SYSTEMD.UNIT(5) systemd.unit SYSTEMD.UNIT(5)
NAME
systemd.unit - Unit configuration
SYNOPSIS
service.service, socket.socket, device.device, mount.mount, automount.automount, swap.swap, target.target, path.path, timer.timer,
slice.slice, scope.scope
/etc/systemd/system/*
/run/systemd/system/*
/lib/systemd/system/*
...
~/.config/systemd/user/*
/etc/systemd/user/*
$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user/*
/run/systemd/user/*
~/.local/share/systemd/user/*
/usr/lib/systemd/user/*
...
DESCRIPTION
A unit configuration file 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 systemd(1), a resource management slice or a
group of externally created processes. The syntax is inspired by XDG Desktop Entry Specification[1] .desktop files, which are in turn
inspired by Microsoft Windows .ini files.
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.
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: systemd.service(5), systemd.socket(5), systemd.device(5),
systemd.mount(5), systemd.automount(5), systemd.swap(5), systemd.target(5), systemd.path(5), systemd.timer(5), systemd.slice(5),
systemd.scope(5).
Various settings are allowed to be specified more than once, in which case the interpretation depends on the setting. Often, multiple
settings form a list, and setting to an empty value "resets", which means that previous assignments are ignored. When this is allowed, it
is mentioned in the description of the setting. Note that using multiple assignments to the same value makes the unit file incompatible
with parsers for the XDG .desktop file format.
Unit files are loaded from a set of paths determined during compilation, described in the next section.
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 X-, 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.
Boolean arguments used in unit files can be written in various formats. For positive settings the strings 1, yes, true and on are
equivalent. For negative settings, the strings 0, no, false and off are equivalent.
Time span values encoded in unit files can be written in various formats. A stand-alone number specifies a time in seconds. If suffixed
with a time unit, the unit is honored. A concatenation of multiple values with units is supported, in which case the values are added up.
Example: "50" refers to 50 seconds; "2min 200ms" refers to 2 minutes and 200 milliseconds, i.e. 120200 ms. The following time units are
understood: "s", "min", "h", "d", "w", "ms", "us". For details see systemd.time(7).
Empty lines and lines starting with "#" or ";" are ignored. This may be used for commenting. Lines ending in a backslash are concatenated
with the following line while reading and the backslash is replaced by a space character. This may be used to wrap long lines.
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, systemd-networkd.service has the alias dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service, created during installation as the
symlink /lib/systemd/system/dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service. In addition, unit files may specify aliases through the Alias= directive
in the [Install] section; those aliases are only effective when the unit is enabled. When the unit is enabled, symlinks will be created for
those names, and removed when the unit is disabled. For example, reboot.target specifies Alias=ctrl-alt-del.target, so when enabled it will
be invoked whenever CTRL+ALT+DEL is pressed. Alias names may be used in commands like enable, disable, start, stop, status, ..., and in
unit dependency directives Wants=, Requires=, Before=, After=, ..., with the limitation that aliases specified through Alias= are only
effective when the unit is enabled. Aliases cannot be used with the preset command.
Along with a unit file foo.service, the directory foo.service.wants/ may exist. All unit files symlinked from such a directory are
implicitly added as dependencies of type Wants= to the unit. This 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 Wants=, see below. The preferred way to create symlinks in the .wants/
directory of a unit file is with the enable command of the systemctl(1) tool which reads information from the [Install] section of unit
files (see below). A similar functionality exists for Requires= type dependencies as well, the directory suffix is .requires/ in this case.
Along with a unit file foo.service, a "drop-in" directory foo.service.d/ may exist. All files with the suffix ".conf" from this directory
will be parsed after the file itself is parsed. This is useful to alter or add configuration settings for a unit, without having to modify
unit files. Each drop-in file must have appropriate section headers. Note that for instantiated units, this logic will first look for the
instance ".d/" subdirectory and read its ".conf" files, followed by the template ".d/" subdirectory and the ".conf" files there.
In addition to /etc/systemd/system, the drop-in ".d" directories for system services can be placed in /lib/systemd/system or
/run/systemd/system directories. Drop-in files in /etc take precedence over those in /run which in turn take precedence over those in /lib.
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.
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.
