From a6ba849c002fc991a290d2792573a9145f02aaf6 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: =?UTF-8?q?Zbigniew=20J=C4=99drzejewski-Szmek?= <zbyszek@in.waw.pl>
Date: Sat, 14 Dec 2013 17:21:55 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] man: beef up ExecStart description
We have lots of questions from people who assume that shell syntax works
here, so let's be very explicit what is allowed and what is not. A few
examples should also help.
http://bugs.debian.org/732156
---
man/systemd.service.xml | 97 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++---------
1 file changed, 80 insertions(+), 17 deletions(-)
diff --git a/man/systemd.service.xml b/man/systemd.service.xml
index 3f31c11..ca297ba 100644
--- a/man/systemd.service.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.service.xml
@@ -305,9 +305,10 @@
<term><varname>ExecStart=</varname></term>
<listitem><para>Commands with their
arguments that are executed when this
- service is started. The first
- argument must be an absolute path
- name.</para>
+ service is started. For each of the
+ specified commands, the first argument
+ must be an absolute and literal path
+ to an executable.</para>
<para>When <varname>Type</varname> is
not <option>oneshot</option>, only one
@@ -332,6 +333,35 @@
prior assignments of this option will
have no effect.</para>
+ <para>Each command line is split on
+ whitespace, with the first item being
+ the command to execute, and the
+ subsequent items being the arguments.
+ Double quotes ("...") and single
+ quotes ('...') may be used, in which
+ case everything until the next
+ matching quote becomes part of the
+ same argument. Quotes themselves are
+ removed after parsing. In addition, a
+ trailing backslash
+ (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to
+ merge lines. This syntax is intended
+ to be very similar to shell syntax,
+ but only the meta-characters and
+ expansions described in the following
+ paragraphs are understood.
+ Specifically, redirection using
+ <literal><</literal>,
+ <literal><<</literal>,
+ <literal>></literal>, and
+ <literal>>></literal>, pipes
+ using <literal>|</literal>, and
+ running programs in the background
+ using <literal>&</literal>
+ and <emphasis>other elements of shell
+ syntax are not supported</emphasis>.
+ </para>
+
<para>If more than one command is
specified, the commands are invoked
one by one sequentially in the order
@@ -350,10 +380,11 @@
<para>The command line accepts
<literal>%</literal> specifiers as
described in
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. Note
- that the first argument of the command
- line (i.e. the program to execute) may
- not include specifiers.</para>
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ Note that the first argument of the
+ command line (i.e. the program to
+ execute) may not include
+ specifiers.</para>
<para>Basic environment variable
substitution is supported. Use
@@ -372,9 +403,7 @@
more arguments. To pass literal dollar sign
use <literal>$$</literal>. Note that the first
argument (i.e. the program to execute)
- may not be a variable, since it must
- be a literal and absolute path
- name.</para>
+ may not be a variable.</para>
<para>Optionally, if the absolute file
name is prefixed with
@@ -402,13 +431,47 @@
<programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'
</programlisting>
- <para>For services run by a user
- instance of systemd the special
- environment variable
- <varname>$MANAGERPID</varname> is set
- to the PID of the systemd
- instance.</para>
- </listitem>
+ <para>Only select environment variables
+ are set for executed commands. See
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
+ </para>
+
+ <para>Example:</para>
+ <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"
+ </programlisting>
+ <para>This will execute
+ <command>/bin/echo</command> two
+ times, each time with one argument,
+ <literal>one</literal> and
+ <literal>two two</literal>,
+ respectively. Since two commands are
+ specified
+ <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must
+ be used.</para>
+
+ <para>Example:</para>
+ <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / >/dev/null & \; \
+/bin/ls
+ </programlisting>
+ <para>This will execute
+ <command>/bin/echo</command> with five
+ arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
+ <literal>>/dev/null</literal>,
+ <literal>&</literal>,
+ <literal>;</literal>, and
+ <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
+
+ <para>Example:</para>
+ <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
+ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}
+ </programlisting>
+ <para>This will execute
+ <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
+ arguments: <literal>one</literal>,
+ <literal>two</literal>,
+ <literal>two</literal>, and
+ <literal>two two</literal>.</para>
+ </listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>