[solved] systemd service files don't allow quotes

Why is it not possible to use quotes in
ExecStart=
section of systemd service files?
For example, I can't use service file like this
[Unit]
Description=Pacman mirrorlist update
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=wget -O /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup "https://www.archlinux.org/mirrorlist/?country=DE&country=NL&country=PL&protocol=http&ip_version=4" && cp /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist && reflector --verbose -l 50 -p http --sort rate --save /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist
because systemd will not run it because of presence of quotes:
Feb 26 08:48:36 nanoBox systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/reflector.service:7] Executable path is not absolute, ignoring: wget -O /etc/pacman.d/mirrorlist.backup "URL=http...
Feb 26 08:48:36 nanoBox systemd[1]: reflector.service lacks both ExecStart= and ExecStop= setting. Refusing.
I can remove quotes and then the service will run, but the URL parsed to the command will be cut in half, ie it will stop on the first "&" sign and only DE mirrors will be probed.
Is there some way around it other than creating a separate executable file and calling it from the service? I don't want to multiply unnecessary files if there's way around it.
Last edited by Lockheed (2015-02-26 09:37:25)

Lockheed wrote:
Raynman wrote:"from command line" is you feeding a (command) string to a shell. Your assumption is that systemd will treat whatever you put in ExecStart exactly the same as your shell would.
Not "is" but "was". Disappearance of that assumption was precisely the reason of starting this thread.
I had to read this a few times, but I think you mean it as follows. You assumed you could copy from the shell to the service file and it would work the same way. Then you got an error (about the abolute path) so that assumption "disappeared". So far so good. But you didn't exactly figure out what was different, you formed a new assumption and based your thread on that:
"systemd service files don't allow quotes" (title)
"Why is it not possible to use quotes in ExecStart= section of systemd service files"
"because systemd will not run it because of presence of quotes:"
Like frank604 says, quotes were never the issue (in fact, they are one of the few things with special meaning for both the shell and systemd), yet you still seem to think they were:
Lockheed wrote wrote:The actual wrong assumption on my part was that this command would run without quotes as service. It does not.
It is a shame you only quote the first part of my last reply and ignore the questions in the second part. You did almost the same thing with my reply before that and I suspect you also didn't read the man page I mentioned the first time. You basically give me the impression that you think you have it all figured out (even though you come here looking for help) and my follow-up questions aren't worth your time. That usually makes me "move along" pretty quickly, but I'm trying one last time, because even though "The service now works", I'd like to see that you actually understand why it didn't work before.
The only thing you really answered was "Changing paths to absolute made no difference.", but that shouldn't be, so when you mentioned empirical evidence, I basically repeated the question asking for some of this evidence (as in exact error messages for one or more modified ExecStart lines).
When I take your service file and give wget an absolute path, systemd happily executes wget, but then wget complains because it gets "&&" and "cp" and "--save" etc. as arguments. Those errors are what I see in systemctl status/journal, no longer anything about an absolute path. This is because "&&" has no special meaning. You can use semicolons (";") to separate commands instead (explained in the man page section on command lines) or multiple ExecStart lines like frank604 used (which is cleaner IMO).

Similar Messages

[SOLVED] Systemd service files: sourcing other service files?

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<source foo.service>
[section]
key=new_value
I was sure that I had seen this somewhere, but I can't find it. Did I make this up, or is my search-fu simply weak?

I don't know that it is actually documented at this point in time. At least I haven't seen any. The only reason I know about it is beacuse I subscribe to [systemd-devel]. But it was briefly touched on in the announcement when it was first introduced.
I know that the .include method is documented very briefly in one of the man pages, but it doesn't really go into depth about how to use it. I do seem to recall a nice write up about it on Lennart's blog though. But it seems as though the intent of the systemd.unit.d (what they are calling "drop-in" modifications/replacements) is intended to replace the .include way. Though I am basing that statement off of the general attitude toward each on the mailing list, and I have seen no official word on this.
The nice thing about using .include is that you can use systemd-delta to see the changes made using that method. And while the systemd.unit.d changes are noted in that output, it is nothing more than simply indicating that there has been modification. The .include stuff actually has a full "diff -u" style output.