Optionally, units may be instantiated from a template file at runtime. 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 "@" character, systemd will look for a unit template that shares the same name but with the instance
string (i.e. the part between the "@" character and the suffix) removed. Example: if a service getty@tty3.service is requested and no file
by that name is found, systemd will look for getty@.service and instantiate a service from that configuration file if it is found.
To refer to the instance string from within the configuration file you may use the special "%i" specifier in many of the configuration
options. See below for details.
If a unit file is empty (i.e. has the file size 0) or is symlinked to /dev/null, its configuration will not be loaded and it appears with a
load state of "masked", and cannot be activated. Use this as an effective way to fully disable a unit, making it impossible to start it
even manually.
The unit file format is covered by the Interface Stability Promise[2].
STRING ESCAPING FOR INCLUSION IN UNIT NAMES
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 NUL) 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 dev-sda.device refers to a device with
the device node /dev/sda in the file system.
The escaping algorithm operates as follows: given a string, any "/" character is replaced by "-", and all other characters which are not
ASCII alphanumerics or "_" are replaced by C-style "x2d" escapes. In addition, "." is replaced with such a C-style escape when it would
appear as the first character in the escaped string.
When the input qualifies as absolute file system path, this algorithm is extended slightly: the path to the root directory "/" is encoded
as single dash "-". In addition, any leading, trailing or duplicate "/" characters are removed from the string before transformation.
Example: /foo//bar/baz/ becomes "foo-bar-baz".
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 systemd-escape(1) command may be used to apply and reverse escaping on arbitrary strings. Use
systemd-escape --path to escape path strings, and systemd-escape without --path otherwise.
IMPLICIT DEPENDENCIES
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.
For example, service units with Type=dbus automatically acquire dependencies of type Requires= and After= on dbus.socket. See
systemd.service(5) for details.
DEFAULT DEPENDENCIES
Default dependencies are similar to implicit dependencies, but can be turned on and off by setting DefaultDependencies= to yes (the
default) and no, while implicit dependencies are always in effect. See section "Default Dependencies" in respective man pages for the
effect of enabling DefaultDependencies= in each unit types.
For example, target units will complement all configured dependencies of type Wants= or Requires= with dependencies of type After= unless
DefaultDependencies=no is set in the specified units. See systemd.target(5) for details. Note that this behavior can be turned off by
setting DefaultDependencies=no.
UNIT FILE LOAD PATH
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.
When the variable $SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH is set, the contents of this variable overrides the unit load path. If $SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH ends with an
empty component (":"), the usual unit load path will be appended to the contents of the variable.
Table 1. Load path when running in system mode (--system).
+--------------------+-----------------------------+
|Path | Description |
+--------------------+-----------------------------+
|/etc/systemd/system | Local configuration |
+--------------------+-----------------------------+
|/run/systemd/system | Runtime units |
+--------------------+-----------------------------+
|/lib/systemd/system | Units of installed packages |
+--------------------+-----------------------------+
Table 2. Load path when running in user mode (--user).
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|Path | Description |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/systemd/user | User configuration (only used when |
| | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is set) |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|$HOME/.config/systemd/user | User configuration (only used when |
| | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is not set) |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|/etc/systemd/user | Local configuration |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/systemd/user | Runtime units (only used when $XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is |
| | set) |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|/run/systemd/user | Runtime units |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|$XDG_DATA_HOME/systemd/user | Units of packages that have been installed in the |
| | home directory (only used when $XDG_DATA_HOME is |
| | set) |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|$HOME/.local/share/systemd/user | Units of packages that have been installed in the |
| | home directory (only used when $XDG_DATA_HOME is |
| | not set) |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
|/usr/lib/systemd/user | Units of packages that have been installed |
| | system-wide |
+--------------------------------+---------------------------------------------------+
Additional units might be loaded into systemd ("linked") from directories not on the unit load path. See the link command for systemctl(1).
Also, some units are dynamically created via a systemd.generator(7).
UNIT GARBAGE COLLECTION
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:
1. Another loaded unit references it with a dependency such as After=, Wants=, ...
2. The unit is currently starting, running, reloading or stopping.
3. The unit is currently in the failed state. (But see below.)
4. A job for the unit is pending.
5. The unit is pinned by an active IPC client program.
6. The unit is a special "perpetual" unit that is always active and loaded. Examples for perpetual units are the root mount unit -.mount
or the scope unit init.scope that the service manager itself lives in.
