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+<?xml version='1.0'?>
+<!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.unit"
+ xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
+
+ <refentryinfo>
+ <title>systemd.unit</title>
+ <productname>systemd</productname>
+ </refentryinfo>
+
+ <refmeta>
+ <refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle>
+ <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
+ </refmeta>
+
+ <refnamediv>
+ <refname>systemd.unit</refname>
+ <refpurpose>Unit configuration</refpurpose>
+ </refnamediv>
+
+ <refsynopsisdiv>
+ <para><filename><replaceable>service</replaceable>.service</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>socket</replaceable>.socket</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>device</replaceable>.device</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>mount</replaceable>.mount</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>automount</replaceable>.automount</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>swap</replaceable>.swap</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>target</replaceable>.target</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>path</replaceable>.path</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>timer</replaceable>.timer</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>slice</replaceable>.slice</filename>,
+ <filename><replaceable>scope</replaceable>.scope</filename></para>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>System Unit Search Path</title>
+
+ <para><literallayout><filename>/etc/systemd/system.control/*</filename>
+<filename>/run/systemd/system.control/*</filename>
+<filename>/run/systemd/transient/*</filename>
+<filename>/run/systemd/generator.early/*</filename>
+<filename>/etc/systemd/system/*</filename>
+<filename>/etc/systemd/systemd.attached/*</filename>
+<filename>/run/systemd/system/*</filename>
+<filename>/run/systemd/systemd.attached/*</filename>
+<filename>/run/systemd/generator/*</filename>
+<filename index='false'>…</filename>
+<filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/*</filename>
+<filename>/run/systemd/generator.late/*</filename></literallayout></para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>User Unit Search Path</title>
+ <para><literallayout><filename>~/.config/systemd/user.control/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user.control/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/transient/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.early/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/systemd/user/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/systemd/user/*</filename>
+<filename>/etc/systemd/user/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user/*</filename>
+<filename>/run/systemd/user/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_DATA_HOME/systemd/user/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_DATA_DIRS/systemd/user/*</filename>
+<filename index='false'>…</filename>
+<filename>/usr/lib/systemd/user/*</filename>
+<filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.late/*</filename></literallayout></para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ </refsynopsisdiv>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Description</title>
+
+ <para>A unit file is a plain text ini-style file that encodes information about a service, a
+ socket, a device, a mount point, an automount point, a swap file or partition, a start-up
+ target, a watched file system path, a timer controlled and supervised by
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, a
+ resource management slice or a group of externally created processes. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.syntax</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for a general description of the syntax.</para>
+
+ <para>This man page lists the common configuration options of all
+ the unit types. These options need to be configured in the [Unit]
+ or [Install] sections of the unit files.</para>
+
+ <para>In addition to the generic [Unit] and [Install] sections
+ described here, each unit may have a type-specific section, e.g.
+ [Service] for a service unit. See the respective man pages for
+ more information:
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.swap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.timer</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.slice</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.scope</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>Unit files are loaded from a set of paths determined during compilation, described in the next
+ section.</para>
+
+ <para>Valid unit names consist of a "name prefix" and a dot and a suffix specifying the unit type. The
+ "unit prefix" must consist of one or more valid characters (ASCII letters, digits, <literal>:</literal>,
+ <literal>-</literal>, <literal>_</literal>, <literal>.</literal>, and <literal>\</literal>). The total
+ length of the unit name including the suffix must not exceed 256 characters. The type suffix must be one
+ of <literal>.service</literal>, <literal>.socket</literal>, <literal>.device</literal>,
+ <literal>.mount</literal>, <literal>.automount</literal>, <literal>.swap</literal>,
+ <literal>.target</literal>, <literal>.path</literal>, <literal>.timer</literal>,
+ <literal>.slice</literal>, or <literal>.scope</literal>.</para>
+
+ <para>Units names can be parameterized by a single argument called the "instance name". The unit is then
+ constructed based on a "template file" which serves as the definition of multiple services or other
+ units. A template unit must have a single <literal>@</literal> at the end of the name (right before the
+ type suffix). The name of the full unit is formed by inserting the instance name between
+ <literal>@</literal> and the unit type suffix. In the unit file itself, the instance parameter may be
+ referred to using <literal>%i</literal> and other specifiers, see below.</para>
+
+ <para>Unit files may contain additional options on top of those
+ listed here. If systemd encounters an unknown option, it will
+ write a warning log message but continue loading the unit. If an
+ option or section name is prefixed with <option>X-</option>, it is
+ ignored completely by systemd. Options within an ignored section
+ do not need the prefix. Applications may use this to include
+ additional information in the unit files.</para>
+
+ <para>Units can be aliased (have an alternative name), by creating a symlink from the new name to the
+ existing name in one of the unit search paths. For example, <filename>systemd-networkd.service</filename>
+ has the alias <filename>dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service</filename>, created during installation as
+ a symlink, so when <command>systemd</command> is asked through D-Bus to load
+ <filename>dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service</filename>, it'll load
+ <filename>systemd-networkd.service</filename>. As another example, <filename>default.target</filename> —
+ the default system target started at boot — is commonly symlinked (aliased) to either
+ <filename>multi-user.target</filename> or <filename>graphical.target</filename> to select what is started
+ by default. Alias names may be used in commands like <command>disable</command>,
+ <command>start</command>, <command>stop</command>, <command>status</command>, and similar, and in all
+ unit dependency directives, including <varname>Wants=</varname>, <varname>Requires=</varname>,
+ <varname>Before=</varname>, <varname>After=</varname>. Aliases cannot be used with the
+ <command>preset</command> command.</para>
+
+ <para>Aliases obey the following restrictions: a unit of a certain type (<literal>.service</literal>,
+ <literal>.socket</literal>, …) can only be aliased by a name with the same type suffix. A plain unit (not
+ a template or an instance), may only be aliased by a plain name. A template instance may only be aliased
+ by another template instance, and the instance part must be identical. A template may be aliased by
+ another template (in which case the alias applies to all instances of the template). As a special case, a
+ template instance (e.g. <literal>alias@inst.service</literal>) may be a symlink to different template
+ (e.g. <literal>template@inst.service</literal>). In that case, just this specific instance is aliased,
+ while other instances of the template (e.g. <literal>alias@foo.service</literal>,
+ <literal>alias@bar.service</literal>) are not aliased. Those rule preserve the requirement that the
+ instance (if any) is always uniquely defined for a given unit and all its aliases.</para>
+
+ <para>Unit files may specify aliases through the <varname>Alias=</varname> directive in the [Install]
+ section. When the unit is enabled, symlinks will be created for those names, and removed when the unit is
+ disabled. For example, <filename>reboot.target</filename> specifies
+ <varname>Alias=ctrl-alt-del.target</varname>, so when enabled, the symlink
+ <filename>/etc/systemd/systemd/ctrl-alt-del.service</filename> pointing to the
+ <filename>reboot.target</filename> file will be created, and when
+ <keycombo><keycap>Ctrl</keycap><keycap>Alt</keycap><keycap>Del</keycap></keycombo> is invoked,
+ <command>systemd</command> will look for the <filename>ctrl-alt-del.service</filename> and execute
+ <filename>reboot.service</filename>. <command>systemd</command> does not look at the [Install] section at
+ all during normal operation, so any directives in that section only have an effect through the symlinks
+ created during enablement.</para>
+
+ <para>Along with a unit file <filename>foo.service</filename>, the directory
+ <filename>foo.service.wants/</filename> may exist. All unit files symlinked from such a directory are
+ implicitly added as dependencies of type <varname>Wants=</varname> to the unit. Similar functionality
+ exists for <varname>Requires=</varname> type dependencies as well, the directory suffix is
+ <filename>.requires/</filename> in this case. This functionality is useful to hook units into the
+ start-up of other units, without having to modify their unit files. For details about the semantics of
+ <varname>Wants=</varname>, see below. The preferred way to create symlinks in the
+ <filename>.wants/</filename> or <filename>.requires/</filename> directory of a unit file is by embedding
+ the dependency in [Install] section of the target unit, and creating the symlink in the file system with
+ the <command>enable</command> or <command>preset</command> commands of
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
+
+ <para>Along with a unit file <filename>foo.service</filename>, a "drop-in" directory
+ <filename>foo.service.d/</filename> may exist. All files with the suffix <literal>.conf</literal> from this
+ directory will be parsed after the unit file itself is parsed. This is useful to alter or add configuration
+ settings for a unit, without having to modify unit files. Drop-in files must contain appropriate section
+ headers. For instantiated units, this logic will first look for the instance <literal>.d/</literal> subdirectory
+ (e.g. <literal>foo@bar.service.d/</literal>) and read its <literal>.conf</literal> files, followed by the template
+ <literal>.d/</literal> subdirectory (e.g. <literal>foo@.service.d/</literal>) and the <literal>.conf</literal>
+ files there. Moreover for units names containing dashes (<literal>-</literal>), the set of directories generated by
+ truncating the unit name after all dashes is searched too. Specifically, for a unit name
+ <filename>foo-bar-baz.service</filename> not only the regular drop-in directory
+ <filename>foo-bar-baz.service.d/</filename> is searched but also both <filename>foo-bar-.service.d/</filename> and
+ <filename>foo-.service.d/</filename>. This is useful for defining common drop-ins for a set of related units, whose
+ names begin with a common prefix. This scheme is particularly useful for mount, automount and slice units, whose
+ systematic naming structure is built around dashes as component separators. Note that equally named drop-in files
+ further down the prefix hierarchy override those further up,
+ i.e. <filename>foo-bar-.service.d/10-override.conf</filename> overrides
+ <filename>foo-.service.d/10-override.conf</filename>.</para>
+
+ <para>In cases of unit aliases (described above), dropins for the aliased name and all aliases are
+ loaded. In the example of <filename>default.target</filename> aliasing
+ <filename>graphical.target</filename>, <filename>default.target.d/</filename>,
+ <filename>default.target.wants/</filename>, <filename>default.target.requires/</filename>,
+ <filename>graphical.target.d/</filename>, <filename>graphical.target.wants/</filename>,
+ <filename>graphical.target.requires/</filename> would all be read. For templates, dropins for the
+ template, any template aliases, the template instance, and all alias instances are read. When just a
+ specific template instance is aliased, then the dropins for the target template, the target template
+ instance, and the alias template instance are read.</para>
+
+ <para>In addition to <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename>, the drop-in <literal>.d/</literal>
+ directories for system services can be placed in <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename> or
+ <filename>/run/systemd/system</filename> directories. Drop-in files in <filename>/etc/</filename>
+ take precedence over those in <filename>/run/</filename> which in turn take precedence over those
+ in <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>. Drop-in files under any of these directories take precedence
+ over unit files wherever located. Multiple drop-in files with different names are applied in
+ lexicographic order, regardless of which of the directories they reside in.</para>
+
+ <para>Units also support a top-level drop-in with <filename><replaceable>type</replaceable>.d/</filename>,
+ where <replaceable>type</replaceable> may be e.g. <literal>service</literal> or <literal>socket</literal>,
+ that allows altering or adding to the settings of all corresponding unit files on the system.