[SOLVED] systemd .service file for ruby rainbows server

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http://rainbows.rubyforge.org/
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Last edited by wabi (2013-01-03 11:11:02)

This is a .service file that will work:
[Unit]
Description=Redmine Rainbows Rails server
[Service]
Type=forking
SyslogIdentifier=redmine
User=http
PIDFile=/var/www/redmine/tmp/pids/rainbows.pid
WorkingDirectory=/var/www/redmine
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bundle exec rainbows --host 127.0.0.1 --port 8001 --env production --daemonize --config-file /var/www/redmine/config/rainbows.rb
ExecReload=/bin/kill -HUP $MAINPID
ExecStop=/bin/kill -QUIT $MAINPID
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Last edited by wabi (2013-01-03 11:11:38)

[SOLVED] Trying to write HLDS systemd service file

Hey,
I want to write a systemd service file for my HLDS AUR package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/hlds/
My environment file looks like this:
HLDS_USER=root
HLDS_WORKINGDIR=/opt/hlds
HLDS_PARAMS="-game cstrike"
HLDS_LOGFILE=/var/log/hlds_cstrike
The service file like this:
After=network.target
[Service]
#EnvironmentFile=/etc/conf.d/hlds
#User=${HLDS_USER}
#WorkingDirectory=${HLDS_WORKINGDIR}
ExecStart=/opt/hlds/hlds_run -game cstrike
ExecStop=/bin/kill $MAINPID
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
But systemd fails to start the service:
hlds.service - Half-Life Dedicated Server
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/hlds.service; disabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu, 2013-01-03 06:20:49 CET; 2s ago
Process: 567 ExecStop=/bin/kill $MAINPID (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Process: 564 ExecStart=/opt/hlds/hlds_run -game cstrike (code=killed, signal=INT)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/hlds.service
Jan 03 06:20:49 playground systemd[1]: Starting Half-Life Dedicated Server...
Jan 03 06:20:49 playground systemd[1]: Started Half-Life Dedicated Server.
Jan 03 06:20:49 playground hlds_run[564]: Invalid game type 'cstrike' sepecified.
Jan 03 06:20:49 playground hlds_run[564]: Thu Jan 3 06:20:49 CET 2013: Server Failed
Jan 03 06:20:49 playground kill[567]: usage: kill [ -s signal | -p ] [ -a ] pid ...
Jan 03 06:20:49 playground kill[567]: kill -l [ signal ]
Jan 03 06:20:49 playground systemd[1]: Unit hlds.service entered failed state
Running
/opt/hlds/hlds_run -game cstrike
manually works quote well
Someone knows how to proceed? Thanks
Last edited by onny (2013-01-03 05:43:49)

Solved. It didn't recognized the workingdir correctly ...

Getting sasc-ng to work properly with systemd service files [SOLVED]

