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</p>
<h1> How to convert systemd unit files to an s6 installation </h1>
<p>
Converting a set of services managed by <a href="https://systemd.io/">systemd</a>
to a set of services managed by <a href="index.html">s6</a> is
a recurring question on our support channels, and having an automated conversion tool
parsing a set of <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/systemd.unit.5.html">systemd
unit files</a> and outputting a set of <a href="servicedir.html">s6
service directories</a> or
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/s6-rc-compile.html#source">s6-rc service
definition directories</a> would be useful to people who want to migrate to
s6 but have an existing base of services running under systemd.
</p>
<p>
Unfortunately, automating such a conversion is extremely difficult. The main
reason for this is that systemd and s6 are architectured in very different ways:
how they view a set of services, how they modelize a machine, what kind of solution
they bring to a given problem, and the extent of what they're supposed to manage
— there are few similarities between how systemd and s6 operate. As a
consequence, the way systemd maps a set of services into unit files is not
isomorphic to the way s6 does, so translating a setup between systemd and s6
requires intelligence. It is not possible to write an automated tool that converts
a set of services accurately and idiomatically without doing a full, deep system
analysis - and writing such a tool would be a huge undertaking.
</p>
<p>
Fortunately, in practice, most unit files only use a small subset of all the
theoretically supported directives: most services that run under systemd can be
converted to run under s6 without too much trouble. So, depending on the exact
nature of the set of services, it may be possible to write a reasonable converter,
that is limited in what it supports but does not require a full understanding
of systemd (or even s6).
</p>
<p>
This document targets people who think about writing a tool to automatically
convert a set of unit files to a set of s6 services and are trying to assess
its feasability and difficulty. We analyze all the directives that may appear
in a unit file for their services, and rate the difficulty of translating the
directive, i.e. the amount of complexity that would need to go into the
converter tool if that directive were to be supported.
</p>
<p>
We rate difficulty on a scale from <strong>0</strong> to <strong>10</strong>.
A <strong>0</strong> means that the directive is irrelevant to s6 and can
be ignored. A <strong>1</strong> means that there is a straightforward,
one-for-one way of translating the systemd directive into s6 parlance. A
<strong>10</strong> means that the directive is so systemd-specific that it
is impossible to express it on an s6 system and the unit file cannot be
converted as is. A <strong>9</strong> means that it is theoretically possible
to convert, given infinite time and manpower to write a tool that analyzes
the systemd-managed system holistically and outputs an equivalent system
managed by s6, but in practice nobody's ever going to write such a tool.
</p>
<p>
We only address directives that can appear in <em>service units</em>, which
are the ones that can reasonably be expected to translate to s6 or s6-rc
services. We do not address directives that can only appear in other kinds
of unit files such as slices, timers, sockets, etc.
</p>
<hr />
<ul>
<li>
<a href="#by-directive">All the directives listed by the order in the
systemd documentation, with their difficulty</a>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#systemd.unit">in systemd.unit(5)</a>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#unit-section"><tt>[Unit]</tt> section</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#install-section"><tt>[Install]</tt> section</a> </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.service">in systemd.service(5)</a>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#service-section"><tt>[Service]</tt> section</a> </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec">in systemd.exec(5)</a>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-paths">Paths</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-identity">User/group identity</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-security">Security</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-mandatoryac">Mandatory access control</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-properties">Process properties</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-scheduling">Scheduling</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-sandboxing">Sandboxing</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-filtering">System call filtering</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-environment">Environment</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-logging">Logging and standard input/output</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-credentials">Credentials</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.exec-sysv">System V compatibility</a> </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.kill">in systemd.kill(5)</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#systemd.resource-control">in systemd.resource-control(5)</a> </li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<a href="#by-difficulty">All the directives listed by their difficulty</a>
<ul>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-0">0</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-1">1</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-2">2</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-3">3</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-4">4</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-5">5</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-6">6</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-7">7</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-8">8</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-9">9</a> </li>
<li> <a href="#difficulty-10">10</a> </li>
</ul>
</li>
</ul>
<hr />
<h2 id="by-directive"> Difficulty by directive </h2>
<p>
Use this section to answer the question: "I have this directive in my unit file,
how hard would it be to write a converter tool that processes this file?"