+ The formatting and precedence of applying drop-in configurations follow what is defined above.
+ Configurations in <filename><replaceable>type</replaceable>.d/</filename> have the lowest precedence
+ compared to settings in the name specific override directories. So the contents of
+ <filename>foo-.service.d/10-override.conf</filename> would override
+ <filename>service.d/10-override.conf</filename>.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that while systemd offers a flexible dependency system
+ between units it is recommended to use this functionality only
+ sparingly and instead rely on techniques such as bus-based or
+ socket-based activation which make dependencies implicit,
+ resulting in a both simpler and more flexible system.</para>
+
+ <para>As mentioned above, a unit may be instantiated from a template file. This allows creation
+ of multiple units from a single configuration file. If systemd looks for a unit configuration
+ file, it will first search for the literal unit name in the file system. If that yields no
+ success and the unit name contains an <literal>@</literal> character, systemd will look for a
+ unit template that shares the same name but with the instance string (i.e. the part between the
+ <literal>@</literal> character and the suffix) removed. Example: if a service
+ <filename>getty@tty3.service</filename> is requested and no file by that name is found, systemd
+ will look for <filename>getty@.service</filename> and instantiate a service from that
+ configuration file if it is found.</para>
+
+ <para>To refer to the instance string from within the
+ configuration file you may use the special <literal>%i</literal>
+ specifier in many of the configuration options. See below for
+ details.</para>
+
+ <para>If a unit file is empty (i.e. has the file size 0) or is
+ symlinked to <filename>/dev/null</filename>, its configuration
+ will not be loaded and it appears with a load state of
+ <literal>masked</literal>, and cannot be activated. Use this as an
+ effective way to fully disable a unit, making it impossible to
+ start it even manually.</para>
+
+ <para>The unit file format is covered by the
+ <ulink url="https://systemd.io/PORTABILITY_AND_STABILITY/">Interface
+ Portability and Stability Promise</ulink>.</para>
+
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>String Escaping for Inclusion in Unit Names</title>
+
+ <para>Sometimes it is useful to convert arbitrary strings into unit names. To facilitate this, a method of string
+ escaping is used, in order to map strings containing arbitrary byte values (except <constant>NUL</constant>) into
+ valid unit names and their restricted character set. A common special case are unit names that reflect paths to
+ objects in the file system hierarchy. Example: a device unit <filename>dev-sda.device</filename> refers to a device
+ with the device node <filename index="false">/dev/sda</filename> in the file system.</para>
+
+ <para>The escaping algorithm operates as follows: given a string, any <literal>/</literal> character is replaced by
+ <literal>-</literal>, and all other characters which are not ASCII alphanumerics or <literal>_</literal> are
+ replaced by C-style <literal>\x2d</literal> escapes. In addition, <literal>.</literal> is replaced with such a
+ C-style escape when it would appear as the first character in the escaped string.</para>
+
+ <para>When the input qualifies as absolute file system path, this algorithm is extended slightly: the path to the
+ root directory <literal>/</literal> is encoded as single dash <literal>-</literal>. In addition, any leading,
+ trailing or duplicate <literal>/</literal> characters are removed from the string before transformation. Example:
+ <filename index="false">/foo//bar/baz/</filename> becomes <literal>foo-bar-baz</literal>.</para>
+
+ <para>This escaping is fully reversible, as long as it is known whether the escaped string was a path (the
+ unescaping results are different for paths and non-path strings). The
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-escape</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> command may be
+ used to apply and reverse escaping on arbitrary strings. Use <command>systemd-escape --path</command> to escape
+ path strings, and <command>systemd-escape</command> without <option>--path</option> otherwise.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Automatic dependencies</title>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Implicit Dependencies</title>
+
+ <para>A number of unit dependencies are implicitly established, depending on unit type and
+ unit configuration. These implicit dependencies can make unit configuration file cleaner. For
+ the implicit dependencies in each unit type, please refer to section "Implicit Dependencies"
+ in respective man pages.</para>
+
+ <para>For example, service units with <varname>Type=dbus</varname> automatically acquire
+ dependencies of type <varname>Requires=</varname> and <varname>After=</varname> on
+ <filename>dbus.socket</filename>. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for details.</para>
+ </refsect2>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Default Dependencies</title>
+
+ <para>Default dependencies are similar to implicit dependencies, but can be turned on and off
+ by setting <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> to <varname>yes</varname> (the default) and
+ <varname>no</varname>, while implicit dependencies are always in effect. See section "Default
+ Dependencies" in respective man pages for the effect of enabling
+ <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> in each unit types.</para>
+
+ <para>For example, target units will complement all configured dependencies of type
+ <varname>Wants=</varname> or <varname>Requires=</varname> with dependencies of type
+ <varname>After=</varname> unless <varname>DefaultDependencies=no</varname> is set in the
+ specified units. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for details. Note that this behavior can be turned off by setting
+ <varname>DefaultDependencies=no</varname>.</para>
+ </refsect2>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Unit File Load Path</title>
+
+ <para>Unit files are loaded from a set of paths determined during
+ compilation, described in the two tables below. Unit files found
+ in directories listed earlier override files with the same name in
+ directories lower in the list.</para>
+
+ <para>When the variable <varname>$SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH</varname> is set,
+ the contents of this variable overrides the unit load path. If
+ <varname>$SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH</varname> ends with an empty component
+ (<literal>:</literal>), the usual unit load path will be appended
+ to the contents of the variable.</para>
+
+ <table>
+ <title>
+ Load path when running in system mode (<option>--system</option>).
+ </title>
+
+ <tgroup cols='2'>
+ <colspec colname='path' />
+ <colspec colname='expl' />
+ <thead>
+ <row>
+ <entry>Path</entry>
+ <entry>Description</entry>
+ </row>
+ </thead>
+ <tbody>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/etc/systemd/system.control</filename></entry>
+ <entry morerows="1">Persistent and transient configuration created using the dbus API</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/system.control</filename></entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/transient</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Dynamic configuration for transient units</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/generator.early</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Generated units with high priority (see <replaceable>early-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
+ ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename></entry>
+ <entry>System units created by the administrator</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/system</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Runtime units</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/generator</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Generated units with medium priority (see <replaceable>normal-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
+ ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/system</filename></entry>
+ <entry>System units installed by the administrator </entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename></entry>
+ <entry>System units installed by the distribution package manager</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/generator.late</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Generated units with low priority (see <replaceable>late-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
+ ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
+ </row>
+ </tbody>
+ </tgroup>
+ </table>
+
+ <table>
+ <title>
+ Load path when running in user mode (<option>--user</option>).
+ </title>
+
+ <tgroup cols='2'>
+ <colspec colname='path' />
+ <colspec colname='expl' />
+ <thead>
+ <row>
+ <entry>Path</entry>
+ <entry>Description</entry>
+ </row>
+ </thead>
+ <tbody>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/systemd/user.control</filename> or <filename
+ >~/.config/systemd/user.control</filename></entry>
+ <entry morerows="1">Persistent and transient configuration created using the dbus API (<varname>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</varname> is used if set, <filename>~/.config</filename> otherwise)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user.control</filename></entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/transient</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Dynamic configuration for transient units</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/generator.early</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Generated units with high priority (see <replaceable>early-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
+ ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>$HOME/.config/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>User configuration (<varname>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</varname> is used if set, <filename>~/.config</filename> otherwise)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>/etc/xdg/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Additional configuration directories as specified by the XDG base directory specification (<varname>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS</varname> is used if set, <filename>/etc/xdg</filename> otherwise)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/etc/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>User units created by the administrator</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Runtime units (only used when $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is set)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/run/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Runtime units</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Generated units with medium priority (see <replaceable>normal-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
+ ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_DATA_HOME/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>$HOME/.local/share/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Units of packages that have been installed in the home directory (<varname>$XDG_DATA_HOME</varname> is used if set, <filename>~/.local/share</filename> otherwise)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_DATA_DIRS/systemd/user</filename> or <filename>/usr/local/share/systemd/user</filename> and <filename>/usr/share/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Additional data directories as specified by the XDG base directory specification (<varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname> is used if set, <filename>/usr/local/share</filename> and <filename>/usr/share</filename> otherwise)</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$dir/systemd/user</filename> for each <varname index="false">$dir</varname> in <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname></entry>
+ <entry>Additional locations for installed user units, one for each entry in <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname></entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>User units installed by the administrator</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/user</filename></entry>
+ <entry>User units installed by the distribution package manager</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><filename>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/generator.late</filename></entry>
+ <entry>Generated units with low priority (see <replaceable>late-dir</replaceable> in <citerefentry
+ ><refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>)</entry>
+ </row>
+ </tbody>
+ </tgroup>
+ </table>
+
+ <para>The set of load paths for the user manager instance may be augmented or
+ changed using various environment variables. And environment variables may in
+ turn be set using environment generators, see
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.environment-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ In particular, <varname>$XDG_DATA_HOME</varname> and
+ <varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname> may be easily set using
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-environment-d-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ Thus, directories listed here are just the defaults. To see the actual list that
+ would be used based on compilation options and current environment use
+ <programlisting>systemd-analyze --user unit-paths</programlisting>
+ </para>
+
+ <para>Moreover, additional units might be loaded into systemd from
+ directories not on the unit load path by creating a symlink pointing to a
+ unit file in the directories. You can use <command>systemctl link</command>
+ for this operation. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for its usage and precaution.