This thread is intended for getting the following AUR packages to work with each other with systemd service scripts:
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/open-sasc-ng-dkms/
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/open-sasc-ng/
https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/oscam-svn/ (this is a related package as it must properly execute prior to sasc-ng)
So my server is now on a fresh Arch install with systemd. All is well (& very fast) except I cannot get sasc-ng to function with systemd service init files. Prior to systemd the system worked fine with the rc initscripts & was very stable with the following setup:
rc.local
/etc/rc.d/oscam start
sleep 15
/etc/rc.d/sasc-ng start
sleep 4
/etc/rc.d/mythbackend start
/etc/conf.d/sasc-ng.conf
SASCNG_ARGS="-j 0:3 -j 1:4 -j 2:5" -b 16M --sid-allpid --sid-nocache --cam-budget"
DVBLOOPBACK_ARGS="num_adapters=3"
LOGDIR="/home/mythtv/logs/"
CAMDIR="/etc/camdir"
/etc/camdir/cardclient.conf
camd35:localhost:15050:1/0000/0000:mythtv:mythtv
I'll leave out the oscam stuff as that loads fine and doesn't appear to be a part of the problem
I've tried this with the systemd service file that comes with the open-sasc-ng-dkms package and when it was not sucessful I tried a bunch of variants including using "Type=simple" ect. "Type=Forked" seems to be only option that actually tries to start the processes. I also "hardcoded" the service files for the 2 sasc-ng components to find a few issues with the EnvironmentFile variables. The log variable has been removed for now as this seems to cause a fatal error but the rest of the variables load fine now. I also tested spliting up the DVB loopback module from the sasc-ng binary but this also gives similar results as the following script stands now. Running them manually with systemctl start commands doesn't make a difference but that is not surprising. The service file I'm fiddling with now which I feel has the best potential become working is:
sasc-ng.service
[Unit]
Description=Sasc-ng
After=oscam.service
[Service]
Type=forking
EnvironmentFile=/etc/conf.d/sasc-ng
ExecStartPre=/sbin/modprobe dvbloopback $DVBLOOPBACK_ARGS
TimeoutSec=2
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sasc-ng -D $SASCNG_ARGS --cam-dir=$CAMDIR
TimeoutSec=4
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Mythbackend always runs fine (even without DTV via sasc-ng) with the following mythbackend.service:
[Unit]
Description=MythTV_backend
After=sasc-ng.service
[Service]
Type=simple
Environment=MYTHCONFDIR=/etc/conf.d/mythbackend
Environment=HOME=/usr/share/mythtv
User=mythtv
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mythbackend --logpath /var/log/mythtv
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
oscam.service taken mostly from AUR package also seems fine. I added the TimeoutSec=15 to give time for oscam to load the SC and client protocol before moving on or else sasc-ng fails
Unit]
Description=An Open Source Conditional Access Module software
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
EnvironmentFile=/etc/conf.d/oscam
ExecStart=/usr/bin/oscam $OSCAM_ARGS
TimeoutSec=15
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Below is the output of the systemctl status commands. Despite the noise in the sasc-ng binary status, it is the loopback module that is " inactive (dead)" and there are no virtual DVB devices being created:
[mythtv@server ~]$ sudo systemctl status oscam.service
oscam.service - An Open Source Conditional Access Module software
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/oscam.service; enabled)
Active: active (running) since Tue, 2012-11-27 21:10:17 CET; 1min 7s ago
Process: 338 ExecStart=/usr/bin/oscam $OSCAM_ARGS (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 377 (oscam)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/oscam.service
├ 377 /usr/bin/oscam -b -c /etc/oscam
└ 378 /usr/bin/oscam -b -c /etc/oscam
Nov 27 21:10:17 server systemd[1]: Started An Open Source Conditional Acces...e.
[mythtv@server ~]$ sudo systemctl status loopback.service
loopback.service - Sasc-ng DVB Loopback Module
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/loopback.service; enabled)
Active: inactive (dead) since Tue, 2012-11-27 21:10:28 CET; 1min 27s ago
Process: 907 ExecStart=/sbin/modprobe dvbloopback num_adapters=3 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/loopback.service
Nov 27 21:10:28 server systemd[1]: Started Sasc-ng DVB Loopback Module.
[mythtv@server ~]$ sudo systemctl status sasc-ng.service
sasc-ng.service - Sasc-ng
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/sasc-ng.service; enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue, 2012-11-27 21:10:47 CET; 1min 45s ago
Process: 913 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sasc-ng -D -j 0:3 -j 1:4 -j 2:5" -b 16M --sid-allpid --sid-nocache --cam-budget --cam-dir=/etc/camdir -l /home/mythtv/logs/sasc-ng.log (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 921 (code=exited, status=255)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/sasc-ng.service
Nov 27 21:10:39 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.error] failed open /etc...ry
Nov 27 21:10:40 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.error] failed open /etc...ry
Nov 27 21:10:40 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.error] failed open /etc...ry
Nov 27 21:10:40 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.info] loading cardclien...nf
Nov 27 21:10:42 server sasc-ng[921]: [1062] Netwatcher thread started (pid=...6)
Nov 27 21:10:42 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.error] no keys loaded f...m!
Nov 27 21:10:46 server sasc-ng[921]: [1098] SC housekeeper thread started (...2)
Nov 27 21:10:47 server sasc-ng[921]: [1062] Netwatcher thread ended (pid=92...6)
Nov 27 21:10:47 server systemd[1]: sasc-ng.service: main process exited, co.../a
Nov 27 21:10:47 server systemd[1]: Unit sasc-ng.service entered failed state
[mythtv@server ~]$ sudo systemctl status sasc-ng.service
sasc-ng.service - Sasc-ng
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/sasc-ng.service; enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue, 2012-11-27 21:10:47 CET; 2min 9s ago
Process: 913 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sasc-ng -D -j 0:3 -j 1:4 -j 2:5" -b 16M --sid-allpid --sid-nocache --cam-budget --cam-dir=/etc/camdir -l /home/mythtv/logs/sasc-ng.log (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 921 (code=exited, status=255)
CGroup: name=systemd:/system/sasc-ng.service
Nov 27 21:10:39 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.error] failed open /etc/camdir/smartcard.conf: No such file or directory
Nov 27 21:10:40 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.error] failed open /etc/camdir/cardslot.conf: No such file or directory
Nov 27 21:10:40 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.error] failed open /etc/camdir/SoftCam.Key: No such file or directory
Nov 27 21:10:40 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.info] loading cardclient config from /etc/camdir/cardclient.conf
Nov 27 21:10:42 server sasc-ng[921]: [1062] Netwatcher thread started (pid=921, tid=140074379712256)
Nov 27 21:10:42 server sasc-ng[921]: [921] [general.error] no keys loaded for softcam!
Nov 27 21:10:46 server sasc-ng[921]: [1098] SC housekeeper thread started (pid=921, tid=140074371319552)
Nov 27 21:10:47 server sasc-ng[921]: [1062] Netwatcher thread ended (pid=921, tid=140074379712256)
Nov 27 21:10:47 server systemd[1]: sasc-ng.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=255/n/a
Nov 27 21:10:47 server systemd[1]: Unit sasc-ng.service entered failed state
[mythtv@server ~]$
Any ideas?
Last edited by wdirksen (2012-12-10 19:54:43)

