[systemd-devel] Documentation about upstreaming unit files

[Lennart Poettering]

On Fri, 29.06.12 17:52, Paul Menzel (paulepanter at users.sourceforge.net) wrote:

> Dear systemd folks,
> 
> 
>     $ git grep upstream
> 
> does not return anything regarding how projects should ship unit files. 
> 
> I can think of the following questions.

Adding to what Tomasz already wrote:

> 1. What license should the unit files have? The one of the upstream
> project?

Unit files are probably too trivial to be copyrightable. That said I do
stick a shortened GPL header in the ones we ship with systemd. It's
probably a good idea to stick to the policy the specific project has for
this for other files, or for init scripts if it shipped any.

> 2. Should the unit files be put in a directory `systemd/`?

Really depends on the project. Many projects already have a dir where
they stick init scripts or D-Bus service files and such, and I'd just
recommend putting them there as well.

> 3. Do the distributions install the file to the correct directory
> `/lib/systemd/system/` or is the upstream build system supposed to do
> that?

This should definitely be done upstream already, the same way as this is
already handled for D-Bus service files and suchlike. See daemon(7) for
our recommendations.

> 4. What should upstream do if the service files differ for
> distributions?

Ship the common subset of it, and hope that downstream changes it as
little as possible. If downstream wants to change it it should be
considered a patch to upstream sources like any other.

Hope this is helpful,

Lennart

-- 
Lennart Poettering - Red Hat, Inc.