7. The unit has running processes associated with it.
The garbage collection logic may be altered with the CollectMode= option, which allows configuration whether automatic unloading of units
that are in failed state is permissible, see below.
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.
Use systemctl daemon-reload 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.
[UNIT] SECTION OPTIONS
The unit file may include a [Unit] section, which carries generic information about the unit that is not dependent on the type of unit:
Description=
A free-form string describing the unit. This is intended for use in UIs to show descriptive information along with the unit name. The
description should contain a name that means something to the end user. "Apache2 Web Server" is a good example. Bad examples are
"high-performance light-weight HTTP server" (too generic) or "Apache2" (too specific and meaningless for people who do not know
Apache).
Documentation=
A space-separated list of URIs referencing documentation for this unit or its configuration. Accepted are only URIs of the types
"http://", "https://", "file:", "info:", "man:". For more information about the syntax of these URIs, see uri(7). 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.
Requires=
Configures requirement dependencies on other units. If this unit gets activated, the units listed here will be activated as well. If
one of the other units fails to activate, and an ordering dependency After= on the failing unit is set, this unit will not be started.
Besides, with or without specifying After=, this unit will be stopped if one of the other units is explicitly stopped. This option may
be specified more than once or multiple space-separated units may be specified in one option in which case requirement dependencies for
all listed names will be created. Note that requirement dependencies do not influence the order in which services are started or
stopped. This has to be configured independently with the After= or Before= options. If a unit foo.service requires a unit bar.service
as configured with Requires= and no ordering is configured with After= or Before=, then both units will be started simultaneously and
without any delay between them if foo.service is activated. Often, it is a better choice to use Wants= instead of Requires= in order to
achieve a system that is more robust when dealing with failing services.
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 ConditionPathExists=, ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=, ... -- see below) do not cause the
start job of a unit with a Requires= 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
Requires= dependency. Use the BindsTo= dependency type together with After= to ensure that a unit may never be in active state without
a specific other unit also in active state (see below).
Note that dependencies of this type may also be configured outside of the unit configuration file by adding a symlink to a .requires/
directory accompanying the unit file. For details, see above.
Requisite=
Similar to Requires=. However, if the units listed here are not started already, they will not be started and the transaction will fail
immediately.
When Requisite=b.service is used on a.service, this dependency will show as RequisiteOf=a.service in property listing of b.service.
RequisiteOf= dependency cannot be specified directly.
Wants=
A weaker version of Requires=. 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. This is the
recommended way to hook start-up of one unit to the start-up of another unit.
Note that dependencies of this type may also be configured outside of the unit configuration file by adding symlinks to a .wants/
directory accompanying the unit file. For details, see above.
BindsTo=
Configures requirement dependencies, very similar in style to Requires=. However, this dependency type is stronger: in addition to the
effect of Requires= 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.
When used in conjunction with After= on the same unit the behaviour of BindsTo= 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
ConditionPathExists=, ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=, ... -- see below) will be stopped, should it be running. Hence, in many cases it is
best to combine BindsTo= with After=.
When BindsTo=b.service is used on a.service, this dependency will show as BoundBy=a.service in property listing of b.service. BoundBy=
dependency cannot be specified directly.
PartOf=
Configures dependencies similar to Requires=, 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.
When PartOf=b.service is used on a.service, this dependency will show as ConsistsOf=a.service in property listing of b.service.
ConsistsOf= dependency cannot be specified directly.
Conflicts=
A space-separated list of unit names. Configures negative requirement dependencies. If a unit has a Conflicts= setting on another unit,
starting the former will stop the latter and vice versa. Note that this setting is independent of and orthogonal to the After= and
Before= ordering dependencies.
If a unit A that conflicts with a unit B is scheduled to be started at the same time as B, the transaction will either fail (in case
both are required part 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 the 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.