After some head scratching it seems to be all good now. Considering there have been no replies to this I've come to wonder if I might be the only one with this issue. I could get it working somewhat using service files but never ideal, ex. sasc-ng only using a few of the entitlements from oscam because it started too quick etc. Anyway this might help a few and I'm hoping the linux savvy who find what I'm writing here painfully newbie like or flawed will reply and educate me a bit if what's provided here needs some sharpening up:
1) Systemd was confusing the sasc-ng binary shorthand arguments with Linux init arguments and a few were misinterpreted if they were not nested into the environment specifiers. So the -l (log) was causing problems and -b (buffer) wasn't loading. To be safe I'm using only the sasc-ng longhand specifiers from now on (two "--" and more verbose) so that they can never be confused even if safely nested in an environment parameter. That means that /etc/conf.d/sasc-ng will also need to be changed to reflect this. I also decided to simplify the LOGFILE parameter to include the whole argument syntax.
2) Oscam.service needs to be initiated with oneshot and RemainAfterExit=yes to make sure the delay (15 seconds in my config) gets counted out before sasc-ng initiates.
[EDIT 12/12/2012: Initially I had a second TimeoutSec=2 after ExecStart in sasc-ng.service but this had no function. Turns out that it almost always does work without this delay but not always with my setup. Adding TimeoutSec=2 to mythbackend.service prior to ExecStart command does function and makes things init more consistant]
sasc-ng.service
[Unit]
Description=Sasc-ng
After=oscam.service
[Service]
Type=simple
EnvironmentFile=/etc/conf.d/sasc-ng
ExecStartPre=/sbin/modprobe dvbloopback $DVBLOOPBACK_ARGS
TimeoutSec=2
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/sasc-ng $SASCNG_ARGS --cam-dir $CAMDIR --log $LOGFILE
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
/etc/conf.d/sasc-ng
SASCNG_ARGS="--join 0:3 --join 1:4 --join 2:5 --buffer 16M --sid-allpid --sid-nocache --cam-budget"
DVBLOOPBACK_ARGS="num_adapters=3"
LOGFILE="/home/mythtv/logs/sasc-ng.log"
CAMDIR="/etc/camdir"
oscam.service
[Unit]
Description=An Open Source Conditional Access Module software
After=network.target
[Service]
Type=oneshot
EnvironmentFile=/etc/conf.d/oscam
ExecStart=/usr/bin/oscam $OSCAM_ARGS
TimeoutSec=15
RemainAfterExit=yes
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
mythbackend.service
[Unit]
Description=MythTV_backend
After=sasc-ng.service
[Service]
Type=simple
TimeoutSec=2
Environment=MYTHCONFDIR=/etc/conf.d/mythbackend
Environment=HOME=/usr/share/mythtv
User=mythtv
ExecStart=/usr/bin/mythbackend --logpath /var/log/mythtv
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
I will make the related changes to the open-sasc-ng AUR package which I currently maintain
Last edited by wdirksen (2012-12-23 14:40:43)

[SOLVED]Create .service file to load powertop settings at startup.

Hi I installed powertop and ran it
sudo powertop -html
and the recommendations I got, i pasted them in a file, and saved it as startup.sh, and made it executable.
Now with init, i could write it in /etc/rc.local so that it would be called automatically at startup, but with systemd,
I think one would need to create a systemd service file which could be enabled for startup,and would call the startup.sh file.
Can anyone help with creating the .service file, or alternatively, suggest a simpler method for loading powertop's reccomendations at startup? Thanks!
Last edited by aaditya (2013-09-04 18:29:53)

Really, this should be done with the tools that are inherently in the system. So it should be achieved with module options, udev rules, sysctl.d/sysctl.conf, and in some cases, tmpfiles.d.
See this wiki page to get an idea of how to get this stuff going.
You can use some kind of rc.local service if you want. But it is probably moer appropriate to have these things load only if necessary. For example, if there is a power saving option for my ethernet card, but I choose to only load the module when I need it (therefore blacklist it) in order to really save power, it would be silly to have a script that tries to write values to a directory in /sys/class/net that doesn't exist.
Alternatively, you could use something like laptop-mode-tools, which allows one to have these settings turned on or off depending on the A/C state of the machine. But I really think that with machines these days, there is really not much of a difference whether these power saving functions are on or off, in terms of an average users computing experience.

