[systemd-devel] Timeout for 'Activating (start)' status

[Michael Chapman]

On Thu, 6 Jul 2017, Mikhail Kasimov wrote:
> Hello!
>
> 've got an interesting trouble on timer-activated service -- 'systemctl
> status' returns a log with 'Activating (start)' status:
>
> [1]
> ==========
> k_mikhail at linux-mk500:~> systemctl status vba32update.service
> ● vba32update.service - VBA32 Anti-Virus Update Service
>   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/vba32update.service; disabled;
> vendor preset: disabled)
>   Active: activating (start) since Чтв 2017-07-06 15:32:35 EEST; 35min ago
> Main PID: 6214 (vbaupdx)
>    Tasks: 1 (limit: 512)
>   CGroup: /system.slice/vba32update.service
>           └─6214 ./vbaupdx http://anti-virus.by/beta/update
>
> Июл 06 15:32:35 linux-mk500 systemd[1]: Starting VBA32 Anti-Virus Update
> Service...
> Июл 06 15:32:35 linux-mk500 vbacl[6214]: Vba32 console scanner update
> process started
> Июл 06 15:32:35 linux-mk500 vbacl[6214]: Reading configuration options
> from ./vbacl.ini
> Июл 06 15:32:35 linux-mk500 vbacl[6214]: Using direct connection for update
> k_mikhail at linux-mk500:~>
> ==========
>
>
> Simultaneously:
> [2]
> ==========
> k_mikhail at linux-mk500:~> systemctl list-units -t timer
> UNIT                         LOAD   ACTIVE SUB     DESCRIPTION
> vba32update.timer            loaded active running Runs VBA32 Update Hourly
> ==========
>
> And that is normal. But 35 minutes for activating service is too long,
> as for me.

Is this a Type=oneshot service?

It's a bit weird, but Type=oneshot services are not considered to be fully 
started until the ExecStart= command has exited. Until that time they're 
still "activating".

You may be better off making the service Type=simple instead. A 
Type=simple service is fully started as soon as it has spawned the 
ExecStart= command.

> And, by default, there is no way for user\admin to get message, that
> there is a problem with activating of some service, except periodical
> 'systemctl list-units -t timer' command output (in current described
> case). And systemd logs contain no interesting info, which can be useful
> to investigate the problem and its reasons, because there are no
> explicit error-messages for such case.
>
> So, my questions are:
> =================
> 1) What is the correct systemd's behavior in such case?

If this is a Type=oneshot service, systemd is working as intended here.

> 2) What is systemd's timeout by default for service activation
> (timer-activated, socket-activated)? If it is documentened, please, give
> me a hint.

By default, Type=oneshot services don't have a start timeout.

> 3) If systemd's timeout from 2) is present, how can it be managed by
> user\admin? E.g. after 10 minutes of 'Activating (start)', service gets
> FAILED state with putting this info to systemd log, of course (something
> like "systemd[1] fails to start foobar.service[PID] by timeout.
> ExitCode:<number>").

If you do add a TimeoutStartSec= to a Type=oneshot unit, this will force 
the unit to be stopped (by killing the process) after that time. That's 
probably not what you want.

For a Type=simple service, the default TimeoutStartSec= is set in 
/etc/systemd/system.conf. It will be 90 seconds unless you've changed it.