Adding upstream version 247.3.upstream/247.3upstream

Signed-off-by: Daniel Baumann <daniel.baumann@progress-linux.org>

1 files changed, 319 insertions, 0 deletions

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+<?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
+<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
+  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
+<!ENTITY % entities SYSTEM "custom-entities.ent" >
+%entities;
+]>
+<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
+
+<refentry id="systemd.generator">
+  <refentryinfo>
+    <title>systemd.generator</title>
+    <productname>systemd</productname>
+  </refentryinfo>
+
+  <refmeta>
+    <refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle>
+    <manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
+  </refmeta>
+
+  <refnamediv>
+    <refname>systemd.generator</refname>
+    <refpurpose>systemd unit generators</refpurpose>
+  </refnamediv>
+
+  <refsynopsisdiv>
+    <cmdsynopsis>
+      <command index='false'>/path/to/generator</command>
+      <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>normal-dir</replaceable></arg>
+      <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>early-dir</replaceable></arg>
+      <arg choice="plain"><replaceable>late-dir</replaceable></arg>
+    </cmdsynopsis>
+
+    <para>
+      <literallayout><filename>/run/systemd/system-generators/*</filename>
+<filename>/etc/systemd/system-generators/*</filename>
+<filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/system-generators/*</filename>
+<filename>&systemgeneratordir;/*</filename></literallayout>
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+      <literallayout><filename>/run/systemd/user-generators/*</filename>
+<filename>/etc/systemd/user-generators/*</filename>
+<filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/user-generators/*</filename>
+<filename>&usergeneratordir;/*</filename></literallayout>
+    </para>
+  </refsynopsisdiv>
+
+  <refsect1>
+    <title>Description</title>
+    <para>Generators are small executables that live in
+    <filename>&systemgeneratordir;/</filename> and other directories listed above.
+    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+    will execute those binaries very early at bootup and at configuration reload time
+    — before unit files are loaded. Their main purpose is to convert configuration
+    that is not native into dynamically generated unit files.</para>
+
+    <para>Each generator is called with three directory paths that are to be used for
+    generator output. In these three directories, generators may dynamically generate
+    unit files (regular ones, instances, as well as templates), unit file
+    <filename>.d/</filename> drop-ins, and create symbolic links to unit files to add
+    additional dependencies, create aliases, or instantiate existing templates. Those
+    directories are included in the unit load path of
+    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+    allowing generated configuration to extend or override existing
+    definitions.</para>
+
+    <para>Directory paths for generator output differ by priority:
+    <filename>…/generator.early</filename> has priority higher than the admin
+    configuration in <filename>/etc/</filename>, while
+    <filename>…/generator</filename> has lower priority than
+    <filename>/etc/</filename> but higher than vendor configuration in
+    <filename>/usr/</filename>, and <filename>…/generator.late</filename> has priority
+    lower than all other configuration. See the next section and the discussion of
+    unit load paths and unit overriding in
+    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+    </para>
+
+    <para>Generators are loaded from a set of paths determined during
+    compilation, as listed above. System and user generators are loaded
+    from directories with names ending in
+    <filename>system-generators/</filename> and
+    <filename>user-generators/</filename>, respectively. Generators
+    found in directories listed earlier override the ones with the
+    same name in directories lower in the list. A symlink to
+    <filename>/dev/null</filename> or an empty file can be used to
+    mask a generator, thereby preventing it from running. Please note
+    that the order of the two directories with the highest priority is
+    reversed with respect to the unit load path, and generators in
+    <filename>/run/</filename> overwrite those in
+    <filename>/etc/</filename>.</para>
+
+    <para>After installing new generators or updating the
+    configuration, <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command> may be
+    executed. This will delete the previous configuration created by
+    generators, re-run all generators, and cause
+    <command>systemd</command> to reload units from disk. See
+    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+    for more information.
+    </para>
+  </refsect1>
+
+  <refsect1>
+    <title>Output directories</title>
+
+    <para>Generators are invoked with three arguments: paths to directories where
+    generators can place their generated unit files or symlinks. By default those
+    paths are runtime directories that are included in the search path of
+    <command>systemd</command>, but a generator may be called with different paths
+    for debugging purposes.</para>
+
+    <orderedlist>
+      <listitem>
+        <para><parameter>normal-dir</parameter></para>
+        <para>In normal use this is <filename>/run/systemd/generator</filename> in
+        case of the system generators and
+        <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/generator</filename> in case of the user
+        generators. Unit files placed in this directory take precedence over vendor
+        unit configuration but not over native user/administrator unit configuration.
+        </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para><parameter>early-dir</parameter></para>
+        <para>In normal use this is <filename>/run/systemd/generator.early</filename>
+        in case of the system generators and
+        <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/generator.early</filename> in case of the user
+        generators. Unit files placed in this directory override unit files in
+        <filename>/usr/</filename>, <filename>/run/</filename> and
+        <filename>/etc/</filename>. This means that unit files placed in this
+        directory take precedence over all normal configuration, both vendor and
+        user/administrator.</para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para><parameter>late-dir</parameter></para>
+        <para>In normal use this is <filename>/run/systemd/generator.late</filename>
+        in case of the system generators and
+        <filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/generator.late</filename> in case of the user
+        generators. This directory may be used to extend the unit file tree without
+        overriding any other unit files. Any native configuration files supplied by
+        the vendor or user/administrator take precedence.</para>
+      </listitem>
+    </orderedlist>
+  </refsect1>
+
+  <refsect1>
+    <title>Notes about writing generators</title>
+
+    <itemizedlist>
+      <listitem>
+        <para>All generators are executed in parallel. That means all executables are
+        started at the very same time and need to be able to cope with this
+        parallelism.
+        </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>Generators are run very early at boot and cannot rely on any external
+        services. They may not talk to any other process. That includes simple things
+        such as logging to
+        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>syslog</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+        or <command>systemd</command> itself (this means: no
