[arch-general] Configuring enabled services

[Gesh]

On March 27, 2014 11:20:04 AM GMT+02:00, "Thomas Bächler" <thomas at archlinux.org> wrote:
>Am 27.03.2014 09:41, schrieb Gesh:
>> 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.
>
>Not exactly.
>
>When you place a unit in foo.wants, then foo gets an additional Wants=
>dependency. Basically, this is a way to extend units with new Wants=
>and
>Requires= statements without modifying unit files. You don't *replace*
>the dependency graph, but *extend* it.
>
But what if bar.unit Wants=foo.unit and I add a custom foo.unit to bar.unit.wants/ ? Will both be run? Will the custom foo.unit replace the built-in?
>> In addition, all unit files are installed to
>/usr/lib/systemd/system/,
>
>Unit files can also be installed to /etc/systemd/system/, for example
>if
>you want to use a modified version of a system-supplied unit file.
>
I meant in the sense of convention. Of course a sysadmin can drop units into /etc. It's its entire raison d'être.
>When you run start or enable on a unit name, system looks into those
>directories, taking the first one it finds.
>
>/run/systemd/generator.early
>/etc/systemd/system
>/run/systemd/system (*)
>/run/systemd/generator (*)
>/usr/lib/systemd/system
>/run/systemd/generator.late
>
>I am not 100% sure if I got the order of the ones marked with (*)
>right.
>
>As you can see here, there are units installed by the package manager
>(/usr/lib), units installed by the admin (/etc), temporary units
>installed either by automatic tools or by the admin
>(/run/systemd/system) and units installed by generators during systemd
>startup or reload (/run/systemd/generator*).
>
>Again, backing up the ones in /usr/lib does not make sense since those
>are contained in packages and can be reinstalled. Backing up the ones
>in
>/run makes no sense either since they only live until you reboot (or
>reload the configuration, in the case of generator units). However,
>backing up /etc/systemd/system entirely (not just the symlinks) make
>lots of sense, since the admin is likely to have custom units in there.
>
>> and the symlinks must have the same name as their targets, so only
>the symlinks' names need to be backed up.
>
>Not necessarily. For example,
>/etc/systemd/system/display-manager.service points to
>/usr/lib/systemd/system/kdm.service. Most symlinks have the same name,
>but that's only convention, not necesity.
>
>> Therefore, only what's under /etc/systemd/system/ needs to be backed
>up, ignoring symlinks' targets.
>
>I'd back up the symlinks including their targets. This makes it easier
>to restore configuration.
>
So basically, you back up the directory under /etc not following symlinks, then when restoring use pkgfile, filenames and installed-package-list to determine what packages you need to reinstall to get those links working.
>> Besides that, the .wants directories in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ are
>managed by pacman, and represent upstream decisions to automatically
>start their units.
>
>Indeed.
OK. I assume the links under /etc are generated by systemctl when enabling a unit with an [Install] section?
Thanks for the clarifications,
Gesh