[systemd-devel] How to handle staged installs with a Systemd unit?

[Jeffrey Walton]

On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 7:28 PM Jeffrey Walton <noloader at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 3:01 PM Mantas Mikulėnas <grawity at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 9:29 PM Jeffrey Walton <noloader at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 9:35 AM Mantas Mikulėnas <grawity at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> >
> >> >  ...
> >> I think I'm going to add a start: recipe that will enable and start
> >> services after install for those who want it. It will be a recipe for
> >> non-staged installs.
> >>
> >> The reasoning is, users want things that "just work". They don't want
> >> excuses. A "sudo make start" is a little unusual, but I think it is a
> >> better option than the services not starting and users wondering why.
> >> I would not want to be the user trying to track down why a
> >> [unfamiliar] package does not run as expected.
> >
> > But if it's unfamiliar to them, why *would* they expect it to be doing something that practically no other package does?
> >
> > I can see the point if you're aiming this at Debian/Ubuntu users, where the package manager traditionally starts every service as soon as it is installed -- but in that case, it would likely be even simpler to provide your app as a .deb package or PPA as well, rather than making them build from source...
>
> It looks like the problem is (to me), GNU Coding Standards does not
> provide guidance on the use case. There is no procedure detailed by
> the standard. Confer, the entire standard as a single web page:
> https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/standards.html . The word service
> appears once in the context of "long distance telephone service".
>
> Let me ping them and ask them to add a section on Services with both
> init and systemd.

Sent to the Foundation:

On Thu, Dec 26, 2019 at 7:34 PM Jeffrey Walton <noloader at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> This topic came up on the systemd-dev mailing list at
> https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2019-December/043832.html
> .
> The problem is, I have a service that needs to be installed, but the
> standard does not provide a procedure. We've gotten to the point 'make
> install' should not enable or start the service. However, we don't
> know how to enable and start services in a conforming way.
>
> I'm happy to provide a 'make start' recipe that starts the service
> because all I need is a GNUmakefile. I don't need other technologies,
> like Autotools or CMake. Mantas Mikulėnas suggests a post install
> script, but the GNU standards don't provide authority to do so.
>
> So the request is, please provide a procedure on Services. In
> particular, how do we install them, enable them, and start them.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Jeffrey Walton