+        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>)!
+        Non-essential file systems like <filename>/var/</filename> and
+        <filename>/home/</filename> are mounted after generators have run. Generators
+        can however rely on the most basic kernel functionality to be available,
+        including a mounted <filename>/sys/</filename>, <filename>/proc/</filename>,
+        <filename>/dev/</filename>, <filename>/usr/</filename>.
+        </para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>Units written by generators are removed when the configuration is
+        reloaded. That means the lifetime of the generated units is closely bound to
+        the reload cycles of <command>systemd</command> itself.</para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>Generators should only be used to generate unit files and symlinks to
+        them, not any other kind of configuration. Due to the lifecycle logic
+        mentioned above, generators are not a good fit to generate dynamic
+        configuration for other services. If you need to generate dynamic
+        configuration for other services, do so in normal services you order before
+        the service in question.</para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>Since
+        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>syslog</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+
+        is not available (see above), log messages have to be written to
+        <filename>/dev/kmsg</filename> instead.</para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>The generator should always include its own name in a comment at the top of the generated file,
+        so that the user can easily figure out which component created or amended a particular unit.</para>
+
+        <para>The <varname>SourcePath=</varname> directive should be used in generated files to specify the
+        source configuration file they are generated from. This makes things more easily understood by the
+        user and also has the benefit that systemd can warn the user about configuration files that changed
+        on disk but have not been read yet by systemd. The <varname>SourcePath=</varname> value does not have
+        to be a file in a physical filesystem. For example, in the common case of the generator looking at
+        the kernel command line, <option>SourcePath=/proc/cmdline</option> should be used.</para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>Generators may write out dynamic unit files or just hook unit files
+        into other units with the usual <filename>.wants/</filename> or
+        <filename>.requires/</filename> symlinks. Often, it is nicer to simply
+        instantiate a template unit file from <filename>/usr/</filename> with a
+        generator instead of writing out entirely dynamic unit files. Of course, this
+        works only if a single parameter is to be used.</para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>If you are careful, you can implement generators in shell scripts. We
+        do recommend C code however, since generators are executed synchronously and
+        hence delay the entire boot if they are slow.</para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>Regarding overriding semantics: there are two rules we try to follow
+        when thinking about the overriding semantics:</para>
+
+        <orderedlist numeration="lowerroman">
+          <listitem>
+            <para>User configuration should override vendor configuration. This
+            (mostly) means that stuff from <filename>/etc/</filename> should override
+            stuff from <filename>/usr/</filename>.</para>
+          </listitem>
+
+          <listitem>
+            <para>Native configuration should override non-native configuration. This
+            (mostly) means that stuff you generate should never override native unit
+            files for the same purpose.</para>
+          </listitem>
+        </orderedlist>
+
+        <para>Of these two rules the first rule is probably the more important one
+        and breaks the second one sometimes. Hence, when deciding whether to use
+        argv[1], argv[2], or argv[3], your default choice should probably be
+        argv[1].</para>
+      </listitem>
+
+      <listitem>
+        <para>Instead of heading off now and writing all kind of generators for
+        legacy configuration file formats, please think twice! It is often a better
+        idea to just deprecate old stuff instead of keeping it artificially alive.
+        </para>
+      </listitem>
+    </itemizedlist>
+  </refsect1>
+
+  <refsect1>
+    <title>Examples</title>
+    <example>
+      <title>systemd-fstab-generator</title>
+
+      <para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-fstab-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+      converts <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> into native mount units. It uses
+      argv[1] as location to place the generated unit files in order to allow the
+      user to override <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> with their own native unit
+      files, but also to ensure that <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> overrides any
+      vendor default from <filename>/usr/</filename>.</para>
+
+      <para>After editing <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>, the user should invoke
+      <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command>. This will re-run all generators and
+      cause <command>systemd</command> to reload units from disk. To actually mount
+      new directories added to <filename>fstab</filename>, <command>systemctl start
+      <replaceable>/path/to/mountpoint</replaceable></command> or <command>systemctl
+      start local-fs.target</command> may be used.</para>
+    </example>
+
+    <example>
+      <title>systemd-system-update-generator</title>
+
+      <para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system-update-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+      temporarily redirects <filename>default.target</filename> to
+      <filename>system-update.target</filename>, if a system update is
+      scheduled. Since this needs to override the default user configuration for
+      <filename>default.target</filename>, it uses argv[2]. For details about this
+      logic, see
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.offline-updates</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+      </para>
+    </example>
+
+    <example>
+      <title>Debugging a generator</title>
+
+      <programlisting>dir=$(mktemp -d)
+SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL=debug &systemgeneratordir;/systemd-fstab-generator \
+        "$dir" "$dir" "$dir"
+find $dir</programlisting>
+    </example>
+  </refsect1>
+
+  <refsect1>
+    <title>See also</title>
+
+    <para>
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-cryptsetup-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-debug-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-fstab-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>fstab</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-getty-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-gpt-auto-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-hibernate-resume-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-rc-local-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system-update-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-sysv-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-xdg-autostart-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.environment-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+    </para>
+  </refsect1>
+</refentry>