Creating an IBus systemd service file

I currently start ibus-daemon with the following in my ~/.xprofile:
ibus-daemon --daemonize --xim
The thing is this does not display very nicely in the output of `systemctl status`; there're several ibus related processes listed, all in the same process Group ID. I figure if I write an ibus.service and manage it with systemctl, they would be grouped together in the output of `systemctl status`, correct?
In any case, I'm trying to write an IBus systemd service file. What I have so far:
[Unit]
Description=Intelligent Input Bus
Documentation=man:ibus-daemon(1)
[Service]
Type=dbus
BusName=org.freedesktop.IBus
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ibus-daemon --replace --xim --panel disable
ExecReload=/usr/bin/ibus restart
ExecStop=/usr/bin/ibus exit
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
I put the above in file ~/.config/systemd/user/ibus.service and tried
% systemctl --user start ibus.service
For 90 seconds the command didn't return. In that time, ibus-daemon was in fact started, I used the command `ibus` to check that the Bus part was working normally. 90 seconds later systemd bailed out,
Job for ibus.service failed. See 'systemctl status ibus.service' and 'journalctl -xn' for details.
Nothing useful in the journal, really,
systemd[388]: Starting Intelligent Input Bus...
systemd[388]: ibus.service start operation timed out. Terminating.
systemd[388]: Failed to start Intelligent Input Bus.
systemd[388]: Unit ibus.service entered failed state.
What was not working during the 90 seconds was I couldn't actually use IBus to input anyting. I was able to switch engines with `ibus engine <foo>` but if then I started typing IBus was not used at all.
Compare the process tree between manually running ibus-daemon and using systemctl start,
ibus-daemon --replace --xim --panel disable
systemd,1,1
|-gnome-terminal-,485,440
| |-zsh,7299,7299
| | `-ibus-daemon,9732,9732 --replace --xim --panel disable
| | |-ibus-dconf,9736,9732
| | | |-{dconf worker},9743,9732
| | | |-{gdbus},9742,9732
| | | `-{gmain},9740,9732
| | |-{gdbus},9739,9732
| | `-{gmain},9733,9732
`-ibus-x11,9738,9732 --kill-daemon
|-{gdbus},9746,9732
`-{gmain},9745,9732
systemctl --user start ibus
systemd,1,1
`-systemd,388,388 --user
|-(sd-pam),390,388
`-ibus-daemon,9911,9911 --replace --xim --panel disable
|-ibus-dconf,9914,9911
| |-{dconf worker},9921,9911
| |-{gdbus},9919,9911
| `-{gmain},9917,9911
|-{gdbus},9920,9911
|-{gmain},9912,9911
`-{pool},9926,9911
I see two differences: 1) ibus-x11 is present only if ibus-daemon is run manually; 2) Note the {pool} process in the systemctl case.
UPDATE²
ibus-x11 will fail to start silently if the DISPLAY env is not set, which is the case in the systemd env. Damn. When I set Environment="DISPLAY=:0" ibus-x11 is started just fine.
So the question remaining here, is why Type=dbus does not work?
I also tried to comment use Type=simple without BusName= to the same result.
UPDATE
I forgot to systemctl daemon-reload!
With Type=simple ibus-daemon *is* started. BUT, ibus-x11, which is supposed to be started with the --xim option, is not started. I guess it's because it forks? I'll try something.
I do feel it should be Type=dbus though, and I also found a file, part of the gnome-settings-daemon package, /usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.freedesktop.IBus.service with the content:
[D-BUS Service]
Name=org.freedesktop.IBus
Exec=/usr/bin/ibus-daemon --replace --xim --panel disable
Any idea how to make systemd happy?
Last edited by lolilolicon (2014-07-31 14:10:37)

The first post is too long... Let me update the status with a new post.
The user service file currently looks like this:
# [email protected]
[Unit]
Description=Intelligent Input Bus
Documentation=man:ibus-daemon(1)
[Service]
Environment="DISPLAY=%I"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/ibus-daemon --replace --xim --panel disable
ExecReload=/usr/bin/ibus restart
ExecStop=/usr/bin/ibus exit
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target
And you can enable it for the current DISPLAY via
% systemctl --user enable "ibus@$DISPLAY.service"
DISPLAY must be set for the --xim option to work.
According to systemd.exec(5), "processes started by user systemd instances inherit all environment variables from the user systemd instance". But at the time the user systemd instance is started, the DISPLAY env is not set yet, so I'm using the %I place holder here.
Although there doesn't seem to be much benefit, I still wonder why Type=dbus doesn't work. Is systemd looking for the wrong bus?

