On March 27, 2014 9:25:24 AM GMT+02:00, "Thomas Bächler" <thomas@archlinux.org> wrote:
Am 26.03.2014 23:13, schrieb Gesh:
Thanks for the pointers. If I understand what's going on correctly, units specify in their [Install] section whether, when they're enabled, they should be pulled in by other units. Those symlinks usually populate the appropriate directory under /etc/systemd/system/. Besides that, some packages install symlinks under /usr/lib/systemd/system/ as part of their files to get pulled in by other units without requiring user intervention.
What this means for backing up the configuration is that you simply back up /etc/systemd/system without resolving symlinks (and ignore that those symlinks point to paths outside of your backup). rsync can do that for you. This has the benefit of also backing up all permanent unit overrides and drop-ins that the admin may have made.
Basically, if I understood what happens correctly, the units under /etc/systemd/system/*.wants/ - or their targets, if they're symlinks - replace their corresponding units in the dependency graph. In addition, all unit files are installed to /usr/lib/systemd/system/, and the symlinks must have the same name as their targets, so only the symlinks' names need to be backed up. Therefore, only what's under /etc/systemd/system/ needs to be backed up, ignoring symlinks' targets. Besides that, the .wants directories in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ are managed by pacman, and represent upstream decisions to automatically start their units. Is this understanding correct? Thank you for your time, Gesh