Before=, After=
These two settings expect a space-separated list of unit names. They configure ordering dependencies between units. If a unit
foo.service contains a setting Before=bar.service and both units are being started, bar.service's start-up is delayed until foo.service
has finished starting up. Note that this setting is independent of and orthogonal to the requirement dependencies as configured by
Requires=, Wants= or BindsTo=. It is a common pattern to include a unit name in both the After= and Requires= options, in which case
the unit listed will be started before the unit that is configured with these options. This option may be specified more than once, in
which case ordering dependencies for all listed names are created. After= is the inverse of Before=, i.e. while After= ensures that
the configured unit is started after the listed unit finished starting up, Before= ensures the opposite, that the configured unit is
fully started up before the listed unit is started. Note that 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 After= 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 After= or Before=, 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 Before=/After= when all its configured start-up
commands have been invoked and they either failed or reported start-up success.
OnFailure=
A space-separated list of one or more units that are activated when this unit enters the "failed" state. A service unit using Restart=
enters the failed state only after the start limits are reached.
PropagatesReloadTo=, ReloadPropagatedFrom=
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.
JoinsNamespaceOf=
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 PrivateNetwork= and PrivateTmp= directives (see systemd.exec(5) for details).
If a unit that has this setting set is started, its processes will see the same /tmp, /var/tmp 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 PrivateNetwork= and/or PrivateTmp= is enabled for both the unit that joins the namespace and the unit whose namespace
is joined.
RequiresMountsFor=
Takes a space-separated list of absolute paths. Automatically adds dependencies of type Requires= and After= for all mount units
required to access the specified path.
Mount points marked with noauto are not mounted automatically through local-fs.target, but are still honored for the purposes of this
option, i.e. they will be pulled in by this unit.
OnFailureJobMode=
Takes a value of "fail", "replace", "replace-irreversibly", "isolate", "flush", "ignore-dependencies" or "ignore-requirements".
Defaults to "replace". Specifies how the units listed in OnFailure= will be enqueued. See systemctl(1)'s --job-mode= option for details
on the possible values. If this is set to "isolate", only a single unit may be listed in OnFailure=..
IgnoreOnIsolate=
Takes a boolean argument. If true, this unit will not be stopped when isolating another unit. Defaults to false for service, target,
socket, busname, timer, and path units, and true for slice, scope, device, swap, mount, and automount units.
StopWhenUnneeded=
Takes a boolean argument. If true, 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 false.
RefuseManualStart=, RefuseManualStop=
Takes a boolean argument. If true, 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 false.
AllowIsolate=
Takes a boolean argument. If true, this unit may be used with the systemctl isolate 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 false.
DefaultDependencies=
Takes a boolean argument. If true, (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 false. It is highly recommended
to leave this option enabled for the majority of common units. If set to false, this option does not disable all implicit dependencies,
just non-essential ones.
CollectMode=
Tweaks the "garbage collection" algorithm for this unit. Takes one of inactive or inactive-or-failed. If set to inactive the unit will
be unloaded if it is in the inactive state and is not referenced by clients, jobs or other units -- however it is not unloaded if it is
in the failed state. In failed mode, failed units are not unloaded until the user invoked systemctl reset-failed on them to reset the
failed state, or an equivalent command. This behaviour is altered if this option is set to inactive-or-failed: in this case the unit is
unloaded even if the unit is in a failed state, and thus an explicitly resetting of the failed 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 inactive.
JobTimeoutSec=, JobRunningTimeoutSec=, JobTimeoutAction=, JobTimeoutRebootArgument=
When a job for this unit is queued, a time-out JobTimeoutSec= may be configured. Similarly, JobRunningTimeoutSec= 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 "failed" mode. This value defaults to "infinity" (job timeouts disabled), except for device units
(JobRunningTimeoutSec= defaults to DefaultTimeoutStartSec=). NB: this timeout is independent from any unit-specific timeout (for
example, the timeout set with TimeoutStartSec= 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.
JobTimeoutAction= optionally configures an additional action to take when the time-out is hit. It takes the same values as
StartLimitAction=. Defaults to none. JobTimeoutRebootArgument= configures an optional reboot string to pass to the reboot(2) system
call.
StartLimitIntervalSec=interval, StartLimitBurst=burst
Configure unit start rate limiting. Units which are started more than burst times within an interval time interval are not permitted to
start any more. Use StartLimitIntervalSec= to configure the checking interval (defaults to DefaultStartLimitIntervalSec= in manager
configuration file, set it to 0 to disable any kind of rate limiting). Use StartLimitBurst= to configure how many starts per interval
are allowed (defaults to DefaultStartLimitBurst= in manager configuration file). These configuration options are particularly useful in
conjunction with the service setting Restart= (see systemd.service(5)); however, they apply to all kinds of starts (including manual),
not just those triggered by the Restart= logic. Note that units which are configured for Restart= 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 interval has passed.