</p>
<h3 id="systemd.unit">
Directives documented in <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/systemd.unit.5.html">systemd.unit(5)</a>
</h3>
<h4 id="unit-section">
<tt>[Unit]</tt> section
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Description=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Documentation=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Wants=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Dependencies between services
are implemented via <a href="//skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/">s6-rc</a>; in order
to implement <tt>Wants=</tt>. the converter needs to target s6-rc, which is a
reasonable requirement for a complete set of services. However, <tt>Wants=</tt>
expresses weak dependencies, which are not supported by the current version of
s6-rc, so the exact nature of the dependency needs to be checked by hand. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Requires=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. The converter needs to
target <a href="//skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/">s6-rc</a>, but <tt>Requires=</tt>
dependencies map well to the s6-rc dependency model. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Requisite=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. systemd supports a lot of
weird types of dependencies that the current version of s6-rc does not (by
design). </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>BindsTo=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PartOf=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Upholds=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. In s6, services are upheld by
the supervisor, not by other services. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Conflicts=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. There are no negative
dependencies in the s6 world, and a converter tool would have to implement it
on top of the existing system. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Before=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. systemd loves to have a
zillion of keywords to express slightly different kinds of dependencies, and
only a small subset of all the possible combinations are useful. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>After=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>OnFailure=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Permanent failure is
a very exceptional state in s6, there are no hooks to do something when
permanent failure occurs; so a converter would need to add scripting around that. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>OnSuccess=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. These are oneshot
dependencies. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PropagatesReloadTo=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. Under s6-rc
you can either reload a single service or the whole dependency chain that
starts at the service. Other configurations just make no sense. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ReloadPropagatedFrom=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PropagatesStopTo=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. Same with stopping
a single service or a dependency chain of services. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StopPropagatedFrom=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>JoinsNamespaceOf=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. There are no
native s6 tools to manage namespaces. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RequiresMountsFor=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Mounts are
not handled in a special way in s6, the converter would have to know
what service mounts what filesystem. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>OnFailureJobMode=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. This is what
happens when you mix layers. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IgnoreOnIsolate=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StopWhenUnneeded=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RefuseManualStart=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Would need
some scripting around. There's no reason to ever use that directive though. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RefuseManualStop=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>AllowIsolate=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>DefaultDependencies=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CollectMode=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>FailureAction=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Anything involving
permanent failure need to be scripted around, because s6 considers that
it is an extreme state that requires administrator attention and will
stop making automatic decisions. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SuccessAction=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. That's a oneshot
dependency, but systemd doesn't realize that. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>FailureActionExitStatus=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SuccessActionExitStatus=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>JobTimeoutSec=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. s6 has no
concept of jobs. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>JobTimeoutAction=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>JobTimeoutRebootArgument=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StartLimitIntervalSec=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. s6 does
not limit start rate. It can stop a service that has a high <em>death</em>
rate: that's the configuration knob that makes sense. That directive can
be converted to check death interval instead. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StartLimitBurst=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StartLimitAction=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RebootArgument=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Any "system mode"
action such as a reboot has no place in an s6 set of services anyway;
systemd obviously likes to mix unrelated layers. In the s6 world, the only
place where a reboot should occur is
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/s6-linux-init/">s6-linux-init</a>, and the
related scripting in <tt>rc.init</tt> files. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SourcePath=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> Conditions and Asserts: <strong>9</strong>. Most of these are tied to the
global machine state and absolutely not local to a given set of services. And
even for those that are not, what they do is change the whole service manager's
behaviour depending on some external dynamic state such as the existence of a
file in the filesystem — and that is entirely contrary to the s6
philosophy of making services predictable and reproducible. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="install-section">
<tt>[Install]</tt> section
</h4>
<p>
Any directive under <tt>[Install]</tt> can be ignored, since it has no
meaning on the run-time behaviour of the service. So the difficulty is
<strong>0</strong>. However, an automatic converter would need to
analyze the whole installed service configuration, e.g. the links in
<tt>/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/</tt>, in order to
understand the dependencies between services. systemd targets can
typically be converted into s6-rc bundles.
</p>
<h3 id="systemd.service">
Directives documented in <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/systemd.service.5.html">systemd.service(5)</a>
</h3>
<h4 id="service-section">
<tt>[Service]</tt> section
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Type=</tt> : depending on its type, a systemd "service"
can translate to wildly different things under s6.