+ </para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Unit Garbage Collection</title>
+
+ <para>The system and service manager loads a unit's configuration automatically when a unit is referenced for the
+ first time. It will automatically unload the unit configuration and state again when the unit is not needed anymore
+ ("garbage collection"). A unit may be referenced through a number of different mechanisms:</para>
+
+ <orderedlist>
+ <listitem><para>Another loaded unit references it with a dependency such as <varname>After=</varname>,
+ <varname>Wants=</varname>, …</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>The unit is currently starting, running, reloading or stopping.</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>The unit is currently in the <constant>failed</constant> state. (But see below.)</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>A job for the unit is pending.</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>The unit is pinned by an active IPC client program.</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>The unit is a special "perpetual" unit that is always active and loaded. Examples for perpetual
+ units are the root mount unit <filename>-.mount</filename> or the scope unit <filename>init.scope</filename> that
+ the service manager itself lives in.</para></listitem>
+
+ <listitem><para>The unit has running processes associated with it.</para></listitem>
+ </orderedlist>
+
+ <para>The garbage collection logic may be altered with the <varname>CollectMode=</varname> option, which allows
+ configuration whether automatic unloading of units that are in <constant>failed</constant> state is permissible,
+ see below.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that when a unit's configuration and state is unloaded, all execution results, such as exit codes, exit
+ signals, resource consumption and other statistics are lost, except for what is stored in the log subsystem.</para>
+
+ <para>Use <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command> or an equivalent command to reload unit configuration while
+ the unit is already loaded. In this case all configuration settings are flushed out and replaced with the new
+ configuration (which however might not be in effect immediately), however all runtime state is
+ saved/restored.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>[Unit] Section Options</title>
+
+ <para>The unit file may include a [Unit] section, which carries
+ generic information about the unit that is not dependent on the
+ type of unit:</para>
+
+ <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Description=</varname></term>
+ <listitem><para>A human readable name for the unit. This is used by
+ <command>systemd</command> (and other UIs) as the label for the unit, so this string should
+ identify the unit rather than describe it, despite the name. <literal>Apache2 Web
+ Server</literal> is a good example. Bad examples are <literal>high-performance light-weight
+ HTTP server</literal> (too generic) or <literal>Apache2</literal> (too specific and
+ meaningless for people who do not know Apache). <command>systemd</command> will use this
+ string as a noun in status messages (<literal>Starting
+ <replaceable>description</replaceable>...</literal>, <literal>Started
+ <replaceable>description</replaceable>.</literal>, <literal>Reached target
+ <replaceable>description</replaceable>.</literal>, <literal>Failed to start
+ <replaceable>description</replaceable>.</literal>), so it should be capitalized, and should
+ not be a full sentence or a phrase with a continuous verb. Bad examples include
+ <literal>exiting the container</literal> or <literal>updating the database once per
+ day.</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Documentation=</varname></term>
+ <listitem><para>A space-separated list of URIs referencing
+ documentation for this unit or its configuration. Accepted are
+ only URIs of the types <literal>http://</literal>,
+ <literal>https://</literal>, <literal>file:</literal>,
+ <literal>info:</literal>, <literal>man:</literal>. For more
+ information about the syntax of these URIs, see <citerefentry
+ project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>uri</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ The URIs should be listed in order of relevance, starting with
+ the most relevant. It is a good idea to first reference
+ documentation that explains what the unit's purpose is,
+ followed by how it is configured, followed by any other
+ related documentation. This option may be specified more than
+ once, in which case the specified list of URIs is merged. If
+ the empty string is assigned to this option, the list is reset
+ and all prior assignments will have no
+ effect.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Wants=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Configures requirement dependencies on other units. This option may be specified more
+ than once or multiple space-separated units may be specified in one option in which case dependencies
+ for all listed names will be created. Dependencies of this type may also be configured outside of the
+ unit configuration file by adding a symlink to a <filename>.wants/</filename> directory accompanying
+ the unit file. For details, see above.</para>
+
+ <para>Units listed in this option will be started if the configuring unit is. However, if the listed
+ units fail to start or cannot be added to the transaction, this has no impact on the validity of the
+ transaction as a whole, and this unit will still be started. This is the recommended way to hook
+ the start-up of one unit to the start-up of another unit.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that requirement dependencies do not influence the order in which services are started or
+ stopped. This has to be configured independently with the <varname>After=</varname> or
+ <varname>Before=</varname> options. If unit <filename>foo.service</filename> pulls in unit
+ <filename>bar.service</filename> as configured with <varname>Wants=</varname> and no ordering is
+ configured with <varname>After=</varname> or <varname>Before=</varname>, then both units will be
+ started simultaneously and without any delay between them if <filename>foo.service</filename> is
+ activated.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Requires=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Similar to <varname>Wants=</varname>, but declares a stronger
+ dependency. Dependencies of this type may also be configured by adding a symlink to a
+ <filename>.requires/</filename> directory accompanying the unit file.</para>
+
+ <para>If this unit gets activated, the units listed will be activated as well. If one of
+ the other units fails to activate, and an ordering dependency <varname>After=</varname> on the
+ failing unit is set, this unit will not be started. Besides, with or without specifying
+ <varname>After=</varname>, this unit will be stopped if one of the other units is explicitly
+ stopped.</para>
+
+ <para>Often, it is a better choice to use <varname>Wants=</varname> instead of
+ <varname>Requires=</varname> in order to achieve a system that is more robust when dealing with
+ failing services.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that this dependency type does not imply that the other unit always has to be in active state when
+ this unit is running. Specifically: failing condition checks (such as <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname>,
+ <varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname>, … — see below) do not cause the start job of a unit with a
+ <varname>Requires=</varname> dependency on it to fail. Also, some unit types may deactivate on their own (for
+ example, a service process may decide to exit cleanly, or a device may be unplugged by the user), which is not
+ propagated to units having a <varname>Requires=</varname> dependency. Use the <varname>BindsTo=</varname>
+ dependency type together with <varname>After=</varname> to ensure that a unit may never be in active state
+ without a specific other unit also in active state (see below).</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Requisite=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Similar to <varname>Requires=</varname>. However, if the units listed here
+ are not started already, they will not be started and the starting of this unit will fail
+ immediately. <varname>Requisite=</varname> does not imply an ordering dependency, even if
+ both units are started in the same transaction. Hence this setting should usually be
+ combined with <varname>After=</varname>, to ensure this unit is not started before the other
+ unit.</para>
+
+ <para>When <varname>Requisite=b.service</varname> is used on
+ <filename>a.service</filename>, this dependency will show as
+ <varname>RequisiteOf=a.service</varname> in property listing of
+ <filename>b.service</filename>. <varname>RequisiteOf=</varname>
+ dependency cannot be specified directly.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>BindsTo=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Configures requirement dependencies, very similar in style to
+ <varname>Requires=</varname>. However, this dependency type is stronger: in addition to the effect of
+ <varname>Requires=</varname> it declares that if the unit bound to is stopped, this unit will be stopped
+ too. This means a unit bound to another unit that suddenly enters inactive state will be stopped too.