From this point on, the restart logic is activated again. Note that systemctl reset-failed 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.
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 continously has no effect.
StartLimitAction=
Configure the action to take if the rate limit configured with StartLimitIntervalSec= and StartLimitBurst= is hit. Takes one of none,
reboot, reboot-force, reboot-immediate, poweroff, poweroff-force or poweroff-immediate. If none is set, hitting the rate limit will
trigger no action besides that the start will not be permitted. reboot causes a reboot following the normal shutdown procedure (i.e.
equivalent to systemctl reboot). reboot-force causes a forced reboot which will terminate all processes forcibly but should cause no
dirty file systems on reboot (i.e. equivalent to systemctl reboot -f) and reboot-immediate causes immediate execution of the reboot(2)
system call, which might result in data loss. Similarly, poweroff, poweroff-force, poweroff-immediate have the effect of powering down
the system with similar semantics. Defaults to none.
FailureAction=, SuccessAction=
Configure the action to take when the unit stops and enters a failed state or inactive state. Takes the same values as the setting
StartLimitAction= setting and executes the same actions (see systemd.unit(5)). Both options default to none.
RebootArgument=
Configure the optional argument for the reboot(2) system call if StartLimitAction= or FailureAction= is a reboot action. This works
just like the optional argument to systemctl reboot command.
ConditionArchitecture=, ConditionVirtualization=, ConditionHost=, ConditionKernelCommandLine=, ConditionKernelVersion=, ConditionSecurity=,
ConditionCapability=, ConditionACPower=, ConditionNeedsUpdate=, ConditionFirstBoot=, ConditionPathExists=, ConditionPathExistsGlob=,
ConditionPathIsDirectory=, ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=, ConditionPathIsMountPoint=, ConditionPathIsReadWrite=,
ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty=, ConditionFileNotEmpty=, ConditionFileIsExecutable=, ConditionUser=, ConditionGroup=,
ConditionControlGroupController=
Before starting a unit, verify that the specified condition is true. If it is not true, the starting of the unit will be (mostly
silently) skipped, however all ordering dependencies of it are still respected. A failing condition will not result in the unit being
moved into a failure state. The condition is checked at the time the queued start job is to be executed. Use condition expressions in
order to silently skip units that do not apply to the local running system, for example because the kernel or runtime environment
doesn't require its functionality. Use the various AssertArchitecture=, AssertVirtualization=, ... options for a similar mechanism that
puts the unit in a failure state and logs about the failed check (see below).
ConditionArchitecture= may be used to check whether the system is running on a specific architecture. Takes one of x86, x86-64, ppc,
ppc-le, ppc64, ppc64-le, ia64, parisc, parisc64, s390, s390x, sparc, sparc64, mips, mips-le, mips64, mips64-le, alpha, arm, arm-be,
arm64, arm64-be, sh, sh64, m68k, tilegx, cris, arc, arc-be to test against a specific architecture. The architecture is determined from
the information returned by uname(2) and is thus subject to personality(2). Note that a Personality= setting in the same unit file has
no effect on this condition. A special architecture name native is mapped to the architecture the system manager itself is compiled
for. The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark.
ConditionVirtualization= may be used to 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 vm and
container to test against a generic type of virtualization solution, or one of qemu, kvm, zvm, vmware, microsoft, oracle, xen, bochs,
uml, openvz, lxc, lxc-libvirt, systemd-nspawn, docker, rkt to test against a specific implementation, or private-users to check whether
we are running in a user namespace. See systemd-detect-virt(1) 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.
ConditionHost= 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 gethostname(2), or a machine ID formatted as
string (see machine-id(5)). The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark.
ConditionKernelCommandLine= 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 "="). 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.
ConditionKernelVersion= may be used to check whether the kernel version (as reported by uname -r) matches a certain expression (or if
prefixed with the exclamation mark does not match it). The argument must be a single string. If the string starts with one of "<",
"<=", "=", ">=", ">" a relative version comparison is done, otherwise the specified string is matched with shell-style globs.