<ul>
<li> <tt>simple</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>exec</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>forking</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. This type is strongly discouraged. </li>
<li> <tt>oneshot</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>dbus</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. This type requires implementing dbus
management programs for s6. </li>
<li> <tt>notify</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. This type requires an implementation
of a compatibility server for
<a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man3/sd_notify.3.html"><tt>sd_notify()</tt></a>,
which is heavily tied to the monolithic systemd architecture and is difficult to support
in a modular system such as s6. It is much easier to modify the services themselves so
they use the <a href="notifywhenup.html">s6 readiness
notification mechanism</a> instead of sd_notify. </li>
<li> <tt>idle</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. This type is meaningless under s6 and
should be treated like <tt>simple</tt>. </li>
</ul>
</li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExitType=</tt> : again, it depends on the value.
<ul>
<li> <tt>main</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>cgroup</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. This requires implementing, or
having access to, command-line cgroup tools. </li>
</ul>
</li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RemainAfterExit=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>GuessMainPid=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. But don't use <tt>forking</tt>
if you can avoid it. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PIDFile=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>BusName=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Avoid type <tt>dbus</tt> if possible. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExecStart=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>, with caveats. This is the bread and
butter of service definitions; all your services will likely have such a directive, and
the contents of <tt>ExecStart=</tt> will typically go into a run script (for longruns) or
an up file (for oneshots). However, since systemd hates simplicity, there are a number
of transformations that have to happen to the command line before it can be used in a
script, and in particular if the command has a <em>special executable prefix</em>.
Implementing these has its own difficulty ratings:
<ul>
<li> <tt>@</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>-</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>:</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>+</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>!</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>!!</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
</ul>
</li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExecStartPre=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. In order to have a strict
semantic equivalence with their systemd version, <tt>ExecStartPre=</tt> lines must
be implemented as s6-rc oneshots, and the whole unit file must be implemented as
a bundle. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExecStartPost=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExecCondition=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExecReload=</tt> : <strong>0</strong>. A reloading command that
does not involve restarting the service does not need the service manager as
a third-party. systemd cannot help inserting itself where it does not belong. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExecStop=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. s6 only supports terminating
services via signals, so if a service needs a specific command to be stopped,
the converter needs to target an interface layer on top of s6 with a repository
of stop commands; such a layer would likely need to be on top of s6-rc as well
and a lot of complexity would ensue. Fortunately, a huge majority of services
support termination via signals and it is often easy to avoid relying on
<tt>ExecStop=</tt>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExecStopPost=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. These are the
<tt>down</tt> scripts of the <tt>ExecStartPre=</tt> oneshots. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestartSec=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. s6 has no setting for that,
because it aims for maximum uptime; but there are still ways to implement that
bad idea. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TimeoutStartSec=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TimeoutStopSec=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TimeoutAbortSec=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. This would need a
watchdog implementation, in the server implementation of <tt>sd_notify()</tt>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TimeoutSec=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TimeoutStartFailureMode=</tt> : <strong>0</strong> for
<tt>terminate</tt> and <tt>kill</tt>, <strong>7</strong> for <tt>abort</tt>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TimeoutStopFailureMode=</tt> : <strong>0</strong> for
<tt>terminate</tt> and <tt>kill</tt>, <strong>7</strong> for <tt>abort</tt>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RuntimeMaxSec=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. This is the exact
opposite of what you need a process supervisor for, so s6 does not
implement it. It is best to run such a process (not a <em>service</em>)
outside of any kind of supervision framework. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RuntimeRandomizedExtraSec=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>WatchdogSec=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. Requires a watchdog
implementation in the very specific systemd way. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Restart=</tt> : depends on the value.
