>
672 <listitem><para>Configures whether the
673 service shall be restarted when the
674 service process exits, is killed,
675 or a timeout is reached. The service
676 process may be the main service
677 process, but also one of the processes
679 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
680 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
681 <varname>ExecStopPre=</varname>,
682 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>, or
683 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>.
684 When the death of the process is a
685 result of systemd operation (e.g. service
686 stop or restart), the service will not be
687 restarted. Timeouts include missing
688 the watchdog "keep-alive ping"
689 deadline and a service start, reload,
690 and stop operation timeouts.</para>
694 <option>on-success</option>,
695 <option>on-failure</option>,
696 <option>on-watchdog</option>,
697 <option>on-abort</option>, or
698 <option>always</option>. If set to
699 <option>no</option> (the default), the
700 service will not be restarted. If set to
701 <option>on-success</option>, it will be
702 restarted only when the service process
704 In this context, a clean exit means
705 an exit code of 0, or one of the signals
706 <constant>SIGHUP</constant>, <constant>SIGINT</constant>, <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, or <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>, and
707 additionally, exit statuses and signals
708 specified in <varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname>.
709 If set to <option>on-failure</option>,
710 the service will be restarted when the
711 process exits with an nonzero exit code,
712 is terminated by a signal (including on
713 core dump), when an operation (such as
714 service reload) times out, and when the
715 configured watchdog timeout is triggered.
717 <option>on-abort</option>, the service
718 will be restarted only if the service
719 process exits due to an uncaught
720 signal not specified as a clean exit
723 <option>on-watchdog</option>, the service
724 will be restarted only if the watchdog
725 timeout for the service expires.
727 <option>always</option>, the service
728 will be restarted regardless of whether
729 it exited cleanly or not, got
730 terminated abnormally by a signal or
731 hit a timeout.</para>
733 <para>In addition to the above settings,
734 the service will not be restarted if the
735 exit code or signal is specified in
736 <varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname>
737 (see below).</para></listitem>
741 <term><varname>SuccessExitStatus=</varname></term>
742 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
743 status definitions that when returned
744 by the main service process will be
745 considered successful termination, in
746 addition to the normal successful exit
747 code 0 and the signals <constant>SIGHUP</constant>, <constant>SIGINT</constant>,
748 <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and <constant>SIGPIPE</constant>. Exit status
749 definitions can either be numeric exit
750 codes or termination signal names,
751 separated by spaces. Signals will only
752 be considered if the service does not implement
753 a signal handler and exits as a direct result
754 of receiving the signal. For example:
755 <programlisting>SuccessExitStatus=1 2 8 <constant>SIGKILL</constant></programlisting>
756 ensures that exit codes 1, 2, 8 and
757 the termination signal
758 <constant>SIGKILL</constant> are
759 considered clean service terminations.
762 <para>Note that if a process has a
763 signal handler installed and exits by
765 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>_exit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
766 in response to a signal, the
767 information about the signal is lost.
768 Programs should instead perform cleanup and kill themselves with the same signal instead. See
769 <ulink url="http://www.cons.org/cracauer/sigint.html">Proper handling of SIGINT/SIGQUIT — How to be a proper program</ulink>.</para>
771 <para>This option may appear more than once
772 in which case the list of successful
773 exit statuses is merged. If the empty
774 string is assigned to this option, the
775 list is reset, all prior assignments
776 of this option will have no
777 effect.</para></listitem>
781 <term><varname>RestartPreventExitStatus=</varname></term>
782 <listitem><para>Takes a list of exit
783 status definitions that when returned
784 by the main service process will
785 prevent automatic service restarts
786 regardless of the restart setting
788 <varname>Restart=</varname>. Exit
789 status definitions can either be
790 numeric exit codes or termination
791 signal names, and are separated by
792 spaces. Defaults to the empty list, so
793 that by default no exit status is
794 excluded from the configured restart
796 <literal>RestartPreventExitStatus=1 6
797 SIGABRT</literal>, ensures that exit
798 codes 1 and 6 and the termination
799 signal SIGABRT will not result in
800 automatic service restarting. This
801 option may appear more than once in
802 which case the list of restart preventing
803 statuses is merged. If the empty
804 string is assigned to this option, the
805 list is reset, all prior assignments
806 of this option will have no
807 effect.</para></listitem>
811 <term><varname>PermissionsStartOnly=</varname></term>
812 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
813 argument. If true, the permission
814 related execution options as
816 <varname>User=</varname> and similar
818 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
819 for more information) are only applied
820 to the process started with
821 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not
823 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
824 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
825 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
826 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
827 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
828 commands. If false, the setting is
829 applied to all configured commands the
830 same way. Defaults to
831 false.</para></listitem>
835 <term><varname>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</varname></term>
836 <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
837 argument. If true, the root directory
838 as configured with the
839 <varname>RootDirectory=</varname>
841 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
842 for more information) is only applied
843 to the process started with
844 <varname>ExecStart=</varname>, and not
846 <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
847 <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
848 <varname>ExecReload=</varname>,
849 <varname>ExecStop=</varname>,
850 <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname>
851 commands. If false, the setting is
852 applied to all configured commands the
853 same way. Defaults to
854 false.</para></listitem>
858 <term><varname>NonBlocking=</varname></term>
859 <listitem><para>Set O_NONBLOCK flag