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.
ConditionSecurity= may be used to check whether the given security module is enabled on the system. Currently, the recognized values
are selinux, apparmor, tomoyo, ima, smack and audit. The test may be negated by prepending an exclamation mark.
ConditionCapability= may be used to 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 capabilities(7) for
details). Pass a capability name such as "CAP_MKNOD", possibly prefixed with an exclamation mark to negate the check.
ConditionACPower= may be used to 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 true, 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 false, the condition will hold only if there is at
least one AC connector known and all AC connectors are disconnected from a power source.
ConditionNeedsUpdate= takes one of /var or /etc as argument, possibly prefixed with a "!" (for inverting the condition). This
condition may be used to conditionalize units on whether the specified directory requires an update because /usr's modification time is
newer than the stamp file .updated in the specified directory. This is useful to implement offline updates of the vendor operating
system resources in /usr that require updating of /etc or /var on the next following boot. Units making use of this condition should
order themselves before systemd-update-done.service(8), to make sure they run before the stamp file's modification time gets reset
indicating a completed update.
ConditionFirstBoot= takes a boolean argument. This condition may be used to conditionalize units on whether the system is booting up
with an unpopulated /etc directory (specifically: an /etc with no /etc/machine-id). This may be used to populate /etc on the first boot
after factory reset, or when a new system instance boots up for the first time.
With ConditionPathExists= a file existence condition is checked before a unit is started. If the specified absolute path name does not
exist, the condition will fail. If the absolute path name passed to ConditionPathExists= is prefixed with an exclamation mark ("!"),
the test is negated, and the unit is only started if the path does not exist.
ConditionPathExistsGlob= is similar to ConditionPathExists=, but checks for the existence of at least one file or directory matching
the specified globbing pattern.
ConditionPathIsDirectory= is similar to ConditionPathExists= but verifies whether a certain path exists and is a directory.
ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink= is similar to ConditionPathExists= but verifies whether a certain path exists and is a symbolic link.
ConditionPathIsMountPoint= is similar to ConditionPathExists= but verifies whether a certain path exists and is a mount point.
ConditionPathIsReadWrite= is similar to ConditionPathExists= but verifies whether the underlying file system is readable and writable
(i.e. not mounted read-only).
ConditionDirectoryNotEmpty= is similar to ConditionPathExists= but verifies whether a certain path exists and is a non-empty directory.
ConditionFileNotEmpty= is similar to ConditionPathExists= but verifies whether a certain path exists and refers to a regular file with
a non-zero size.
ConditionFileIsExecutable= is similar to ConditionPathExists= but verifies whether a certain path exists, is a regular file and marked
executable.
ConditionUser= takes a numeric "UID", a UNIX user name, or the special value "@system". This condition may be used to check whether the
service manager is running as the given user. The special value "@system" 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.
ConditionGroup= is similar to ConditionUser= 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 have a special value "@system".
ConditionControlGroupController= takes a cgroup controller name (eg. cpu), verifying that it 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 "cgroup_disable="controller.
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 cpu, cpuacct, io, blkio, memory, devices, and
pids.
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 be prefixed with a pipe symbol (|) in which case a 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. Except for ConditionPathIsSymbolicLink=, all path checks follow symlinks. 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.
AssertArchitecture=, AssertVirtualization=, AssertHost=, AssertKernelCommandLine=, AssertKernelVersion=, AssertSecurity=,
AssertCapability=, AssertACPower=, AssertNeedsUpdate=, AssertFirstBoot=, AssertPathExists=, AssertPathExistsGlob=, AssertPathIsDirectory=,
AssertPathIsSymbolicLink=, AssertPathIsMountPoint=, AssertPathIsReadWrite=, AssertDirectoryNotEmpty=, AssertFileNotEmpty=,
AssertFileIsExecutable=, AssertUser=, AssertGroup=, AssertControlGroupController=
Similar to the ConditionArchitecture=, ConditionVirtualization=, ..., 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). 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.
SourcePath=
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.
MAPPING OF UNIT PROPERTIES TO THEIR INVERSES
Unit settings that create a relationship with a second unit usually show up in properties of both units, for example in systemctl show
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
pairs of 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.