<ul>
<li> <tt>no</tt> : <strong>2</strong>, but why use a process supervisor
in the first place? </li>
<li> <tt>on-success</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>on-failure</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>on-abnormal</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>on-watchdog</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. Again, this requires
a watchdog implementation. </li>
<li> <tt>on-abort</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<li> <tt>always</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
</ul>
</li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SuccessExitStatus=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. This can be easily
scripted, but supporting all the systemd formats is annoying. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestartPreventExitStatus=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. This is
exactly what <a href="s6-permafailon.html">s6-permafailon</a>
is for. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestartForceExitStatus=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>NonBlocking=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. This requires an
emulation of systemd's socket activation. s6 provides the useful parts of
it, like a <a href="s6-fdholder-daemon.html">process
to hold file descriptors</a>, but the systemd-specific API around socket
activation, <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/systemd/man/sd_listen_fds.html">sd_listen_fds(3)</a>,
still needs to be implemented. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>NotifyAccess=</tt> : <strong>1</strong> if <tt>none</tt>, <strong>7</strong>
otherwise, because it needs an implementation of <tt>sd_notify()</tt>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Sockets=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Requires an implementation
of systemd's socket activation. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>FileDescriptorStoreMax=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. Requires an implementation
of <tt>sd_notify()</tt>; the fd store itself is native to s6. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>USBFunctionDescriptors=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. This is
low-level machine management, not service management. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>USBFunctionStrings=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>OOMPolicy=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Same. </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="systemd.exec">
Directives documented in <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/systemd.exec.5.html">systemd.exec(5)</a>
</h3>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-paths">
Paths
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>ExecSearchPath=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>WorkingDirectory=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RootDirectory=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RootImage=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. I am discovering these
options in real time and shaking my head - systemd still manages to baffle me
with the amount of gratuitous ad-hoc that went into it. Still, this is
regular low-level programming for Linux, this is less difficult to implement than
systemd-specific stuff, that's why it only gets a 6. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RootImageOptions=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RootHash=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Please. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RootHashSignature=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RootVerity=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MountAPIVFS=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProtectProc=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProcSubset=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>BindPaths=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>BindReadOnlyPaths=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MountImages=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExtensionImages=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExtensionDirectories=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. It's a full low-level
userspace implementation at this point. It's not very <em>complex</em>, the 6 feels
accurate, but it's a whole lot of work. This is how systemd maintains its
hegemony: not because it does incredible, awe-inspiring magic, but because it
substitutes its monolithic self to a whole ecosystem, imposes its own API, and
locks users in — people who want to smoothly transition away from systemd need
to implement <em>the whole shtick</em>, which is obviously a huge undertaking, as
the author of <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20150516113530/http://uselessd.darknedgy.net/">uselessd</a>
can confirm. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-identity">
User/group identity
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>User=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. This looks very simple, but is
treacherous, because <tt>User=</tt> is a mash of two very different features:
setting users <em>statically</em> (via numeric ID, which don't change meanings
between two invocations) and setting users <em>dynamically</em> (via user name,
which needs to be interpreted by
<a href="https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/getpwnam.html">getpwnam(3)</a>
on every invocation of the service. s6 supports both, but since these are two
different things, the way to do them in s6 is different (statically setting the
UID and GID variables and calling
<a href="s6-applyuidgid.html">s6-applyuidgid -U</a>,
or calling <a href="s6-setuidgid.html">s6-setuidgid</a>).
This is the exact kind of small detail that makes writing an automatic converter more difficult
than it should be: the systemd unit file syntax is rife with semantic pitfalls, and managing
your way across it requires very close attention. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Group=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>DynamicUser=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Of course this flag has an
<em>entirely</em> different meaning from setting users statically or dynamically, or
else it would be too easy to understand. No, this flag is about <em>allocating temporary
new users</em>, which is a prime example of overengineering. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SupplementaryGroups=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PAMName=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Requires PAM command-line
utilities. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-capabilities">
Capabilities
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>CapabilityBoundingSet=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. This requires
command-line tools implementing capabilities. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>AmbientCapabilities=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Same. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-security">
Security
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>NoNewPrivileges=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Similar to capabilities,
this requires a command-line tool controlling the Linux-specific
<a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/prctl.2.html">prctl(2)</a> system
call. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SecureBits=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Same. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-mandatoryac">
Mandatory access control
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>SELinuxContext=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. This requires
command-line tools managing SELinux. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>AppArmorProfile=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Same, with AppArmor. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SmackProcessLabel=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Same, with SMACK.
