[systemd-devel] What if a service is started manually

[Cecil Westerhof]

In a trial presentation I used the following service file:
[Unit]
Description=Virtual Distributed Ethernet
After=syslog.target

[Service]
Type=forking
PIDFile=/var/run/vde.pid
# Note the -f: don't fail if there is no PID file
ExecStartPre=/bin/rm -f /var/run/vde.pid
ExecStart=/usr/bin/vde_switch --tap tap0 --mode 0660 \
  --dirmode 0750 --group qemu \
  --daemon --pidfile /var/run/vde.pid
Restart=on-abort

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Here the PID file is removed before the service is started.

This brought up two questions.
- What happens is you start a service that you already started? Nothing, 
or is the service first stopped and then again started?
- What happens if someone started the service manually? So bypassing 
systemd and running directly /usr/bin/vde_switch.


Met vriendelijke groet,



Cecil Westerhof
Engineer
mobiel +31 - 6 - 25 00 38 81

-- 

Snow B.V.
Unix Specialists
De Ooyen 11
4191 PB Geldermalsen

http://www.snow.nl
tel. +31 - 345 - 65 66 66