[solved] writing systemd service file to run script

i have completely migrated to systemd. now, i am trying to write a service file to run a startup script (~/.startup.sh). one of the functions of the script is to set the brightness of the screen:
echo "95" > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness
i created /etc/systemd/system/startup.service:
[Unit]
Description=Run startup script
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=~/.startup.sh
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
but i get the following error:
Failed to issue method call: Unit startup.service failed to load: Invalid argument. See system logs and 'systemctl status startup.service' for details.
i have two questions:
1. what am i missing?
2. how can i avoid permission issues associated with modifying the brightness file (e.g., permission denied errors, the need to put in the password, etc.)?
thanks.
Last edited by anti-destin (2012-08-01 22:26:04)

thanks for the replies.
just a note: using an absolute path didn't fix the issue.
but i went ahead and created the file /etc/tmpfiles.d/backlight.conf:
w /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness - - - - 95
and that worked.
is there a reason for recommending using a tmpfile rather than a service?
in any case, i'm marking this as solved.

[solved] Writing systemd service file - forking no pidfile

Hey all,
I am trying to write .service files for TORQUE, but am having some difficulty and quite can't understand the docs. Here's what I have so far for the server
[Unit]
Description=TORQUE server
Wants=basic.target
After=basic.target network.target
[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/run/torque-server.pid
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/pbs_server
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
The problem I'm having is with the PIDFile - pbs_server doesn't provide an option (as far as I can see) to specify a pid file... is this something that systemd can generate on its own, or what's the normal solution here?
Without the PIDFile specified systemctl start returns immediately and no process exists, with the PIDFile systemctl start stalls for a while and then has an error saying it couldn't find the pid file (surprise), but pbs_server is left running.
Thanks for any help
Last edited by dandaman0061 (2012-12-13 19:58:36)

Nevermind - it appears that pbs_server creates a pid file at $TORQUE_HOME/server_priv/server.lock where using torque from the AUR is /var/spool/torque
Chaging the pidfile setting in the service file to this now works.

Help create systemd .service file for Teeworlds server

Hi there.
I maintain one package the provide server for the game Teeworlds (teeworlds-zcatch in AUR). I'd like to have a ".service" file to be able to run the server in background, maybe even in startup, and saving the log (it send some stuff to stdout that could be nice to keep). However I don't know how to make a ".service" script. Could somene create a script or point me out to informations about it?
Thanks in advance

Hi.
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 9#p1363959
There I explain a little a .service that I'm using. Maybe it be useful.
And in this wikipage there are several examples
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/Services

[SOLVED] systemd : services failing to start on boot

I have removed sysvinit completely as per the systemd wiki pages.
I don't usually re-boot very often so I'm not sure exactly when the problem started.
I only noticed this problem about 4 or 5 days ago.
But now whenever I reboot my machine 2 services fail consistently.
adsl.service
colord.service
They both start flawlessly once I can log in at a console.
I'm using kde and in the last couple of days, while trying to fix my problem, the kdm service has failed to start a couple of times too - saying there is no X server.
Before switching to systemd I never had any of these problems using the old rc.conf method. My DAEMONS array had the adsl service start after the network service.
I need some help and advice to find out what is causing the problem and how to fix it.
Last edited by bhrgunatha (2012-10-25 05:44:22)

