[systemd-devel] why do we have aliases fro timedated, resolved, networkd, and what are they good for?

[Michael Biebl]

Hi

I wonder why we have the following aliases/symlinks

dbus-org.freedesktop.hostname1.service -> systemd-hostnamed.service
dbus-org.freedesktop.import1.service -> systemd-importd.service
dbus-org.freedesktop.locale1.service -> systemd-localed.service
dbus-org.freedesktop.login1.service -> systemd-logind.service
dbus-org.freedesktop.machine1.service -> systemd-machined.service
dbus-org.freedesktop.network1.service -> systemd-networkd.service
dbus-org.freedesktop.resolve1.service -> systemd-resolved.service
dbus-org.freedesktop.timedate1.service -> systemd-timedated.service

Those dbus-org.* aliases are used in the corresponding D-Bus system
service files (SystemdService=dbus-org...)
The symlinks/aliases are created statically in $libdir/systemd/system,
so they can't be removed via systemctl disable.

So, I'm asking myself what good those aliases are for?
They actually have a downside:
We just had a Debian bug report, where a user was masking
systemd-resolved.service, but he was puzzled that he could still
trigger the start of the service via systemd-resolve.
This happened via D-Bus activation and the aliased name (which he had
not masked).

So, should we add those aliases via
[Install]
Also=
dynamically, so a user can actually disable the services or should we
switch the D-Bus system service files to use the non-aliased names in
SystemdService=?
At which point we could stop shipping those symlinks altogether.

Michael


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