eb831f759b
We should sometimes restart the units rather than reloading them so the changes are actually applied. / and /nix are explicitly excluded because there was some very old issue where these were unmounted. I don't think this will affect many people since most people use fstab mounts instead but I plan to adapt this behavior for fstab mounts as well in the future (once I wrote a test for the fstab thingies).
66 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
66 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
# Unit handling {#sec-unit-handling}
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To figure out what units need to be started/stopped/restarted/reloaded, the
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script first checks the current state of the system, similar to what `systemctl
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list-units` shows. For each of the units, the script goes through the following
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checks:
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- Is the unit file still in the new system? If not, **stop** the service unless
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it sets `X-StopOnRemoval` in the `[Unit]` section to `false`.
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- Is it a `.target` unit? If so, **start** it unless it sets
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`RefuseManualStart` in the `[Unit]` section to `true` or `X-OnlyManualStart`
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in the `[Unit]` section to `true`. Also **stop** the unit again unless it
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sets `X-StopOnReconfiguration` to `false`.
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- Are the contents of the unit files different? They are compared by parsing
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them and comparing their contents. If they are different but only
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`X-Reload-Triggers` in the `[Unit]` section is changed, **reload** the unit.
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The NixOS module system allows setting these triggers with the option
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[systemd.services.\<name\>.reloadTriggers](#opt-systemd.services). There are
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some additional keys in the `[Unit]` section that are ignored as well. If the
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unit files differ in any way, the following actions are performed:
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- `.path` and `.slice` units are ignored. There is no need to restart them
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since changes in their values are applied by systemd when systemd is
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reloaded.
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- `.mount` units are **reload**ed if only their `Options` changed. If anything
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else changed (like `What`), they are **restart**ed unless they are the mount
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unit for `/` or `/nix` in which case they are reloaded to prevent the system
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from crashing. Note that this is the case for `.mount` units and not for
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mounts from `/etc/fstab`. These are explained in [](#sec-switching-systems).
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- `.socket` units are currently ignored. This is to be fixed at a later
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point.
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- The rest of the units (mostly `.service` units) are then **reload**ed if
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`X-ReloadIfChanged` in the `[Service]` section is set to `true` (exposed
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via [systemd.services.\<name\>.reloadIfChanged](#opt-systemd.services)).
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A little exception is done for units that were deactivated in the meantime,
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for example because they require a unit that got stopped before. These
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are **start**ed instead of reloaded.
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- If the reload flag is not set, some more flags decide if the unit is
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skipped. These flags are `X-RestartIfChanged` in the `[Service]` section
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(exposed via
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[systemd.services.\<name\>.restartIfChanged](#opt-systemd.services)),
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`RefuseManualStop` in the `[Unit]` section, and `X-OnlyManualStart` in the
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`[Unit]` section.
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- Further behavior depends on the unit having `X-StopIfChanged` in the
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`[Service]` section set to `true` (exposed via
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[systemd.services.\<name\>.stopIfChanged](#opt-systemd.services)). This is
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set to `true` by default and must be explicitly turned off if not wanted.
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If the flag is enabled, the unit is **stop**ped and then **start**ed. If
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not, the unit is **restart**ed. The goal of the flag is to make sure that
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the new unit never runs in the old environment which is still in place
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before the activation script is run. This behavior is different when the
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service is socket-activated, as outlined in the following steps.
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- The last thing that is taken into account is whether the unit is a service
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and socket-activated. If `X-StopIfChanged` is **not** set, the service
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is **restart**ed with the others. If it is set, both the service and the
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socket are **stop**ped and the socket is **start**ed, leaving socket
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activation to start the service when it's needed.
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