+ Units can suddenly, unexpectedly enter inactive state for different reasons: the main process of a service unit
+ might terminate on its own choice, the backing device of a device unit might be unplugged or the mount point of
+ a mount unit might be unmounted without involvement of the system and service manager.</para>
+
+ <para>When used in conjunction with <varname>After=</varname> on the same unit the behaviour of
+ <varname>BindsTo=</varname> is even stronger. In this case, the unit bound to strictly has to be in active
+ state for this unit to also be in active state. This not only means a unit bound to another unit that suddenly
+ enters inactive state, but also one that is bound to another unit that gets skipped due to a failed condition
+ check (such as <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname>, <varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname>, … —
+ see below) will be stopped, should it be running. Hence, in many cases it is best to combine
+ <varname>BindsTo=</varname> with <varname>After=</varname>.</para>
+
+ <para>When <varname>BindsTo=b.service</varname> is used on
+ <filename>a.service</filename>, this dependency will show as
+ <varname>BoundBy=a.service</varname> in property listing of
+ <filename>b.service</filename>. <varname>BoundBy=</varname>
+ dependency cannot be specified directly.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>PartOf=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Configures dependencies similar to
+ <varname>Requires=</varname>, but limited to stopping and
+ restarting of units. When systemd stops or restarts the units
+ listed here, the action is propagated to this unit. Note that
+ this is a one-way dependency — changes to this unit do not
+ affect the listed units.</para>
+
+ <para>When <varname>PartOf=b.service</varname> is used on
+ <filename>a.service</filename>, this dependency will show as
+ <varname>ConsistsOf=a.service</varname> in property listing of
+ <filename>b.service</filename>. <varname>ConsistsOf=</varname>
+ dependency cannot be specified directly.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Conflicts=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>A space-separated list of unit names. Configures negative requirement
+ dependencies. If a unit has a <varname>Conflicts=</varname> setting on another unit, starting the
+ former will stop the latter and vice versa.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that this setting does not imply an ordering dependency, similarly to the
+ <varname>Wants=</varname> and <varname>Requires=</varname> dependencies described above. This means
+ that to ensure that the conflicting unit is stopped before the other unit is started, an
+ <varname>After=</varname> or <varname>Before=</varname> dependency must be declared. It doesn't
+ matter which of the two ordering dependencies is used, because stop jobs are always ordered before
+ start jobs, see the discussion in <varname>Before=</varname>/<varname>After=</varname> below.</para>
+
+ <para>If unit A that conflicts with unit B is scheduled to
+ be started at the same time as B, the transaction will either
+ fail (in case both are required parts of the transaction) or be
+ modified to be fixed (in case one or both jobs are not a
+ required part of the transaction). In the latter case, the job
+ that is not required will be removed, or in case both are
+ not required, the unit that conflicts will be started and the
+ unit that is conflicted is stopped.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Before=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>After=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>These two settings expect a space-separated list of unit names. They may be specified
+ more than once, in which case dependencies for all listed names are created.</para>
+
+ <para>Those two settings configure ordering dependencies between units. If unit
+ <filename>foo.service</filename> contains the setting <option>Before=bar.service</option> and both
+ units are being started, <filename>bar.service</filename>'s start-up is delayed until
+ <filename>foo.service</filename> has finished starting up. <varname>After=</varname> is the inverse
+ of <varname>Before=</varname>, i.e. while <varname>Before=</varname> ensures that the configured unit
+ is started before the listed unit begins starting up, <varname>After=</varname> ensures the opposite,
+ that the listed unit is fully started up before the configured unit is started.</para>
+
+ <para>When two units with an ordering dependency between them are shut down, the inverse of the
+ start-up order is applied. I.e. if a unit is configured with <varname>After=</varname> on another
+ unit, the former is stopped before the latter if both are shut down. Given two units with any
+ ordering dependency between them, if one unit is shut down and the other is started up, the shutdown
+ is ordered before the start-up. It doesn't matter if the ordering dependency is
+ <varname>After=</varname> or <varname>Before=</varname>, in this case. It also doesn't matter which
+ of the two is shut down, as long as one is shut down and the other is started up; the shutdown is
+ ordered before the start-up in all cases. If two units have no ordering dependencies between them,
+ they are shut down or started up simultaneously, and no ordering takes place. It depends on the unit
+ type when precisely a unit has finished starting up. Most importantly, for service units start-up is
+ considered completed for the purpose of <varname>Before=</varname>/<varname>After=</varname> when all
+ its configured start-up commands have been invoked and they either failed or reported start-up
+ success. Note that this does includes <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname> (or
+ <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> for the shutdown case).</para>
+
+ <para>Note that those settings are independent of and orthogonal to the requirement dependencies as
+ configured by <varname>Requires=</varname>, <varname>Wants=</varname>, <varname>Requisite=</varname>,
+ or <varname>BindsTo=</varname>. It is a common pattern to include a unit name in both the
+ <varname>After=</varname> and <varname>Wants=</varname> options, in which case the unit listed will
+ be started before the unit that is configured with these options.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that <varname>Before=</varname> dependencies on device units have no effect and are not
+ supported. Devices generally become available as a result of an external hotplug event, and systemd
+ creates the corresponding device unit without delay.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>OnFailure=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>A space-separated list of one or more units
+ that are activated when this unit enters the
+ <literal>failed</literal> state. A service unit using
+ <varname>Restart=</varname> enters the failed state only after
+ the start limits are reached.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>A space-separated list of one or more units
+ where reload requests on this unit will be propagated to, or
+ reload requests on the other unit will be propagated to this
+ unit, respectively. Issuing a reload request on a unit will
+ automatically also enqueue a reload request on all units that
+ the reload request shall be propagated to via these two
+ settings.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>JoinsNamespaceOf=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>For units that start processes (such as service units), lists one or more other units
+ whose network and/or temporary file namespace to join. This only applies to unit types which support
+ the <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname>, <varname>NetworkNamespacePath=</varname> and
+ <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> directives (see
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
+ details). If a unit that has this setting set is started, its processes will see the same
+ <filename>/tmp/</filename>, <filename>/var/tmp/</filename> and network namespace as one listed unit
+ that is started. If multiple listed units are already started, it is not defined which namespace is
+ joined. Note that this setting only has an effect if
+ <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname>/<varname>NetworkNamespacePath=</varname> and/or
+ <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> is enabled for both the unit that joins the namespace and the unit
+ whose namespace is joined.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>RequiresMountsFor=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a space-separated list of absolute
+ paths. Automatically adds dependencies of type
+ <varname>Requires=</varname> and <varname>After=</varname> for
+ all mount units required to access the specified path.</para>
+
+ <para>Mount points marked with <option>noauto</option> are not
+ mounted automatically through <filename>local-fs.target</filename>,
+ but are still honored for the purposes of this option, i.e. they
+ will be pulled in by this unit.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>OnFailureJobMode=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a value of
+ <literal>fail</literal>,
+ <literal>replace</literal>,
+ <literal>replace-irreversibly</literal>,
+ <literal>isolate</literal>,
+ <literal>flush</literal>,
+ <literal>ignore-dependencies</literal> or
+ <literal>ignore-requirements</literal>. Defaults to
+ <literal>replace</literal>. Specifies how the units listed in
+ <varname>OnFailure=</varname> will be enqueued. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
+ <option>--job-mode=</option> option for details on the
+ possible values. If this is set to <literal>isolate</literal>,
+ only a single unit may be listed in
+ <varname>OnFailure=</varname>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>IgnoreOnIsolate=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If <option>true</option>, this unit will not be stopped
+ when isolating another unit. Defaults to <option>false</option> for service, target, socket, timer,
+ and path units, and <option>true</option> for slice, scope, device, swap, mount, and automount
+ units.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>StopWhenUnneeded=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
+ <option>true</option>, this unit will be stopped when it is no
+ longer used. Note that, in order to minimize the work to be
+ executed, systemd will not stop units by default unless they
+ are conflicting with other units, or the user explicitly
+ requested their shut down. If this option is set, a unit will
+ be automatically cleaned up if no other active unit requires
+ it. Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>RefuseManualStart=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>RefuseManualStop=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
+ <option>true</option>, this unit can only be activated or
+ deactivated indirectly. In this case, explicit start-up or
+ termination requested by the user is denied, however if it is
+ started or stopped as a dependency of another unit, start-up
+ or termination will succeed. This is mostly a safety feature
+ to ensure that the user does not accidentally activate units
+ that are not intended to be activated explicitly, and not
+ accidentally deactivate units that are not intended to be
+ deactivated. These options default to
+ <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>AllowIsolate=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
+ <option>true</option>, this unit may be used with the
+ <command>systemctl isolate</command> command. Otherwise, this
+ will be refused. It probably is a good idea to leave this
+ disabled except for target units that shall be used similar to
+ runlevels in SysV init systems, just as a precaution to avoid
+ unusable system states. This option defaults to
+ <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If
+ <option>yes</option>, (the default), a few default
+ dependencies will implicitly be created for the unit. The
+ actual dependencies created depend on the unit type. For
+ example, for service units, these dependencies ensure that the
+ service is started only after basic system initialization is
+ completed and is properly terminated on system shutdown. See
+ the respective man pages for details. Generally, only services
+ involved with early boot or late shutdown should set this
+ option to <option>no</option>. It is highly recommended to
+ leave this option enabled for the majority of common units. If
+ set to <option>no</option>, this option does not disable
+ all implicit dependencies, just non-essential
+ ones.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>CollectMode=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Tweaks the "garbage collection" algorithm for this unit. Takes one of <option>inactive</option>
+ or <option>inactive-or-failed</option>. If set to <option>inactive</option> the unit will be unloaded if it is
+ in the <constant>inactive</constant> state and is not referenced by clients, jobs or other units — however it
+ is not unloaded if it is in the <constant>failed</constant> state. In <option>failed</option> mode, failed
+ units are not unloaded until the user invoked <command>systemctl reset-failed</command> on them to reset the
+ <constant>failed</constant> state, or an equivalent command. This behaviour is altered if this option is set to
+ <option>inactive-or-failed</option>: in this case the unit is unloaded even if the unit is in a
+ <constant>failed</constant> state, and thus an explicitly resetting of the <constant>failed</constant> state is
+ not necessary. Note that if this mode is used unit results (such as exit codes, exit signals, consumed
+ resources, …) are flushed out immediately after the unit completed, except for what is stored in the logging
+ subsystem. Defaults to <option>inactive</option>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>FailureAction=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>SuccessAction=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Configure the action to take when the unit stops and enters a failed state or inactive state.
