[systemd-devel] Is it possible to load unit files from paths other than default paths ?

[Kai Krakow]

Am Thu, 22 Sep 2016 11:43:56 +0530
schrieb "Raghavendra. H. R" <raghuhr84 at gmail.com>:

> Thank you for the suggestions.
> But with this suggestion I need to run as user something like that.
> 
> In normal init.d systems, we have environment variables like PATH &
> LD_LIBRARY_PATH.
> No matter where I place my new executable or library, adding that
> path into these environment variables is enough to execute or link
> the library.
> 
> Probably this kind of facility is not available in Systemd init
> systems.

Then this is like asking how sysvinit could load files from other
locations than /etc/init.d. I don't think that is possible. To solve
this, one copies the init scripts from where they are to init.d and
then just enables them. Tip: systemd works the same.

Adding a location where init scripts reside to PATH is just not exactly
what would work during boot. You are just exploiting and side effect
of /etc/init.d being scripts and not pure configuration. Service files
for systemd are configuration. Actually, this trick won't solve startup
dependencies as sysvinit systems only look at that directory (or the
runlevel directories where you'd symlink your scripts which is what
you'd do in systemd, too: symlink the services).

If this is how you do it, create a generator which creates a service
files for each script in a directory. Gentoo has something
for /etc/local.d that works this way. Another way would be (if the copy
source is already systemd service files) to just copy those with the
generator. But that was already suggested.

Here's the template to get you going:
https://gitweb.gentoo.org/proj/gentoo-systemd-integration.git/tree/system-generators/gentoo-local-generator

It expects /etc/local.d/*.{start,stop} bash scripts. I think it is easy
to adapt for you.

> On Thu, Sep 22, 2016 at 12:34 AM, Kai Krakow <hurikhan77 at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> 
> > Am Wed, 21 Sep 2016 16:56:52 +0530
> > schrieb "Raghavendra. H. R" <raghuhr84 at gmail.com>:
> >  
> > > Hi,
> > >
> > > I'm newbie with systemd boot system and I need help in resolving
> > > one issue.
> > >
> > > I would like to create a service under a customized path Eg:/mnt
> > > and systemd should be able to pick my unit file from this.
> > >
> > > I tried by setting *Environment=SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH=/mnt *from the
> > > console but it didnt help and found the error *"Failed to start
> > > startup.service: Unit startup.service failed to load: No such
> > > file or directory."*
> > >
> > >
> > > Is it possible to achieve this ?  
> >
> > Not sure if this helps you, i.e. is appropriate for your use-case...
> >
> > But if the directory happens to be a home directory and the services
> > are designed to be run as user, you could make the service files go
> > into $HOME/.config/systemd/user/ (or symlink this to your
> > mountpoint) and enable linger on the user (loginctl enable-linger
> > $USER).
> >
> > You can then manage these units as the user through "system --user
> > {start,stop,enable,...}" (only with real login sessions, not through
> > sudo -iu $USER, but ssh would work).
> >
> > --
> > Regards,
> > Kai
> >
> > Replies to list-only preferred.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > systemd-devel mailing list
> > systemd-devel at lists.freedesktop.org
> > https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
> >  
> 




-- 
Regards,
Kai

Replies to list-only preferred.