[systemd-devel] /usr/lib/systemd/*.wants vs. Wants in unit definition

[Simon McVittie]

On 06/06/16 15:17, Martin Pitt wrote:
> Of course it could also just do the usual WantedBy= in the unit and
> call systemctl enable on installation (that's what the Debian package
> does)

Most Debian packages with systemd services do this, but there are
exceptions.

> but there are cases where you don't really want to make the
> enablement configurable by the admin.

One example of this is dbus.service, which is statically enabled by
shipping symlinks in /lib/systemd/system in the .deb (as befits its "OS
infrastructure" status, in particular as something that is used by other
systemd components).

Conversely, polkitd.service is statically *disabled* (it doesn't ship
symlinks in the .deb and doesn't have a WantedBy), so it can be started
on-demand via D-Bus activation, but is never started "eagerly" during
boot (there would be no point).

-- 
Simon McVittie
Collabora Ltd. <http://www.collabora.com/>