Debian – Set RemainAfterExit=no for a classic init script in systemd

debianinitsystemd

I run a custom service with a classic init script on Debian Jessie. Debian Jessie uses systemd. The reason that I use an init script is that I also use the same service on Debian Wheezy, which does not have systemd.

Since the service may crash occasionally, I want it to be relaunched when it stops. My understanding is that systemd will take care of this. However, when I manually kill the service (without systemctl stop service), systemctl status will report the service as active (exited).

It is my understanding that this means that systemd simply considers the service to be one that can be "running" without having an process. The documentation mentions RemainAfterExit as a way to configure this behaviour, but this is a flag for use in a unit-file, I only have an init script.

Is there a way to let systemd know that an init service needs a process to be considered active? In other words, let it know that active (exited) is an undesired state?

Best Answer

I solved the problem by writing a generic boilerplate systemd unit file. Store the file in /etc/systemd/system/$SERVICE.service.

Replace $SERVICE with the service name.

[Unit]
Description=$SERVICE init script wrapper
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/etc/init.d/$SERVICE start
ExecStop=/etc/init.d/$SERVICE stop
ExecReload=/etc/init.d/$SERVICE reload
PIDFile=/var/run/$SERVICE.pid
RemainAfterExit=no
Restart=always
Type=forking

[Install]
WantedBy=multiuser.target

Run systemctl daemon-reload to refresh systemd's internals.

Related Solutions

Systemd – How to Set Environment Variable in Service

Times change and so do best practices.

The current best way to do this is to run systemctl edit myservice, which will create an override file for you or let you edit an existing one.

In normal installations this will create a directory /etc/systemd/system/myservice.service.d, and inside that directory create a file whose name ends in .conf (typically, override.conf), and in this file you can add to or override any part of the unit shipped by the distribution.

For instance, in a file /etc/systemd/system/myservice.service.d/myenv.conf:

[Service]
Environment="SECRET=pGNqduRFkB4K9C2vijOmUDa2kPtUhArN"
Environment="ANOTHER_SECRET=JP8YLOc2bsNlrGuD6LVTq7L36obpjzxd"

Also note that if the directory exists and is empty, your service will be disabled! If you don't intend to put something in the directory, ensure that it does not exist.

For reference, the old way was:

The recommended way to do this is to create a file /etc/sysconfig/myservice which contains your variables, and then load them with EnvironmentFile.

For complete details, see Fedora's documentation on how to write a systemd script.

Centos – systemd Unit file for GitLab

You can't use variable substitution in /etc/sysconfig/gitlab and in ExecStart you need to use ${UPID} form of variable substitution if it isn't surrounded by whitespace.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Systemd – How to Set Environment Variable in Service

Centos – systemd Unit file for GitLab

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