systemd needs to know and understand all the Linux security modules in order
to interact with them. s6 does not - it expects a service's run script to
perform all the needed process state changes and controls before executing
into the daemon. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-properties">
Process properties
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>LimitCPU=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitFSIZE=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitDATA=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitSTACK=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitCORE=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitRSS=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitNOFILE=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitAS=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitNPROC=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitMEMLOCK=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitLOCKS=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. This resource limit
isn't natively supported by
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/s6/s6-softlimit.html">s6-softlimit</a>, but
it could appear in a future s6 version - and it's easy to add in any case. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitSIGPENDING=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitMSGQUEUE=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitNICE=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitRTPRIO=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LimitRTTIME=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>UMask=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CoredumpFilter=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Requires a
command-line tool around <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/prctl.2.html">prctl(2)</a>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>KeyringMode=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Requires
interaction with PAM and an understanding of keyrings. Fortunately,
practically nothing will need that. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>OOMScoreAdjust=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TimerSlackNSec=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. Requires a
command-line tool around <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/prctl.2.html">prctl(2)</a>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Personality=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Requires a
command-line tool around <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/personality.2.html">personality(2)</a>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IgnoreSIGPIPE=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-scheduling">
Scheduling
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Nice=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CPUSchedulingPolicy=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Requires a
command-line tool around <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/sched_setscheduler.2.html">sched_setscheduler(2)</a>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CPUSchedulingPriority=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CPUSchedulingResetOnFork=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CPUAffinity=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Requires a
command-line tool around <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/sched_setaffinity.2.html">sched_setaffinity(2)</a>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>NUMAPolicy=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Requires a
command-line tool around <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/set_mempolicy.2.html">set_mempolicy(2)</a>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>NUMAMask=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IOSchedulingClass=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Requires a
command-line tool around <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man2/ioprio_set.2.html">ioprio_set(2)</a>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IOSchedulingPriority=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. Same. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-sandboxing">
Sandboxing
</h4>
<p>
systemd gracefully turns off the sandboxing options on systems that
do not support the necessary functionality, so all these options can
be ignored (difficulty <strong>0</strong>) and the services will still
work. However, in order to actually implementing the sandboxing, it is
necessary to pair s6 with command-line tools that perform the required
process state changes by interfacing with namespaces, cgroups, seccomp,
or any other relevant feature of the Linux kernel, so for all these
directives the difficulty is somewhere between <strong>2</strong>, if
the tool already exists, and <strong>8</strong>, if it requires writing
a full container implementation from scratch. The following numbers are
only a rough guess.
</p>
<ul>
<li> <tt>ProtectSystem=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProtectHome=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RuntimeDirectory=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StateDirectory=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CacheDirectory=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LogsDirectory=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ConfigurationDirectory=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RuntimeDirectoryMode=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StateDirectoryMode=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CacheDirectoryMode=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LogsDirectoryMode=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ConfigurationDirectoryMode=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RuntimeDirectoryPreserve=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TimeoutCleanSec=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ReadWritePaths=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ReadOnlyPaths=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>InaccessiblePaths=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ExecPaths=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>NoExecPaths=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TemporaryFileSystem=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PrivateTmp=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PrivateDevices=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PrivateNetwork=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>NetworkNamespacePath=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PrivateIPC=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IPCNamespacePath=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PrivateUsers=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProtectHostname=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProtectClock=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProtectKernelTunables=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProtectKernelModules=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProtectKernelLogs=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ProtectControlGroups=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestrictAddressFamilies=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestrictFilesystems=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestrictNamespaces=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LockPersonality=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MemoryDenyWriteExecute=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestrictRealtime=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestrictSUIDSGID=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RemoveIPC=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PrivateMounts=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-filtering">
System call filtering
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>SystemCallFilter=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SystemCallErrorNumber=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SystemCallArchitectures=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SystemCallLog=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-environment">
Environment
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Environment=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>EnvironmentFile=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>PassEnvironment=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>UnsetEnvironment=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-logging">
Logging and standard input/output
</h4>
<ul>
<li> <tt>StandardInput=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StandardOutput=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>, except
for <tt>journal</tt> which cannot be supported (<strong>10</strong>). </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StandardError=</tt> : same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StandardInputText=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StandardInputData=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LogLevelMax=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LogExtraFields=</tt> : <strong>10</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LogRateLimitIntervalSec=</tt> : <strong>10</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LogRateLimitBurst=</tt> : <strong>10</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LogFilterPatterns=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>LogNamespace=</tt> : <strong>10</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SyslogIdentifier=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SyslogFacility=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SyslogLevel=</tt> : <strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SyslogLevelPrefix=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TTYPath=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TTYReset=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TTYVHangup=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TTYRows=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TTYColumns=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TTYDisallocate=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
</ul>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-credentials">
Credentials
</h4>
<p>
systemd implements its own credentials store mechanism, for no obvious
benefit. The whole credentials system needs to be reimplemented outside
of systemd in order for credentials-related directives to be supported
by s6. Consequently, all these directives are rated <strong>6</strong>.
