This page describes the current status of Debian systemd integration.
Goals
invoke-rc.d(8) should call systemctl instead of /etc/init.d/<service>. invoke-rc.d is called from maintscripts.
- update-rc.d(8) should enable/disable systemd services in addition to creating the sysvinit links. update-rc.d is usually called from maintscripts, but enable/disable is typically used by the system administrator.
service(8) should call systemctl instead of /etc/init.d/<service>. service(8) is called interactively by the system administrator.
- systemctl enable/disable should also call update-rc.d
Status/TODO
invoke-rc.d/update-rc.d/service are in sysvinit ≥ 2.88dsf-41+jessie1 (see http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/sysvinit;a=shortlog;h=refs/heads/jessie-pending for the corresponding git repository)
- we need a drop-in for systemctl that runs on machines without systemd:
- needs “go!” by biebl@ before the package will be uploaded
- make systemctl enable/disable call update-rc.d
patch pending: http://t.zekjur.net/systemctl-update-rc.d.patch
TODO (biebl@) integrate this into systemd-201
- Add is-enabled action to update-rc.d
patch pending: http://t.zekjur.net/update-rc.d-is-enabled.patch
- blocked by uncertainty about what enabled/disabled in sysvrc really means.
- dh_installsystemd
latest version at http://sprunge.us/hAZW
TODO (biebl@) test this with networkmanager, possibly other packages
General status: user-tagged bugs
Test reports
Please add your test report in the appropriate category and add a new category if necessary:
sysv-only
TODO(stapelberg): kanla
sysv+systemd with exact name match
TODO(stapelberg): pyroman
TODO(stapelberg): all-knowing-dns
sysv+systemd without exact name match
NetworkManager NetworkManager.service vs /etc/init.d/network-manager
sysv+systemd with special dh_installinit call
(e.g. --restart-after-upgrade)
- dbus (--no-restart-on-upgrade)
- rsyslog (--restart-after-upgrade), also ships a tmpfiles snippet and a .socket unit.
nginx 1.2.1-2.2
note that in debian/rules, the dh_installsystemd call must be added _after_ the lines that copy the service file
- I removed the explicit systemctl-calls from debian/{postinst,prerm,postrm}
apt-get remove nginx-common && apt-get install nginx-common works as expected, i.e. systemd picks up the changes after removing the package and it is re-enabled properly after installing.
- Since dh_installinit uses --no-start, there is no invoke-rc.d call, so nginx will not be running with systemd either. I think it is safe to say that this matches the package maintainer’s behavior. Maybe we should do something about clarifying whether services should be auto-started, but that’s out of scope for this page/effort.
NO TESTING on sysvinit has been done, especially not installing on sysvinit, then switching to systemd (or vice-versa)
systemd-only services
(e.g. dbus-activated ones)
TODO: colord
TODO(stapelberg): irker
TODO: wpasupplicant
TODO: policykit-1
- consolekit should not be restarted on upgrades, as it looses state
packages not using dh
systemd itself
systemd uses dh and ships a lot of unit files.
HOWTO rebuild a service
Make the updated debhelper in /var/cache/pbuilder/result available in pbuilder (as root):
echo 'deb file:///var/cache/pbuilder/result ./' >> /etc/pbuilder/apt.config/sources.list echo 'BINDMOUNTS="/var/cache/pbuilder/result"' >> /etc/pbuilderrc cd /var/cache/pbuilder/result wget http://t.zekjur.net/debhelper_9.20130508_all.deb apt-ftparchive packages debhelper_9.20130508_all.deb > Packages pbuilder --update --override-config
Afterwards, just bump the debhelper dependency in build-depends to >= 9.20130508, build a source package and use pbuilder on that.
installation/maintainer scripts
It's still open for discussion how much logic we move into update-rc.d / invoke-rc.d or if we let dh_installinit generate systemd specific code. Maybe a mix of both is needed. Also, do we want to add all functionality into dh_installinit or should we provide separate helper tools: dh_tmpfiles, dh_systemd or even split the latter for services and sockets?
dh_installinit
- systemd units are usually shipped upstream, so installing those via debian/$foo.{socket,service} is the *un*common case
- dh_installinit needs to generate code for installed files:
- search for files in /lib/systemd, /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d etc and add the files automatically?
- require to specify the names explicitly via dh_installinit parameters?
tmpfiles units
- debian/$package.tmpfiles → /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/$package.conf
- debian/$package.$name.tmpfiles → /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/$name.conf
- postinst: systemd-tmpfiles /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/$package.conf
- Needs to run before daemons are started, move into dh_installinit so we can guarantee ordering?
- Make the tmpfiles mechanism generally available. Needs an implementation for sysvinit.
socket units
- debian/$package.socket → /lib/systemd/system/$package.socket
- debian/$package.$name.socket → /lib/systemd/system/$name.socket
- prerm/remove: Should be stopped before daemon is stopped so it is not auto-spawned
- Daemons with socket files should use restart-after-upgrade, otherwise the behaviour is not really deterministic during upgrades (they can be auto-spawned at any time). Let dh_installinit warn or add a lintian check? Mask the service temporarily?
service units
- debian/$package.service → /lib/systemd/system/$package.service
- debian/$package.$name.service → /lib/systemd/system/$name.service
- Move all functionality into invoke-rc.d/update-rc.d or let dh_installinit generate systemd specific code? We probably need the latter, so we can handle special cases like socket activated services or or if a package uses a single SysV init script but multiple systemd service files.
- Disabled services should not be (re)started during upgrades
- This is also true for socket or D-Bus activated services
Provide a dh_installinit flag which allows services to be installed but disabled (both for sysv and systemd). Currently services use a /etc/default/<service> file with a DISABLED flag, which we want to avoid at all costs.
- Make it possible to install systemd-only services via dh_installinit.
Aliased services. EXAMPLE: /etc/init.d/network-manager vs NetworkManager.service. "systemctl enable network-manager.service" doesn't work.
tools
update-rc.d
invoke-rc.d
- Stop both $foo.service and $foo.socket on stop? EXAMPLE: acpid
service
- Stop both $foo.service and $foo.socket on stop? EXAMPLE: acpid
lsb init-hook
Let lintian warn if a sysv init script has no /lib/lsb/init-functions include. Or do that only if there is also a corresponding .service file? see 704197
- When do we remove the systemctl daemon-reload bits, jessie+1?