Table 3. Forward and reverse unit properties
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"Forward" property | "Reverse" property | Where used |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|Before= | After= | |
+----------------------+-----------------------+ Both are unit file options |
|After= | Before= | |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|Requires= | RequiredBy= | A unit file option; an option in the |
| | | [Install] section |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|Wants= | WantedBy= | A unit file option; an option in the |
| | | [Install] section |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|PartOf= | ConsistsOf= | A unit file option; an automatic |
| | | property |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|BindsTo= | BoundBy= | A unit file option; an automatic |
| | | property |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|Requisite= | RequisiteOf= | A unit file option; an automatic |
| | | property |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|Triggers= | TriggeredBy= | Automatic properties, see notes |
| | | below |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|Conflicts= | ConflictedBy= | A unit file option; an automatic |
| | | property |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
|PropagatesReloadTo= | ReloadPropagatedFrom= | |
+----------------------+-----------------------+ Both are unit file options |
|ReloadPropagatedFrom= | PropagatesReloadTo= | |
+----------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------------+
Note: WantedBy= and RequiredBy= are used in the [Install] section to create symlinks in .wants/ and .requires/ directories. They cannot be
used directly as a unit configuration setting.
Note: ConsistsOf=, BoundBy=, RequisiteOf=, ConflictedBy= are created implicitly along with their reverse and cannot be specified directly.
Note: Triggers= 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 overriden using Sockets=, Service=, and Unit= settings. See systemd.service(5),
systemd.socket(5), systemd.path(5), and systemd.automount(5) for details. TriggersBy= is created implicitly on the triggered unit.
[INSTALL] SECTION OPTIONS
Unit files may include an "[Install]" section, which carries installation information for the unit. This section is not interpreted by
systemd(1) during runtime; it is used by the enable and disable commands of the systemctl(1) tool during installation of a unit.
Alias=
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,
systemctl enable 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.
WantedBy=, RequiredBy=
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 .wants/
or .requires/ directory of each of the listed units when this unit is installed by systemctl enable. This has the effect that a
dependency of type Wants= or Requires= 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 Wants= and Requires= in the [Unit] section for details.
WantedBy=foo.service in a service bar.service is mostly equivalent to Alias=foo.service.wants/bar.service in the same file. In case of
template units, systemctl enable must be called with an instance name, and this instance will be added to the .wants/ or .requires/
list of the listed unit. E.g. WantedBy=getty.target in a service getty@.service will result in systemctl enable getty@tty2.service
creating a getty.target.wants/getty@tty2.service link to getty@.service.
Also=
Additional units to install/deinstall when this unit is installed/deinstalled. If the user requests installation/deinstallation of a
unit with this option configured, systemctl enable and systemctl disable will automatically install/uninstall units listed in this
option as well.
This option may be used more than once, or a space-separated list of unit names may be given.
DefaultInstance=
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.
The following specifiers are interpreted in the Install section: %n, %N, %p, %i, %U, %u, %m, %H, %b, %v. For their meaning see the next
section.
SPECIFIERS
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:
Table 4. Specifiers available in unit files
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|Specifier | Meaning | Details |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%n" | Full unit name | |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%N" | Unescaped full unit name | Same as "%n", but with escaping |
| | | undone. This undoes the escaping |
| | | used when generating unit names from |
| | | arbitrary strings (see above). |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%p" | Prefix name | For instantiated units, this refers |
| | | to the string before the "@" |
| | | character of the unit name. For |
| | | non-instantiated units, this refers |
| | | to the name of the unit with the |
| | | type suffix removed. |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%P" | Unescaped prefix name | Same as "%p", but with escaping |
| | | undone |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%i" | Instance name | For instantiated units: this is the |
| | | string between the "@" character and |
| | | the suffix of the unit name. |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%I" | Unescaped instance name | Same as "%i", but with escaping |
| | | undone |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%f" | Unescaped filename | This is either the unescaped |
| | | instance name (if applicable) with / |
| | | prepended (if applicable), or the |
| | | unescaped prefix name prepended with |
| | | /. This implements unescaping |
| | | according to the rules for escaping |
| | | absolute file system paths discussed |
| | | above. |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%t" | Runtime directory root | This is either /run (for the system |
| | | manager) or the path |
| | | "$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR" resolves to (for |