</p>
<h4 id="systemd.exec-sysv">
System V compatibility
</h4>
<p>
The utmp directives can be made significantly easier to implement if the target
system is using <a href="//skarnet.org/software/utmps/">utmps</a>,
because the directives then become a single call to
<a href="//skarnet.org/software/utmps/utmps-write.html">utmps-write</a>
with the relevant options. If <a href="//skarnet.org/software/utmps/">utmps</a>
cannot be used, then the utmp calls need to be reimplemented.
</p>
<ul>
<li> <tt>UtmpIdentifier=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>UtmpMode=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="systemd.kill">
Directives documented in <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/systemd.kill.5.html">systemd.kill(5)</a>
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>KillMode=</tt> : depends on the kill mode.
<tt>control-group</tt> and <tt>mixed</tt> are <strong>3</strong>,
because they require cgroup control commands (that can be implemented
in shell). <tt>process</tt> is <strong>1</strong>. <tt>none</tt> is
<strong>2</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>KillSignal=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestartKillSignal=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. s6
doesn't use a different signal for restarting; implementing this
requires an outer layer. (This is overengineering.) </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SendSIGHUP=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. Same. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SendSIGKILL=</tt> : <strong>1</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>FinalKillSignal=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. (This
is <em>absolute</em> overengineering.) </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>WatchdogSignal=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. Only meaningful
with an implementation of systemd's watchdog system. </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="systemd.resource-control">
Directives documented in <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/systemd.resource-control.5.html">systemd.resource-control(5)</a>
</h3>
<p>
All these directives relate to cgroups, so implementing them means
having access to at least some cgroups commands (difficulty at least
<strong>3</strong>. Others are even more involved, requiring tight
service integration with the system. Generally, seeing these directives
in your unit files is a bad sign; despite some of them only having
<strong>3</strong> or <strong>4</strong> listed, we do not recommend
implementing <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/systemd.resource-control.5.html">systemd.resource-control(5)</a>
without having a full holistic view of the system.
</p>
<ul>
<li> <tt>CPUAccounting=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CPUWeight=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StartupCPUWeight=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Involves
startup and shutdown. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CPUQuota=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>CPUQuotaPeriodSec=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>AllowedCPUs=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StartupAllowedCPUs=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Involves
startup and shutdown. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>AllowedMemoryNodes=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StartupAllowedMemoryNodes=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>.
Involves startup and shutdown. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MemoryAccounting=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MemoryMin=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MemoryLow=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MemoryHigh=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MemoryMax=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MemorySwapMax=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>MemoryZSwapMax=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TasksAccounting=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>TasksMax=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IOAccounting=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IOWeight=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>StartupIOWeight=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Involves
startup and shutdown. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IODeviceWeight=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IOReadBandwidthMax=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IOWriteBandwidthMax=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IOReadIOPSMax=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IOWriteIOPSMax=</tt> : <strong>5</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IODeviceLatencyTargetSec=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IPAccounting=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IPAddressAllow=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IPAddressDeny=</tt> : <strong>7</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IPIngressFilterPath=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>IPEgressFilterPath=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>BPFProgram=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SocketBindAllow=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>SocketBindDeny=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>RestrictNetworkInterfaces=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>DeviceAllow=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>DevicePolicy=</tt> : <strong>6</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Slice=</tt> : <strong>9</strong>. Slices are a systemd concept,
and fully implementing them requires a holistic system analysis. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>Delegate=</tt> : <strong>4</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>DisableControllers=</tt> : <strong>3</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ManagedOOMSwap=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. Out-of-memory
management is an entire systemd subsystem; instead of implementing that,
we recommend provisioning your machines correctly, and freeing up more
resources for your applications by using s6.
