How to use a parameter in ExecStart command line

Question

I try to convert a SysVintit script used on Debian  and derivatives distros such as LinuxMint and Ubuntu  amp  Co   to a systemd service to be used on Fedora or ArchLinux  and derivative distros such as Bridge or Manjaro   but even if the systemd start system is more performant and versatile than the previous  I don t understand how to make simple stuff such as using an  optional  argument on a command line like ExecStart  or ExecRestart     Here is what I do with SysVinit      bin sh     BEGIN INIT INFO   Provides           myprog   Required-Start      remote fs  syslog   Required-Stop       remote fs  syslog   Default-Start      2 3 4 5   Default-Stop       0 1 6   Short-Description  myprog init script   Descripton         this script manages myprog     END INIT INFO   exit if myprog isn t installed   -x   opt mystuff myrpog       exit 0 case   1  in   start      cd  opt mystuff       myprog -r     echo          stop      cd  opt mystuff       myprog -x          restart      cd  opt mystuff       myprog -x  amp  amp    myprog -r          version      cd  opt mystuff       myprog -v          try      cd  opt mystuff       myprog                 echo  Usage  sudo service myprog  start stop version try    gt  amp 2     exit 3        esac     So the script above allows to use different arguments including an empty one that will display the message  Usage       when using the following command lines   sudo service myprog start     gt  start myprog with the -r argument  sudo service myprog stop      gt  stop myprog with the -x argument  sudo service myprog version   gt  display the release of myprog in the console  sudo service myprog try       gt  start myprog without any argument  sudo service myprog restart   gt  stop then start myprog with the -r argument  suso service myprog           gt  display the  Usage      message in the console   Now  with systemd  the script should look like this     Unit  Description This script manages myprog ConditionFileExecutable  opt mystuff myprog   Service  Type oneshot RemainAfterExit yes ExecStart  opt mystuf myprog -r ExecStop  opt mystuff myprog -x ExecRestart  opt mystuff myprog -x    opt mystuff myprog -r   Install  After NetworkManager service   Here starts my problems  and my lack of systemd knowledge    Obviously  systemd doesn t provide a command such as ExecCustom01   ExecCustom02  etc  that would allow me to create commands for  version  and  try   and other if needed    So  I may use ExecRestart in a different maner if I could use an argument to start both the  version  or the  try  command  being said that the  real  restart may be done by starting successively the stop and the start commands    These  customized  ExecRestart  command could then look like this   sudo systemctl restart myprog    gt  without argument for the  try  command   and   sudo systemctl restart myprog -v   gt  for the  version  command   The systemd script could then look like this    Unit  Description This script manages myprog ConditionFileExecutable  opt mystuff myprog   Service  Type oneshot RemainAfterExit yes ExecStart  opt mystuf myprog -r ExecStop  opt mystuff myprog -x ExecRestart  opt mystuff myprog          this is where I need to use an argument   Install  After NetworkManager service   But I don t know if it s possible  and if yes  what is the syntax to use   Any help would be trully appreciated since even after spending a bunch of hours in the multiple systemd man pages  I couldn t find any explicit sample about how to do that   TIA for your time and advice

User · Answer

To attempt command line arguments directly is not possible.

One alternative might be environment variables (https://superuser.com/questions/728951/systemd-giving-my-service-multiple-arguments).

This is where I found the answer: http://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/systemctl.html

so sudo systemctl restart myprog -v -- systemctl will think you're trying to set one of its flags, not myprog's flag.

sudo systemctl restart myprog someotheroption -- systemctl will restart myprog and the someotheroption service, if it exists.

User · Answer

Although systemd indeed does not provide way to pass command-line arguments for unit files  there are possibilities to write instances  http   0pointer de blog projects instances html  For example   lib systemd system serial-getty  service looks something like this    Unit  Description Serial Getty on  I BindTo dev- i device After dev- i device systemd-user-sessions service   Service  ExecStart - sbin agetty -s  I 115200 38400 9600 Restart always RestartSec 0   So  you may start it like     systemctl start serial-getty ttyUSB0 service   systemctl start serial-getty ttyUSB1 service   For systemd it will different instances     systemctl status serial-getty ttyUSB0 service serial-getty ttyUSB0 service - Getty on ttyUSB0       Loaded  loaded   lib systemd system serial-getty  service  static        Active  active  running  since Mon  26 Sep 2011 04 20 44  0200  2s ago     Main PID  5443  agetty        CGroup  name systemd  system getty  service ttyUSB0             5443  sbin agetty -s ttyUSB0 115200 38400 9600   It also mean great possibility enable and disable it separately   Off course it lack much power of command line parsing  but in common way it is used as some sort of config files selection  For example you may look at Fedora openvpn  service  http   pkgs fedoraproject org cgit openvpn git tree openvpn  service

[systemd] How to use a parameter in ExecStart command line?

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