| | | user managers). |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%S" | State directory root | This is either /var/lib (for the |
| | | system manager) or the path |
| | | "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" resolves to (for |
| | | user managers). |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%C" | Cache directory root | This is either /var/cache (for the |
| | | system manager) or the path |
| | | "$XDG_CACHE_HOME" resolves to (for |
| | | user managers). |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%L" | Log directory root | This is either /var/log (for the |
| | | system manager) or the path |
| | | "$XDG_CONFIG_HOME" resolves to with |
| | | /log appended (for user managers). |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%u" | User name | This is the name of the user running |
| | | the service manager instance. In |
| | | case of the system manager this |
| | | resolves to "root". |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%U" | User UID | This is the numeric UID of the user |
| | | running the service manager |
| | | instance. In case of the system |
| | | manager this resolves to "0". |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%h" | User home directory | This is the home directory of the |
| | | user running the service manager |
| | | instance. In case of the system |
| | | manager this resolves to "/root". |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%s" | User shell | This is the shell of the user |
| | | running the service manager |
| | | instance. In case of the system |
| | | manager this resolves to "/bin/sh". |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%m" | Machine ID | The machine ID of the running |
| | | system, formatted as string. See |
| | | machine-id(5) for more information. |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%b" | Boot ID | The boot ID of the running system, |
| | | formatted as string. See random(4) |
| | | for more information. |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%H" | Host name | The hostname of the running system |
| | | at the point in time the unit |
| | | configuration is loaded. |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%v" | Kernel release | Identical to uname -r output |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
|"%%" | Single percent sign | Use "%%" in place of "%" to specify |
| | | a single percent sign. |
+----------+--------------------------+--------------------------------------+
EXAMPLES
Example 1. Allowing units to be enabled
The following snippet (highlighted) allows a unit (e.g. foo.service) to be enabled via systemctl enable:
[Unit]
Description=Foo
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/foo-daemon
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
After running systemctl enable, a symlink /etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/foo.service linking to the actual unit will be
created. It tells systemd to pull in the unit when starting multi-user.target. The inverse systemctl disable will remove that symlink
again.
Example 2. Overriding vendor settings
There are two methods of overriding vendor settings in unit files: copying the unit file from /lib/systemd/system to /etc/systemd/system
and modifying the chosen settings. Alternatively, one can create a directory named unit.d/ within /etc/systemd/system and place a drop-in
file name.conf 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.
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.
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.
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.
Suppose there is a vendor-supplied unit /lib/systemd/system/httpd.service with the following contents:
[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
Now one wants to change some settings as an administrator: firstly, in the local setup, /srv/webserver might not exist, because the HTTP
server is configured to use /srv/www instead. Secondly, the local configuration makes the HTTP server also depend on a memory cache
service, memcached.service, that should be pulled in (Requires=) and also be ordered appropriately (After=). Thirdly, in order to harden
the service a bit more, the administrator would like to set the PrivateTmp= setting (see systemd.exec(5) for details). And lastly, the
administrator would like to reset the niceness of the service to its default value of 0.
The first possibility is to copy the unit file to /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service and change the chosen settings:
[Unit]
Description=Some HTTP server
After=remote-fs.target sqldb.service memcached.service
Requires=sqldb.service memcached.service
AssertPathExists=/srv/www
[Service]
Type=notify
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/some-fancy-httpd-server
Nice=0
PrivateTmp=yes
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Alternatively, the administrator could create a drop-in file /etc/systemd/system/httpd.service.d/local.conf with the following contents:
[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
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
AssertPathExists= (or e.g. ExecStart= in service units), one needs to first clear the list before re-adding all entries except the one
that is to be removed. Dependencies (After=, 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.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), systemctl(1), systemd.special(7), systemd.service(5), systemd.socket(5), systemd.device(5), systemd.mount(5),
systemd.automount(5), systemd.swap(5), systemd.target(5), systemd.path(5), systemd.timer(5), systemd.scope(5), systemd.slice(5),
systemd.time(7), systemd-analyze(1), capabilities(7), systemd.directives(7), uname(1)
NOTES
1. XDG Desktop Entry Specification
http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/
2. Interface Stability Promise
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/InterfaceStabilityPromise
systemd 237 SYSTEMD.UNIT(5)