<p />
<li> <tt>ManagedOOMMemoryPressure=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ManagedOOMMemoryPressureLimit=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
<p />
<li> <tt>ManagedOOMPreference=</tt> : <strong>8</strong>. </li>
</ul>
<h2 id="by-difficulty"> Directives rated by difficulty </h2>
<p>
Use this section to answer the question: "If I were to write a converter tool
from systemd to s6, what subset of the unit file syntax should I focus on
first?"
</p>
<p>
Take this classification with a grain of salt: for instance, it does not
make sense to implement an easy directive if it's only used in the context
of a larger subsystem that's much harder to implement - typically, most
cgroups-related resource control directives.
</p>
<h3 id="difficulty-0">
Difficulty: 0 — directives that can be ignored
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Description=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Documentation=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Upholds=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PropagatesReloadTo=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PropagatesStopTo=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StopPropagatedFrom=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IgnoreOnIsolate=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StopWhenUnneeded=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>AllowIsolate=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CollectMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SourcePath=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Type=idle</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RemainAfterExit=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>GuessMainPid=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExecReload=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutStartFailureMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutStopFailureMode=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-1">
Difficulty: 1 — direct functionality mapping
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>RefuseManualStop=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>FailureActionExitStatus=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SuccessActionExitStatus=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Type=simple</tt>, <tt>exec</tt> or <tt>oneshot</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExitType=main</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutStartSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutStopSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Restart=always</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestartPreventExitStatus=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>NotifyAccess=none</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExecSearchPath=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RootDirectory=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SupplementaryGroups=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitCPU=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitFSIZE=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitDATA=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitSTACK=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitCORE=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitRSS=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitNOFILE=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitAS=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitNPROC=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitMEMLOCK=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>UMask=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Nice=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RuntimeDirectory=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StateDirectory=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CacheDirectory=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LogsDirectory=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ConfigurationDirectory=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RuntimeDirectoryMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StateDirectoryMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CacheDirectoryMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LogsDirectoryMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ConfigurationDirectoryMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Environment=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>EnvironmentFile=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PassEnvironment=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>UnsetEnvironment=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StandardInput=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StandardOutput=</tt> (except <tt>journal</tt>) </li>
<li> <tt>StandardError=</tt> (except <tt>journal</tt>) </li>
<li> <tt>TTYPath=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>KillMode=process</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>KillSignal=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SendSIGKILL=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-2">
Difficulty: 2 — straightforward implementation
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Requires=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Before=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>After=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>OnSuccess=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>DefaultDependencies=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Type=forking</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PIDFile=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExecStart=</tt> (omitting some prefixes) </li>
<li> <tt>ExecStartPre=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExecStartPost=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExecCondition=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExecStopPost=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestartSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Restart=</tt> except <tt>on-watchdog</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestartForceExitStatus=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RootDirectoryStartOnly=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>WorkingDirectory=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitLOCKS=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitSIGPENDING=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitMSGQUEUE=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitNICE=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitRTPRIO=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LimitRTTIME=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>OOMScoreAdjust=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IgnoreSIGPIPE=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StandardInputText=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StandardInputData=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SyslogIdentifier=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SyslogFacility=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SyslogLevel=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>KillMode=none</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-3">
Difficulty: 3 — requires easy additional programming
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Wants=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Requisite=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>BindsTo=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PartOf=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>FailureAction=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SuccessAction=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StartLimitIntervalSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StartLimitBurst=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StartLimitAction=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExitType=cgroup</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SuccessExitStatus=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>User=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Group=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Personality=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CPUSchedulingPolicy=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CPUSchedulingPriority=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CPUSchedulingResetOnFork=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CPUAffinity=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>NUMAPolicy=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>NUMAMask=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IOSchedulingClass=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IOSchedulingPriority=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RuntimeDirectoryPreserve=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutCleanSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LoglevelMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TTYReset=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TTYVHangup=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TTYRows=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TTYColumns=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TTYDisallocate=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>KillMode=control-group</tt> and <tt>mixed</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CPUAccounting=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>AllowedCPUs=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>AllowedMemoryNodes=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MemoryAccounting=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MemoryMin=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MemoryLow=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MemoryHigh=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MemoryMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MemorySwapMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MemoryZSwapMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TasksAccounting=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TasksMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IOAccounting=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IOWeight=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>DisableControllers=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-4">