+ Takes one of <option>none</option>, <option>reboot</option>, <option>reboot-force</option>,
+ <option>reboot-immediate</option>, <option>poweroff</option>, <option>poweroff-force</option>,
+ <option>poweroff-immediate</option>, <option>exit</option>, and <option>exit-force</option>. In system mode,
+ all options are allowed. In user mode, only <option>none</option>, <option>exit</option>, and
+ <option>exit-force</option> are allowed. Both options default to <option>none</option>.</para>
+
+ <para>If <option>none</option> is set, no action will be triggered. <option>reboot</option> causes a reboot
+ following the normal shutdown procedure (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl reboot</command>).
+ <option>reboot-force</option> causes a forced reboot which will terminate all processes forcibly but should
+ cause no dirty file systems on reboot (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl reboot -f</command>) and
+ <option>reboot-immediate</option> causes immediate execution of the
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system call, which
+ might result in data loss (i.e. equivalent to <command>systemctl reboot -ff</command>). Similarly,
+ <option>poweroff</option>, <option>poweroff-force</option>, <option>poweroff-immediate</option> have the effect
+ of powering down the system with similar semantics. <option>exit</option> causes the manager to exit following
+ the normal shutdown procedure, and <option>exit-force</option> causes it terminate without shutting down
+ services. When <option>exit</option> or <option>exit-force</option> is used by default the exit status of the
+ main process of the unit (if this applies) is returned from the service manager. However, this may be overridden
+ with <varname>FailureActionExitStatus=</varname>/<varname>SuccessActionExitStatus=</varname>, see
+ below.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>FailureActionExitStatus=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>SuccessActionExitStatus=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Controls the exit status to propagate back to an invoking container manager (in case of a
+ system service) or service manager (in case of a user manager) when the
+ <varname>FailureAction=</varname>/<varname>SuccessAction=</varname> are set to <option>exit</option> or
+ <option>exit-force</option> and the action is triggered. By default the exit status of the main process of the
+ triggering unit (if this applies) is propagated. Takes a value in the range 0…255 or the empty string to
+ request default behaviour.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>When a job for this unit is queued, a timeout <varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname> may be
+ configured. Similarly, <varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> starts counting when the queued job is actually
+ started. If either time limit is reached, the job will be cancelled, the unit however will not change state or
+ even enter the <literal>failed</literal> mode. This value defaults to <literal>infinity</literal> (job timeouts
+ disabled), except for device units (<varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> defaults to
+ <varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname>). NB: this timeout is independent from any unit-specific timeout
+ (for example, the timeout set with <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname> in service units) as the job timeout has
+ no effect on the unit itself, only on the job that might be pending for it. Or in other words: unit-specific
+ timeouts are useful to abort unit state changes, and revert them. The job timeout set with this option however
+ is useful to abort only the job waiting for the unit state to change.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>JobTimeoutAction=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>JobTimeoutRebootArgument=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>JobTimeoutAction=</varname> optionally configures an additional action to take when
+ the timeout is hit, see description of <varname>JobTimeoutSec=</varname> and
+ <varname>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</varname> above. It takes the same values as
+ <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname>. Defaults to <option>none</option>.
+ <varname>JobTimeoutRebootArgument=</varname> configures an optional reboot string to pass to the
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system call.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=<replaceable>interval</replaceable></varname></term>
+ <term><varname>StartLimitBurst=<replaceable>burst</replaceable></varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Configure unit start rate limiting. Units which are started more than
+ <replaceable>burst</replaceable> times within an <replaceable>interval</replaceable> time interval are not
+ permitted to start any more. Use <varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> to configure the checking interval
+ (defaults to <varname>DefaultStartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> in manager configuration file, set it to 0 to
+ disable any kind of rate limiting). Use <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> to configure how many starts per
+ interval are allowed (defaults to <varname>DefaultStartLimitBurst=</varname> in manager configuration
+ file). These configuration options are particularly useful in conjunction with the service setting
+ <varname>Restart=</varname> (see
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>); however,
+ they apply to all kinds of starts (including manual), not just those triggered by the
+ <varname>Restart=</varname> logic. Note that units which are configured for <varname>Restart=</varname> and
+ which reach the start limit are not attempted to be restarted anymore; however, they may still be restarted
+ manually at a later point, after the <replaceable>interval</replaceable> has passed. From this point on, the
+ restart logic is activated again. Note that <command>systemctl reset-failed</command> will cause the restart
+ rate counter for a service to be flushed, which is useful if the administrator wants to manually start a unit
+ and the start limit interferes with that. Note that this rate-limiting is enforced after any unit condition
+ checks are executed, and hence unit activations with failing conditions do not count towards this rate
+ limit. This setting does not apply to slice, target, device, and scope units, since they are unit types whose
+ activation may either never fail, or may succeed only a single time.</para>
+
+ <para>When a unit is unloaded due to the garbage collection logic (see above) its rate limit counters are
+ flushed out too. This means that configuring start rate limiting for a unit that is not referenced continuously
+ has no effect.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>StartLimitAction=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Configure an additional action to take if the rate limit configured with
+ <varname>StartLimitIntervalSec=</varname> and <varname>StartLimitBurst=</varname> is hit. Takes the same
+ values as the <varname>FailureAction=</varname>/<varname>SuccessAction=</varname> settings. If
+ <option>none</option> is set, hitting the rate limit will trigger no action except that
+ the start will not be permitted. Defaults to <option>none</option>.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>RebootArgument=</varname></term>
+ <listitem><para>Configure the optional argument for the
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>reboot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> system call if
+ <varname>StartLimitAction=</varname> or <varname>FailureAction=</varname> is a reboot action. This
+ works just like the optional argument to <command>systemctl reboot</command> command.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>SourcePath=</varname></term>
+ <listitem><para>A path to a configuration file this unit has
+ been generated from. This is primarily useful for
+ implementation of generator tools that convert configuration
+ from an external configuration file format into native unit
+ files. This functionality should not be used in normal
+ units.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <refsect2>
+ <title>Conditions and Asserts</title>
+
+ <para>Unit files may also include a number of <varname index="false">Condition…=</varname> and
+ <varname index="false">Assert…=</varname> settings. Before the unit is started, systemd will verify
+ that the specified conditions are true. If not, the starting of the unit will be (mostly silently)
+ skipped. Failing conditions will not result in the unit being moved into the <literal>failed</literal>
+ state. The conditions are checked at the time the queued start job is to be executed. The ordering
+ dependencies are still respected, so other units are still pulled in and ordered as if this unit was
+ successfully activated. Use condition expressions in order to skip units that do not apply to the local
+ system, for example because the kernel or runtime environment doesn't require their functionality.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>If multiple conditions are specified, the unit will be executed if all of them apply (i.e. a
+ logical AND is applied). Condition checks can use a pipe symbol (<literal>|</literal>) after the equals
+ sign (<literal>Condition…=|…</literal>), which causes the condition becomes a triggering condition. If
+ at least one triggering condition is defined for a unit, then the unit will be executed if at least one
+ of the triggering conditions apply and all of the non-triggering conditions. If you prefix an argument
+ with the pipe symbol and an exclamation mark, the pipe symbol must be passed first, the exclamation
+ second. If any of these options is assigned the empty string, the list of conditions is reset
+ completely, all previous condition settings (of any kind) will have no effect.</para>
+
+ <para>The <varname>AssertArchitecture=</varname>, <varname>AssertVirtualization=</varname>, … options
+ provide a similar mechanism that causes the job to fail (instead of being skipped). The failed check is
+ logged. Units with failed conditions are considered to be in a clean state and will be garbage
+ collected if they are not referenced. This means that when queried, the condition failure may or may
+ not show up in the state of the unit.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that neither assertion nor condition expressions result in unit state changes. Also note
+ that both are checked at the time the job is to be executed, i.e. long after depending jobs and it
+ itself were queued. Thus, neither condition nor assertion expressions are suitable for conditionalizing
+ unit dependencies.</para>
+
+ <para>The <command>condition</command> verb of
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-analyze</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> can
+ be used to test condition and assert expressions.</para>
+
+ <para>Except for <varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname>, all path checks follow symlinks.</para>
+
+ <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionArchitecture=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Check whether the system is running on a specific architecture. Takes one of
+ <literal>x86</literal>,
+ <literal>x86-64</literal>,
+ <literal>ppc</literal>,
+ <literal>ppc-le</literal>,
+ <literal>ppc64</literal>,
+ <literal>ppc64-le</literal>,
+ <literal>ia64</literal>,
+ <literal>parisc</literal>,
+ <literal>parisc64</literal>,
+ <literal>s390</literal>,
+ <literal>s390x</literal>,
+ <literal>sparc</literal>,
+ <literal>sparc64</literal>,
+ <literal>mips</literal>,
+ <literal>mips-le</literal>,
+ <literal>mips64</literal>,
+ <literal>mips64-le</literal>,
+ <literal>alpha</literal>,
+ <literal>arm</literal>,
+ <literal>arm-be</literal>,
+ <literal>arm64</literal>,
+ <literal>arm64-be</literal>,
+ <literal>sh</literal>,
+ <literal>sh64</literal>,
+ <literal>m68k</literal>,
+ <literal>tilegx</literal>,
+ <literal>cris</literal>,
+ <literal>arc</literal>,
+ <literal>arc-be</literal>, or
+ <literal>native</literal>.</para>
+
+ <para>The architecture is determined from the information returned by
+ <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ and is thus subject to
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>personality</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ Note that a <varname>Personality=</varname> setting in the same unit file has no effect on this
+ condition. A special architecture name <literal>native</literal> is mapped to the architecture the
+ system manager itself is compiled for. The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation
+ mark.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionVirtualization=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Check whether the system is executed in a virtualized environment and optionally
+ test whether it is a specific implementation. Takes either boolean value to check if being executed
+ in any virtualized environment, or one of
+ <literal>vm</literal> and