Thanks. That seems plausible. So I've been snooping at the journal.
journalctl -ab
Oct 25 17:06:13 starch systemd[1]: Started Trigger Flushing of Journal to Persistent Storage.
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Started Recreate Volatile Files and Directories.
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Starting System Initialization.
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Reached target System Initialization.
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Starting CUPS Printing Service Sockets.
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Listening on CUPS Printing Service Sockets.
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Starting Console System Startup Logging...
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Starting Restore Sound Card State...
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Starting CUPS Printer Service Spool.
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Started CUPS Printer Service Spool.
Oct 25 17:06:14 starch systemd[1]: Starting D-Bus System Message Bus Socket.
Oct 25 17:06:16 starch ntpd[381]: ntpd [email protected] Tue Aug 21 15:06:24 UTC 2012 (1)
Oct 25 17:06:16 starch ntpd[413]: proto: precision = 0.156 usec
Oct 25 17:06:17 starch ntpd[413]: ntp_io: estimated max descriptors: 1024, initial socket boundary: 16
Oct 25 17:06:17 starch ntpd[413]: Listen and drop on 0 v4wildcard 0.0.0.0 UDP 123
Oct 25 17:06:18 starch ntpd[413]: Listen and drop on 1 v6wildcard :: UDP 123
Oct 25 17:06:18 starch ntpd[413]: Listen normally on 2 lo 127.0.0.1 UDP 123
Oct 25 17:06:18 starch ntpd[413]: Listen normally on 3 lo ::1 UDP 123
Oct 25 17:06:18 starch ntpd[413]: peers refreshed
Oct 25 17:06:18 starch ntpd[413]: Listening on routing socket on fd #20 for interface updates
Oct 25 17:06:18 starch dbus[384]: [system] Activating systemd to hand-off: service name='org.freedesktop.ColorManager' unit='colord.service'
Oct 25 17:06:18 starch dbus[384]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.systemd1'
Oct 25 17:07:03 starch dbus[384]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.ColorManager'
Oct 25 17:07:03 starch dbus[384]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name='org.freedesktop.ColorManager' unit='colord.service'
Oct 25 17:07:03 starch dbus[384]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.ColorManager'
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch kernel: r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link down
Oct 25 17:07:03 starch systemd[1]: Starting Manage, Install and Generate Color Profiles...
Oct 25 17:07:03 starch systemd[1]: Started Manage, Install and Generate Color Profiles.
Oct 25 17:07:03 starch systemd[1]: colord.service: main process exited, code=killed, status=6
Oct 25 17:07:03 starch systemd[1]: Unit colord.service entered failed state.
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch kernel: r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link down
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch kernel: IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth0: link is not ready
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch kernel: PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch cupsd[380]: Unknown directive DefaultAuthType on line 26.
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch kernel: r8169 0000:02:00.0: eth0: link up
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch kernel: IPv6: ADDRCONF(NETDEV_CHANGE): eth0: link becomes ready
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch pppoe-start[382]: TIMED OUT
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 24
Oct 25 17:07:04 starch pppoe-start[382]: /usr/sbin/pppoe-start: line 193: 394 Terminated $CONNECT "$@" > /dev/null 2>&1
That seems to confirm your theory.
eth0 link is not up when attempting to start colord and adsl
So the $64,000 question:
How do I defer them until eth0 is ready?
Or how can I force the eth0 link to be up before colord or adsl try to use it?
Last edited by bhrgunatha (2012-10-25 01:33:36)

[SOLVED]systemd service doesn't play sound

I have a bash script which play via 'sox' a sound file. Something like this:
play someFile -t alsa -q
I set up a 'systemd --user' timer which calls this script at certain time. The timer is successfully called and the corresponding service is also successfully called and exits with SUCCESS code. The problem is that sound is not heared.
When the service is called manually from the bash with
systemctl start mySoundTimer.service
the sound is played OK.
The service file is as follows:
[Unit]
Description= A sound timer.
[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bash /path/to/my/script.sh
I tried several other combinations in ExecStart:
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bash -c /path/to/my/script.sh
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bash "-c /path/to/my/script.sh"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/bash -c "/path/to/my/script.sh"
No one is working. What can be the cause of the problem?
EDIT:
The cause of this is a different timing behaviour of systemd timer as compared to cron which I used before. (It seemingly takes into account the time of the last run and does not run again if it is called in less than the interval between runs specified in the timer file. And I tested the timer by setting the system date to several seconds before the timer's planned times.)
Last edited by nbd (2014-08-05 20:23:39)

msthev wrote:$ man systemd.service
ExecStart=
Note that this setting does not directly support shell command
lines. If shell command lines are to be used they need to be passed
explicitly to a shell implementation of some kind. Example:
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'
Thanks, changing ExecStart line to
ExecStart=/bin/bash -c '/bin/echo 100 > /sys/class/backlight/intel_backlight/brightness'
solved the issue. Though I can recall seeing ExecStart lines with direct shell commands.
Raynman wrote:
You should look at tmpfiles.d.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Sy … rary_files
I'll do that, thanks!