Difficulty: 4 — requires medium additional programming
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>RuntimeMaxSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RuntimeRandomizedExtraSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RequiresMountsFor=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RefuseManualStart=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PAMName=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CapabilityBoundingSet=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>AmbientCapabilities=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>NoNewPrivileges=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SecureBits=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CoredumpFilter=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimerSlackNSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LogFilterPatterns=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SyslogLevelPrefix=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>UtmpIdentifier=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>UtmpMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CPUWeight=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CPUQuota=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>CPUQuotaPeriodSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IODeviceLatencyTargetSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestrictNetworkInterfaces=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Delegate=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-5">
Difficulty: 5 — requires complex additional programming
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Conflicts=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>OnFailure=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RebootArgument=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Type=dbus</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>BusName=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExecStop=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>NonBlocking=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Sockets=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>DynamicUser=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SELinuxContext=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>AppArmorProfile=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SmackProcessLabel=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>KeyringMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ReadWritePaths=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ReadOnlyPaths=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>InaccessiblePaths=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExecPaths=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>NoExecPaths=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TemporaryFilesystem=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PrivateTmp=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PrivateDevices=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PrivateIPC=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IPCNamespacePath=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PrivateUsers=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectHostname=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RemoveIPC=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PrivateMounts=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestartKillSignal=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SendSIGHUP=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>FinalKillSignal=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IODeviceWeight=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IOReadBandwidthMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IOWriteBandwidthMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IOReadIOPSMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IOWriteIOPSMax=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-6">
Difficulty: 6 — requires a full independent implementation
of a Linux subsystem and/or a part of the systemd architecture
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>OnFailureJobMode=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RootImage=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RootImageOptions=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MountAPIVFS=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectProc=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProcSubset=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>BindPaths=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>BindReadOnlyPaths=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MountImages=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExtensionImages=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ExtensionDirectories=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectSystem=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectHome=</tt> </li>
<li> All <a href="https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man5/systemd.exec.5.html#CREDENTIALS">credentials-related</a> directives </li>
<li> <tt>SocketBindAllow=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SocketBindDeny=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>DeviceAllow=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>DevicePolicy=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-7">
Difficulty: 7 — requires a full independent implementation
of a complex Linux subsystem and/or a significant part of the
systemd architecture
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>Type=notify</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutAbortSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutStartFailureMode=abort</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>TimeoutStopFailureMode=abort</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>WatchdogSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Restart=on-watchdog</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>NotifyAccess=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>FileDescriptorStoreMax=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectClock=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectKernelTunables=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectKernelModules=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectKernelLogs=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ProtectControlGroups=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestrictAddressFamilies=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestrictFilesystems=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestrictNamespaces=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LockPersonality=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>MemoryDenyWriteExecute=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestrictRealtime=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RestrictSUIDSGID=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>WatchdogSignal=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IPAccounting=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IPAddressAllow=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IPAddressDeny=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-8">
Difficulty: 8 — requires a complete implementation of complex
Linux-specific tooling
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>JoinsNamespaceOf=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>PrivateNetwork=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>NetworkNamespacePath=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SystemCallFilter=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SystemCallErrorNumber=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SystemCallArchitectures=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>SystemCallLog=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IPIngressFilterPath=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>IPEgressFilterPath=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>BPFProgram=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ManagedOOMSwap=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ManagedOOMMemoryPressure=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ManagedOOMMemoryPressureLimit=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>ManagedOOMPreference=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-9">
Difficulty: 9 — requires a full system analysis and remodelization
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>JobTimeoutSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>JobRunningTimeoutSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>JobTimeoutAction=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>JobTimeoutRebootArgument=</tt> </li>
<li> Conditions and Asserts </li>
<li> <tt>USBFunctionDescriptors=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>USBFunctionStrings=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>OOMPolicy=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RootHash=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RootHashSignature=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>RootVerity=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StartupCPUWeight=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StartupAllowedCPUs=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StartupAllowedMemoryNodes=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StartupIOWeight=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>Slice=</tt> </li>
</ul>
<h3 id="difficulty-10">
Difficulty: 10 — implementing this basically means reimplementing systemd
</h3>
<ul>
<li> <tt>StandardOutput=journal</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>StandardError=journal</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LogExtraFields=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LogRateLimitIntervalSec=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LogRateLimitBurst=</tt> </li>
<li> <tt>LogNamespace=</tt> </li>
</ul>
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