+ <literal>container</literal> to test against a generic type of virtualization solution, or one of
+ <literal>qemu</literal>,
+ <literal>kvm</literal>,
+ <literal>zvm</literal>,
+ <literal>vmware</literal>,
+ <literal>microsoft</literal>,
+ <literal>oracle</literal>,
+ <literal>powervm</literal>,
+ <literal>xen</literal>,
+ <literal>bochs</literal>,
+ <literal>uml</literal>,
+ <literal>bhyve</literal>,
+ <literal>qnx</literal>,
+ <literal>openvz</literal>,
+ <literal>lxc</literal>,
+ <literal>lxc-libvirt</literal>,
+ <literal>systemd-nspawn</literal>,
+ <literal>docker</literal>,
+ <literal>podman</literal>,
+ <literal>rkt</literal>,
+ <literal>wsl</literal>,
+ <literal>proot</literal>,
+ <literal>pouch</literal>,
+ <literal>acrn</literal> to test
+ against a specific implementation, or
+ <literal>private-users</literal> to check whether we are running in a user namespace. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-detect-virt</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for a full list of known virtualization technologies and their identifiers. If multiple
+ virtualization technologies are nested, only the innermost is considered. The test may be negated
+ by prepending an exclamation mark.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionHost=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionHost=</varname> may be used to match against the hostname or
+ machine ID of the host. This either takes a hostname string (optionally with shell style globs)
+ which is tested against the locally set hostname as returned by
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>gethostname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>, or
+ a machine ID formatted as string (see
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
+ The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionKernelCommandLine=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionKernelCommandLine=</varname> may be used to check whether a
+ specific kernel command line option is set (or if prefixed with the exclamation mark — unset). The
+ argument must either be a single word, or an assignment (i.e. two words, separated by
+ <literal>=</literal>). In the former case the kernel command line is searched for the word
+ appearing as is, or as left hand side of an assignment. In the latter case, the exact assignment is
+ looked for with right and left hand side matching. This operates on the kernel command line
+ communicated to userspace via <filename>/proc/cmdline</filename>, except when the service manager
+ is invoked as payload of a container manager, in which case the command line of <filename>PID
+ 1</filename> is used instead (i.e. <filename>/proc/1/cmdline</filename>).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionKernelVersion=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionKernelVersion=</varname> may be used to check whether the kernel
+ version (as reported by <command>uname -r</command>) matches a certain expression (or if prefixed
+ with the exclamation mark does not match it). The argument must be a list of (potentially quoted)
+ expressions. For each of the expressions, if it starts with one of <literal>&lt;</literal>,
+ <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>=</literal>, <literal>!=</literal>, <literal>&gt;=</literal>,
+ <literal>&gt;</literal> a relative version comparison is done, otherwise the specified string is
+ matched with shell-style globs.</para>
+
+ <para>Note that using the kernel version string is an unreliable way to determine which features
+ are supported by a kernel, because of the widespread practice of backporting drivers, features, and
+ fixes from newer upstream kernels into older versions provided by distributions. Hence, this check
+ is inherently unportable and should not be used for units which may be used on different
+ distributions.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionEnvironment=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionEnvironment=</varname> may be used to check whether a specific
+ environment variable is set (or if prefixed with the exclamation mark — unset) in the service
+ manager's environment block.
+
+ The argument may be a single word, to check if the variable with this name is defined in the
+ environment block, or an assignment
+ (<literal><replaceable>name</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>), to check if
+ the variable with this exact value is defined. Note that the environment block of the service
+ manager itself is checked, i.e. not any variables defined with <varname>Environment=</varname> or
+ <varname>EnvironmentFile=</varname>, as described above. This is particularly useful when the
+ service manager runs inside a containerized environment or as per-user service manager, in order to
+ check for variables passed in by the enclosing container manager or PAM.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionSecurity=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionSecurity=</varname> may be used to check whether the given
+ security technology is enabled on the system. Currently, the recognized values are
+ <literal>selinux</literal>, <literal>apparmor</literal>, <literal>tomoyo</literal>,
+ <literal>ima</literal>, <literal>smack</literal>, <literal>audit</literal> and
+ <literal>uefi-secureboot</literal>. The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation
+ mark.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionCapability=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Check whether the given capability exists in the capability bounding set of the
+ service manager (i.e. this does not check whether capability is actually available in the permitted
+ or effective sets, see
+ <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for details). Pass a capability name such as <literal>CAP_MKNOD</literal>, possibly prefixed with
+ an exclamation mark to negate the check.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionACPower=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Check whether the system has AC power, or is exclusively battery powered at the
+ time of activation of the unit. This takes a boolean argument. If set to <literal>true</literal>,
+ the condition will hold only if at least one AC connector of the system is connected to a power
+ source, or if no AC connectors are known. Conversely, if set to <literal>false</literal>, the
+ condition will hold only if there is at least one AC connector known and all AC connectors are
+ disconnected from a power source.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionNeedsUpdate=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes one of <filename>/var/</filename> or <filename>/etc/</filename> as argument,
+ possibly prefixed with a <literal>!</literal> (to invert the condition). This condition may be
+ used to conditionalize units on whether the specified directory requires an update because
+ <filename>/usr/</filename>'s modification time is newer than the stamp file
+ <filename>.updated</filename> in the specified directory. This is useful to implement offline
+ updates of the vendor operating system resources in <filename>/usr/</filename> that require updating
+ of <filename>/etc/</filename> or <filename>/var/</filename> on the next following boot. Units making
+ use of this condition should order themselves before
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-update-done.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ to make sure they run before the stamp file's modification time gets reset indicating a completed
+ update.</para>
+
+ <para>If the <varname>systemd.condition-needs-update=</varname> option is specified on the kernel
+ command line (taking a boolean), it will override the result of this condition check, taking
+ precedence over any file modification time checks. If it is used
+ <filename>systemd-update-done.service</filename> will not have immediate effect on any following
+ <varname>ConditionNeedsUpdate=</varname> checks, until the system is rebooted where the kernel
+ command line option is not specified anymore.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionFirstBoot=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. This condition may be used to conditionalize units on
+ whether the system is booting up for the first time. This roughly means that <filename>/etc/</filename>
+ is unpopulated (for details, see "First Boot Semantics" in
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
+ This may be used to populate <filename>/etc/</filename> on the first boot after factory reset, or
+ when a new system instance boots up for the first time.</para>
+
+ <para>For robustness, units with <varname>ConditionFirstBoot=yes</varname> should order themselves
+ before <filename>first-boot-complete.target</filename> and pull in this passive target with
+ <varname>Wants=</varname>. This ensures that in a case of an aborted first boot, these units will
+ be re-run during the next system startup.</para>
+
+ <para>If the <varname>systemd.condition-first-boot=</varname> option is specified on the kernel
+ command line (taking a boolean), it will override the result of this condition check, taking
+ precedence over <filename>/etc/machine-id</filename> existence checks.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Check for the exists of a file. If the specified absolute path name does not exist,
+ the condition will fail. If the absolute path name passed to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> is prefixed with an exclamation mark
+ (<literal>!</literal>), the test is negated, and the unit is only started if the path does not
+ exist.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionPathExistsGlob=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathExistsGlob=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname>, but checks for the existence of at least one file or
+ directory matching the specified globbing pattern.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionPathIsDirectory=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsDirectory=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a
+ directory.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a symbolic
+ link.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionPathIsMountPoint=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsMountPoint=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a mount
+ point.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionPathIsReadWrite=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsReadWrite=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that the underlying file system is readable
+ and writable (i.e. not mounted read-only).</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionPathIsEncrypted=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionPathIsEncrypted=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that the underlying file system's backing
+ block device is encrypted using dm-crypt/LUKS. Note that this check does not cover ext4
+ per-directory encryption, and only detects block level encryption. Moreover, if the specified path
+ resides on a file system on top of a loopback block device, only encryption above the loopback device is
+ detected. It is not detected whether the file system backing the loopback block device is encrypted.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and is a non-empty
+ directory.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionFileNotEmpty=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionFileNotEmpty=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists and refers to a
+ regular file with a non-zero size.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionFileIsExecutable=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionFileIsExecutable=</varname> is similar to
+ <varname>ConditionPathExists=</varname> but verifies that a certain path exists, is a regular file,
+ and marked executable.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionUser=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionUser=</varname> takes a numeric <literal>UID</literal>, a UNIX
+ user name, or the special value <literal>@system</literal>. This condition may be used to check
+ whether the service manager is running as the given user. The special value
+ <literal>@system</literal> can be used to check if the user id is within the system user
+ range. This option is not useful for system services, as the system manager exclusively runs as the
+ root user, and thus the test result is constant.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionGroup=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para><varname>ConditionGroup=</varname> is similar to <varname>ConditionUser=</varname>
+ but verifies that the service manager's real or effective group, or any of its auxiliary groups,
+ match the specified group or GID. This setting does not support the special value
+ <literal>@system</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionControlGroupController=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Verify that the given cgroup controller (eg. <literal>cpu</literal>) is available
+ for use on the system. For example, a particular controller may not be available if it was disabled