860 for all file descriptors passed via
861 socket-based activation. If true, all
862 file descriptors >= 3 (i.e. all except
863 STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR) will have
864 the O_NONBLOCK flag set and hence are in
865 non-blocking mode. This option is only
866 useful in conjunction with a socket
867 unit, as described in
868 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Defaults
869 to false.</para></listitem>
873 <term><varname>NotifyAccess=</varname></term>
874 <listitem><para>Controls access to the
875 service status notification socket, as
877 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
879 <option>none</option> (the default),
880 <option>main</option> or
881 <option>all</option>. If
882 <option>none</option>, no daemon status
883 updates are accepted from the service
884 processes, all status update messages
885 are ignored. If <option>main</option>,
886 only service updates sent from the
887 main process of the service are
888 accepted. If <option>all</option>, all
889 services updates from all members of
890 the service's control group are
891 accepted. This option should be set to
892 open access to the notification socket
894 <varname>Type=notify</varname> or
895 <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> (see
896 above). If those options are used but
897 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> is not
898 configured, it will be implicitly set
900 <option>main</option>.</para></listitem>
904 <term><varname>Sockets=</varname></term>
905 <listitem><para>Specifies the name of
906 the socket units this service shall
907 inherit the sockets from when the
908 service is started. Normally it
909 should not be necessary to use this
910 setting as all sockets whose unit
911 shares the same name as the service
912 (ignoring the different suffix of course)
913 are passed to the spawned
916 <para>Note that the same socket may be
917 passed to multiple processes at the
918 same time. Also note that a different
919 service may be activated on incoming
920 traffic than inherits the sockets. Or
922 <varname>Service=</varname> setting of
923 <filename>.socket</filename> units
924 does not have to match the inverse of
925 the <varname>Sockets=</varname>
927 <filename>.service</filename> it
930 <para>This option may appear more than
931 once, in which case the list of socket
932 units is merged. If the empty string
933 is assigned to this option, the list of
934 sockets is reset, all prior uses of
935 this setting will have no
936 effect.</para></listitem>
940 <term><varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname></term>
941 <term><varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname></term>
943 <listitem><para>Configure service
944 start rate limiting. By default,
945 services which are started more often
946 than 5 times within 10s are not
947 permitted to start any more times
948 until the 10s interval ends. With
949 these two options, this rate limiting
951 <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
952 to configure the checking interval (defaults to
953 <varname>DefaultStartLimitInterval=</varname> in
954 manager configuration file, set to 0 to disable
955 any kind of rate limiting). Use
956 <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to
957 configure how many starts per interval
958 are allowed (defaults to
959 <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in
960 manager configuration file). These
961 configuration options are particularly
962 useful in conjunction with
963 <varname>Restart=</varname>, however
964 apply to all kinds of starts
965 (including manual), not just those
967 <varname>Restart=</varname> logic.
968 Note that units which are configured
969 for <varname>Restart=</varname> and
970 which reach the start limit are not
971 attempted to be restarted anymore,
972 however they may still be restarted
973 manually at a later point from which
974 point on the restart logic is again
977 reset-failed</command> will cause the
978 restart rate counter for a service to
979 be flushed, which is useful if the
980 administrator wants to manually start
981 a service and the start limit
983 that.</para></listitem>
987 <term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
989 <listitem><para>Configure the action
990 to take if the rate limit configured
992 <varname>StartLimitInterval=</varname>
994 <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is
996 <option>none</option>,
997 <option>reboot</option>,
998 <option>reboot-force</option> or
999 <option>reboot-immediate</option>. If
1000 <option>none</option> is set,
1001 hitting the rate limit will trigger no
1002 action besides that the start will not
1004 permitted. <option>reboot</option>
1005 causes a reboot following the normal
1006 shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to
1007 <command>systemctl reboot</command>),
1008 <option>reboot-force</option> causes
1009 an forced reboot which will terminate
1010 all processes forcibly but should
1011 cause no dirty file systems on reboot
1012 (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl
1013 reboot -f</command>) and
1014 <option>reboot-immediate</option>
1015 causes immediate execution of the
1016 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1017 system call, which might result in
1018 data loss. Defaults to
1019 <option>none</option>.</para></listitem>
1025 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1027 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
1028 for more settings.</para>
1033 <title>Compatibility Options</title>
1035 <para>The following options are also available in the
1036 <literal>[Service]</literal> section, but exist purely
1037 for compatibility reasons and should not be used in
1038 newly written service files.</para>
1040 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
1042 <term><varname>SysVStartPriority=</varname></term>
1043 <listitem><para>Set the SysV start
1044 priority to use to order this service
1045 in relation to SysV services lacking
1046 LSB headers. This option is only
1047 necessary to fix ordering in relation
1048 to legacy SysV services, that have no
1049 ordering information encoded in the
1050 script headers. As such it should only
1051 be used as temporary compatibility
1052 option, and not be used in new unit
1053 files. Almost always it is a better
1054 choice to add explicit ordering
1056 <varname>After=</varname> or
1057 <varname>Before=</varname>,
1058 instead. For more details see
1059 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. If
1060 used, pass an integer value in the
1061 range 0-99.</para></listitem>
1068 <title>See Also</title>
1070 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1071 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1072 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1073 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1074 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1075 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
1076 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>