[SOLVED] systemd service dependencies

Hi,
I've just setup a new arch install, using a pure systemd setup.
I have two services, tinc and tinyproxy. In my case tinyproxy will only bind to an interface that tinc sets ups. So I have to make sure that tinyproxy startup depends on tinc. Now, I could edit the service file installed by the tinyproxy package, but I'd like to know if there is a better way to do that. With the old rc.conf sysinit I simply made sure to have the demons in the correct order and everything worked
So, is there a better way to add custom dependencies between systemd services besides manually editing the service files?
kind regards
Last edited by nomenquis (2012-09-27 08:00:56)

WorMzy wrote:Don't edit the package-provided .service file, it'll be overwritten when the package gets updated.
Yea, that's why I was afraid / didn't want to edit them :)
WorMzy wrote:Instead, copy it to /etc/systemd/system, and edit it there.
There's no other dependency mechanism as far as I know.
Ahh, didn't know that /etc/ files would override the ones provided in /usr/lib/...
I suspected there was some simple mechanism but seem to have missed that one.
Thanks a lot!
kind regards

[solved] systemd services not starting at boot (or at all)

On my router, some systemd services fail to start at boot.
The services are :
adsl (pppoe connetction on the wan interface)
shorewall (funny again for a router)
logind (brings up only tty1, and not the others with a 'timeout' error)
adsl starts fine manually after booting up
the others don't work, I have to launch shorewall with the old sysvinit rc script (and it works)
I really don't know, what happened to logind...
Last edited by scar (2012-11-30 10:20:44)

cups: avahi client failed
adsl: timeout (ppp0 running on eth0, the service did not found eth0)
shorewall: did not work by the systemctl command, only with the old rc script
I'm not sure if there was an error with logind, but I've had only tty1, not all the others (I have not touched /etc/inittab)
since this was a very old install (but up to date), I've decided to reinstall the whole thing,
Everything works
(But reinstalling does not solve any problem, it erases the problems...)
Last edited by scar (2012-11-30 10:21:20)

[SOLVED] systemd service not starting

Hi,
Been using Arch for just over a week now moving from Ubuntu and loving it. Achieved so much more on Arch in this short time until this evening.
I am trying to run a shell script at startup. I added the service file under /etc/systemd/system/myapp.service
With the following content:
[Unit]
Description=Notification
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/myscript
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
As it is I can run "systemctl restart myapp.service" and the script execute flawlessly however on reboot it does nothing and I get this error when I run systemctl status myapp.service:
systemctl status myapp.service
myapp.service - Notification
Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/myapp.service; enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Thu 1970-01-01 10:00:08 EST; 14s ago
Process: 116 ExecStart=/usr/bin/myscript (code=exited, status=6)
Other info:
Script starts with #!/bin/sh
Script permissions 755
Tried adding After=network.target under unit.
Tried Type=oneshot and forking
O yes /var/log/messages.log | grep myapp
Sep 6 14:25:56 alarm systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/myapp.service:1] Unknown section 'unit'. Ignoring.
Sep 6 14:25:56 alarm systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/myapp.service:2] Assignment outside of section. Ignoring.
Jan 1 01:00:11 alarm systemd[1]: myapp.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=6/NOTCONFIGURED
Jan 1 01:00:11 alarm systemd[1]: Unit myapp.service entered failed state.
Jan 1 01:00:11 alarm [ 3.243318] systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/myapp.service:1] Unknown section 'unit'. Ignoring.
Jan 1 01:00:11 alarm [ 3.243490] systemd[1]: [/etc/systemd/system/myapp.service:2] Assignment outside of section. Ignoring.
Only thing I dont get is the date difference? I have set the timezone correctly..
Any suggestions?
thanks
Last edited by blueteq (2013-09-10 10:01:11)

Reaching the network.target does not necessarily mean that an active connection has been reached. For example, if you use wicd or netctl-auto, it will report the stating of the service as successful after the daemon itself has started, but starting the daemon simply means that it is ready to start scanning for wireless networks and then connect.
If you want to be absolutely sure that there is a network connection before the service starts, you should use NetworkManager.service. That will also pull in the NetworkManager-wait-online.service which will not complete until a full connection has been reached. At that point the startup will have reached the network-online.target. So you should order the service after that instead. In reality, you should order it after that anyway, no matter what netowrk connection service you use, as that is a built in target to systemd.
Even though you have the RestartSec=35 and Restart=on-failure (which is a sane thing to do IMO), it is probably a good idea to order it After=netowrk-online.target anyway, as that will cause the service to start a bit later and at least attempt to order itself correctly. That way it will also ensure that the service is stopped before the network is taken down as well, hopefully ensuring a clean disconnect as well.

[solved] systemd service files don't allow quotes

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