+ on the kernel command line with <varname>cgroup_disable=controller</varname>. Multiple controllers
+ may be passed with a space separating them; in this case the condition will only pass if all listed
+ controllers are available for use. Controllers unknown to systemd are ignored. Valid controllers
+ are <literal>cpu</literal>, <literal>cpuacct</literal>, <literal>io</literal>,
+ <literal>blkio</literal>, <literal>memory</literal>, <literal>devices</literal>, and
+ <literal>pids</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionMemory=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Verify that the specified amount of system memory is available to the current
+ system. Takes a memory size in bytes as argument, optionally prefixed with a comparison operator
+ <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>=</literal>, <literal>!=</literal>,
+ <literal>&gt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;</literal>. On bare-metal systems compares the amount of
+ physical memory in the system with the specified size, adhering to the specified comparison
+ operator. In containers compares the amount of memory assigned to the container instead.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>ConditionCPUs=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Verify that the specified number of CPUs is available to the current system. Takes
+ a number of CPUs as argument, optionally prefixed with a comparison operator
+ <literal>&lt;</literal>, <literal>&lt;=</literal>, <literal>=</literal>, <literal>!=</literal>,
+ <literal>&gt;=</literal>, <literal>&gt;</literal>. Compares the number of CPUs in the CPU affinity
+ mask configured of the service manager itself with the specified number, adhering to the specified
+ comparison operator. On physical systems the number of CPUs in the affinity mask of the service
+ manager usually matches the number of physical CPUs, but in special and virtual environments might
+ differ. In particular, in containers the affinity mask usually matches the number of CPUs assigned
+ to the container and not the physically available ones.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>AssertArchitecture=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertVirtualization=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertHost=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertKernelCommandLine=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertKernelVersion=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertSecurity=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertCapability=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertACPower=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertNeedsUpdate=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertFirstBoot=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertPathExists=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertPathExistsGlob=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertPathIsDirectory=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertPathIsSymbolicLink=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertPathIsMountPoint=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertPathIsReadWrite=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertDirectoryNotEmpty=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertFileNotEmpty=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertFileIsExecutable=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertUser=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertGroup=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>AssertControlGroupController=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Similar to the <varname>ConditionArchitecture=</varname>,
+ <varname>ConditionVirtualization=</varname>, …, condition settings described above, these settings
+ add assertion checks to the start-up of the unit. However, unlike the conditions settings, any
+ assertion setting that is not met results in failure of the start job (which means this is logged
+ loudly). Note that hitting a configured assertion does not cause the unit to enter the
+ <literal>failed</literal> state (or in fact result in any state change of the unit), it affects
+ only the job queued for it. Use assertion expressions for units that cannot operate when specific
+ requirements are not met, and when this is something the administrator or user should look
+ into.</para>
+ </listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+ </refsect2>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Mapping of unit properties to their inverses</title>
+
+ <para>Unit settings that create a relationship with a second unit usually show up
+ in properties of both units, for example in <command>systemctl show</command>
+ output. In some cases the name of the property is the same as the name of the
+ configuration setting, but not always. This table lists the properties
+ that are shown on two units which are connected through some dependency, and shows
+ which property on "source" unit corresponds to which property on the "target" unit.
+ </para>
+
+ <table>
+ <title>
+ "Forward" and "reverse" unit properties
+ </title>
+
+ <tgroup cols='4'>
+ <colspec colname='forward' />
+ <colspec colname='reverse' />
+ <colspec colname='fuse' />
+ <colspec colname='ruse' />
+ <thead>
+ <row>
+ <entry>"Forward" property</entry>
+ <entry>"Reverse" property</entry>
+ <entry namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>Where used</entry>
+ </row>
+ </thead>
+ <tbody>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>Before=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>After=</varname></entry>
+ <entry morerows='1' namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>[Unit] section</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>After=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>Before=</varname></entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>Requires=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>RequiredBy=</varname></entry>
+ <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
+ <entry>[Install] section</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>Wants=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>WantedBy=</varname></entry>
+ <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
+ <entry>[Install] section</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>PartOf=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>ConsistsOf=</varname></entry>
+ <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
+ <entry>an automatic property</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>BindsTo=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>BoundBy=</varname></entry>
+ <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
+ <entry>an automatic property</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>Requisite=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>RequisiteOf=</varname></entry>
+ <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
+ <entry>an automatic property</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>Triggers=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>TriggeredBy=</varname></entry>
+ <entry namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>Automatic properties, see notes below</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>Conflicts=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>ConflictedBy=</varname></entry>
+ <entry>[Unit] section</entry>
+ <entry>an automatic property</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></entry>
+ <entry morerows='1' namest='fuse' nameend='ruse' valign='middle'>[Unit] section</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</varname></entry>
+ <entry><varname>PropagatesReloadTo=</varname></entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><varname>Following=</varname></entry>
+ <entry>n/a</entry>
+ <entry>An automatic property</entry>
+ </row>
+ </tbody>
+ </tgroup>
+ </table>
+
+ <para>Note: <varname>WantedBy=</varname> and <varname>RequiredBy=</varname> are
+ used in the [Install] section to create symlinks in <filename>.wants/</filename>
+ and <filename>.requires/</filename> directories. They cannot be used directly as a
+ unit configuration setting.</para>
+
+ <para>Note: <varname>ConsistsOf=</varname>, <varname>BoundBy=</varname>,
+ <varname>RequisiteOf=</varname>, <varname>ConflictedBy=</varname> are created
+ implicitly along with their reverses and cannot be specified directly.</para>
+
+ <para>Note: <varname>Triggers=</varname> is created implicitly between a socket,
+ path unit, or an automount unit, and the unit they activate. By default a unit
+ with the same name is triggered, but this can be overridden using
+ <varname>Sockets=</varname>, <varname>Service=</varname>, and <varname>Unit=</varname>
+ settings. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ and
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for details. <varname>TriggeredBy=</varname> is created implicitly on the
+ triggered unit.</para>
+
+ <para>Note: <varname>Following=</varname> is used to group device aliases and points to the
+ "primary" device unit that systemd is using to track device state, usually corresponding to a
+ sysfs path. It does not show up in the "target" unit.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>[Install] Section Options</title>
+
+ <para>Unit files may include an [Install] section, which carries installation information for
+ the unit. This section is not interpreted by
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> during runtime; it is
+ used by the <command>enable</command> and <command>disable</command> commands of the
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> tool during
+ installation of a unit.</para>
+
+ <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Alias=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>A space-separated list of additional names this unit shall be installed under. The names listed
+ here must have the same suffix (i.e. type) as the unit filename. This option may be specified more than once,
+ in which case all listed names are used. At installation time, <command>systemctl enable</command> will create
+ symlinks from these names to the unit filename. Note that not all unit types support such alias names, and this
+ setting is not supported for them. Specifically, mount, slice, swap, and automount units do not support
+ aliasing.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>WantedBy=</varname></term>
+ <term><varname>RequiredBy=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>This option may be used more than once, or a
+ space-separated list of unit names may be given. A symbolic
+ link is created in the <filename>.wants/</filename> or
+ <filename>.requires/</filename> directory of each of the
+ listed units when this unit is installed by <command>systemctl
+ enable</command>. This has the effect that a dependency of
+ type <varname>Wants=</varname> or <varname>Requires=</varname>
+ is added from the listed unit to the current unit. The primary
+ result is that the current unit will be started when the
+ listed unit is started. See the description of
+ <varname>Wants=</varname> and <varname>Requires=</varname> in
+ the [Unit] section for details.</para>
+
+ <para><command>WantedBy=foo.service</command> in a service
+ <filename>bar.service</filename> is mostly equivalent to
+ <command>Alias=foo.service.wants/bar.service</command> in the
+ same file. In case of template units, <command>systemctl
+ enable</command> must be called with an instance name, and
+ this instance will be added to the
+ <filename>.wants/</filename> or
+ <filename>.requires/</filename> list of the listed unit. E.g.
+ <command>WantedBy=getty.target</command> in a service
+ <filename>getty@.service</filename> will result in
+ <command>systemctl enable getty@tty2.service</command>
+ creating a
+ <filename>getty.target.wants/getty@tty2.service</filename>
+ link to <filename>getty@.service</filename>.
+ </para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>Also=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>Additional units to install/deinstall when
+ this unit is installed/deinstalled. If the user requests
+ installation/deinstallation of a unit with this option
+ configured, <command>systemctl enable</command> and
+ <command>systemctl disable</command> will automatically
+ install/uninstall units listed in this option as well.</para>
+
+ <para>This option may be used more than once, or a
+ space-separated list of unit names may be
+ given.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+
+ <varlistentry>
+ <term><varname>DefaultInstance=</varname></term>
+
+ <listitem><para>In template unit files, this specifies for
+ which instance the unit shall be enabled if the template is
+ enabled without any explicitly set instance. This option has
+ no effect in non-template unit files. The specified string
+ must be usable as instance identifier.</para></listitem>
+ </varlistentry>
+ </variablelist>
+
+ <para>The following specifiers are interpreted in the Install section:
+ %a, %b, %B, %g, %G, %H, %i, %j, %l, %m, %n, %N, %o, %p, %u, %U, %v, %w, %W, %%.
