Provided by: systemd_237-3ubuntu10.57_amd64 
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, wsl 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)