+ For their meaning see the next section.</para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Specifiers</title>
+
+ <para>Many settings resolve specifiers which may be used to write
+ generic unit files referring to runtime or unit parameters that
+ are replaced when the unit files are loaded. Specifiers must be known
+ and resolvable for the setting to be valid. The following
+ specifiers are understood:</para>
+
+ <table class='specifiers'>
+ <title>Specifiers available in unit files</title>
+ <tgroup cols='3' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
+ <colspec colname="spec" />
+ <colspec colname="mean" />
+ <colspec colname="detail" />
+ <thead>
+ <row>
+ <entry>Specifier</entry>
+ <entry>Meaning</entry>
+ <entry>Details</entry>
+ </row>
+ </thead>
+ <tbody>
+ <row>
+ <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since it includes a
+ reference onto our own man page, which would make the rendered version self-referential. -->
+ <entry><literal>%a</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Architecture</entry>
+ <entry>A short string identifying the architecture of the local system. A string such as <constant>x86</constant>, <constant>x86-64</constant> or <constant>arm64</constant>. See the architectures defined for <varname>ConditionArchitecture=</varname> above for a full list.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="b"/>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="B"/>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%C</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Cache directory root</entry>
+ <entry>This is either <filename>/var/cache</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_CACHE_HOME</literal> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%E</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Configuration directory root</entry>
+ <entry>This is either <filename>/etc/</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</literal> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%f</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Unescaped filename</entry>
+ <entry>This is either the unescaped instance name (if applicable) with <filename>/</filename> prepended (if applicable), or the unescaped prefix name prepended with <filename>/</filename>. This implements unescaping according to the rules for escaping absolute file system paths discussed above.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%g</literal></entry>
+ <entry>User group</entry>
+ <entry>This is the name of the group running the service manager instance. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>root</literal>.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%G</literal></entry>
+ <entry>User GID</entry>
+ <entry>This is the numeric GID of the user running the service manager instance. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>0</literal>.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%h</literal></entry>
+ <entry>User home directory</entry>
+ <entry>This is the home directory of the <emphasis>user running the service manager instance</emphasis>. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>/root</literal>.
+
+Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <!-- We do not use the common definition from standard-specifiers.xml here since we want a
+ slightly more verbose explanation here, referring to the reload cycle. -->
+ <entry><literal>%H</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Host name</entry>
+ <entry>The hostname of the running system at the point in time the unit configuration is loaded.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%i</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Instance name</entry>
+ <entry>For instantiated units this is the string between the first <literal>@</literal> character and the type suffix. Empty for non-instantiated units.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%I</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Unescaped instance name</entry>
+ <entry>Same as <literal>%i</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%j</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Final component of the prefix</entry>
+ <entry>This is the string between the last <literal>-</literal> and the end of the prefix name. If there is no <literal>-</literal>, this is the same as <literal>%p</literal>.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%J</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Unescaped final component of the prefix</entry>
+ <entry>Same as <literal>%j</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%l</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Short host name</entry>
+ <entry>The hostname of the running system at the point in time the unit configuration is loaded, truncated at the first dot to remove any domain component.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%L</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Log directory root</entry>
+ <entry>This is either <filename>/var/log</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</literal> resolves to with <filename index="false">/log</filename> appended (for user managers).</entry>
+ </row>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="m"/>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%n</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Full unit name</entry>
+ <entry></entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%N</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Full unit name</entry>
+ <entry>Same as <literal>%n</literal>, but with the type suffix removed.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="o"/>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%p</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Prefix name</entry>
+ <entry>For instantiated units, this refers to the string before the first <literal>@</literal> character of the unit name. For non-instantiated units, same as <literal>%N</literal>.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%P</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Unescaped prefix name</entry>
+ <entry>Same as <literal>%p</literal>, but with escaping undone.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%s</literal></entry>
+ <entry>User shell</entry>
+ <entry>This is the shell of the user running the service manager instance. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>/bin/sh</literal>.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%S</literal></entry>
+ <entry>State directory root</entry>
+ <entry>This is either <filename>/var/lib</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</literal> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%t</literal></entry>
+ <entry>Runtime directory root</entry>
+ <entry>This is either <filename>/run/</filename> (for the system manager) or the path <literal>$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR</literal> resolves to (for user managers).</entry>
+ </row>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="T"/>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%u</literal></entry>
+ <entry>User name</entry>
+ <entry>This is the name of the <emphasis>user running the service manager instance</emphasis>. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>root</literal>.
+
+Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <row>
+ <entry><literal>%U</literal></entry>
+ <entry>User UID</entry>
+ <entry>This is the numeric UID of the <emphasis>user running the service manager instance</emphasis>. In case of the system manager this resolves to <literal>0</literal>.
+
+Note that this setting is <emphasis>not</emphasis> influenced by the <varname>User=</varname> setting configurable in the [Service] section of the service unit.</entry>
+ </row>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="v"/>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="V"/>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="w"/>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="W"/>
+ <xi:include href="standard-specifiers.xml" xpointer="percent"/>
+ </tbody>
+ </tgroup>
+ </table>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>Examples</title>
+
+ <example>
+ <title>Allowing units to be enabled</title>
+
+ <para>The following snippet (highlighted) allows a unit (e.g.
+ <filename>foo.service</filename>) to be enabled via
+ <command>systemctl enable</command>:</para>
+
+ <programlisting>[Unit]
+Description=Foo
+
+[Service]
+ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
+
+<emphasis>[Install]</emphasis>
+<emphasis>WantedBy=multi-user.target</emphasis></programlisting>
+
+ <para>After running <command>systemctl enable</command>, a
+ symlink
+ <filename index="false">/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/foo.service</filename>
+ linking to the actual unit will be created. It tells systemd to
+ pull in the unit when starting
+ <filename>multi-user.target</filename>. The inverse
+ <command>systemctl disable</command> will remove that symlink
+ again.</para>
+ </example>
+
+ <example>
+ <title>Overriding vendor settings</title>
+
+ <para>There are two methods of overriding vendor settings in
+ unit files: copying the unit file from
+ <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system</filename> to
+ <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename> and modifying the
+ chosen settings. Alternatively, one can create a directory named
+ <filename><replaceable>unit</replaceable>.d/</filename> within
+ <filename>/etc/systemd/system</filename> and place a drop-in
+ file <filename><replaceable>name</replaceable>.conf</filename>
+ there that only changes the specific settings one is interested
+ in. Note that multiple such drop-in files are read if
+ present, processed in lexicographic order of their filename.</para>
+
+ <para>The advantage of the first method is that one easily
+ overrides the complete unit, the vendor unit is not parsed at
+ all anymore. It has the disadvantage that improvements to the
+ unit file by the vendor are not automatically incorporated on
+ updates.</para>
+
+ <para>The advantage of the second method is that one only
+ overrides the settings one specifically wants, where updates to
+ the unit by the vendor automatically apply. This has the
+ disadvantage that some future updates by the vendor might be
+ incompatible with the local changes.</para>
+
+ <para>This also applies for user instances of systemd, but with
+ different locations for the unit files. See the section on unit
+ load paths for further details.</para>
+
+ <para>Suppose there is a vendor-supplied unit
+ <filename>/usr/lib/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename> with
+ the following contents:</para>
+
+ <programlisting>[Unit]
+Description=Some HTTP server
+After=remote-fs.target sqldb.service
+Requires=sqldb.service
+AssertPathExists=/srv/webserver
+
+[Service]
+Type=notify
+ExecStart=/usr/sbin/some-fancy-httpd-server
+Nice=5
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
+
+ <para>Now one wants to change some settings as an administrator:
+ firstly, in the local setup, <filename>/srv/webserver</filename>
+ might not exist, because the HTTP server is configured to use
+ <filename>/srv/www</filename> instead. Secondly, the local
+ configuration makes the HTTP server also depend on a memory
+ cache service, <filename>memcached.service</filename>, that
+ should be pulled in (<varname>Requires=</varname>) and also be
+ ordered appropriately (<varname>After=</varname>). Thirdly, in
+ order to harden the service a bit more, the administrator would
+ like to set the <varname>PrivateTmp=</varname> setting (see
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ for details). And lastly, the administrator would like to reset
+ the niceness of the service to its default value of 0.</para>
+
+ <para>The first possibility is to copy the unit file to
+ <filename>/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service</filename> and
+ change the chosen settings:</para>
+
+ <programlisting>[Unit]
+Description=Some HTTP server
+After=remote-fs.target sqldb.service <emphasis>memcached.service</emphasis>
+Requires=sqldb.service <emphasis>memcached.service</emphasis>
+AssertPathExists=<emphasis>/srv/www</emphasis>
+
+[Service]
+Type=notify
+ExecStart=/usr/sbin/some-fancy-httpd-server
+<emphasis>Nice=0</emphasis>
+<emphasis>PrivateTmp=yes</emphasis>
+
+[Install]
+WantedBy=multi-user.target</programlisting>
+
+ <para>Alternatively, the administrator could create a drop-in
+ file
+ <filename>/etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d/local.conf</filename>
+ with the following contents:</para>
+
+ <programlisting>[Unit]
+After=memcached.service
+Requires=memcached.service
+# Reset all assertions and then re-add the condition we want
+AssertPathExists=
+AssertPathExists=/srv/www
+
+[Service]
+Nice=0
+PrivateTmp=yes</programlisting>
+
+ <para>Note that for drop-in files, if one wants to remove
+ entries from a setting that is parsed as a list (and is not a
+ dependency), such as <varname>AssertPathExists=</varname> (or
+ e.g. <varname>ExecStart=</varname> in service units), one needs
+ to first clear the list before re-adding all entries except the
+ one that is to be removed. Dependencies (<varname>After=</varname>, etc.)
+ cannot be reset to an empty list, so dependencies can only be
+ added in drop-ins. If you want to remove dependencies, you have
+ to override the entire unit.</para>
+
+ </example>
+ </refsect1>
+
+ <refsect1>
+ <title>See Also</title>
+ <para>
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.swap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.timer</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.scope</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.slice</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-analyze</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
+ <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>uname</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
+ </para>
+ </refsect1>
+
+</refentry>