diff --git a/man/systemd.unit.xml b/man/systemd.unit.xml index 9cabc3c4f8..2baf9d17e8 100644 --- a/man/systemd.unit.xml +++ b/man/systemd.unit.xml @@ -189,15 +189,24 @@ suffix is .requires/ in this case. Along with a unit file foo.service, a "drop-in" directory - foo.service.d/ may exist. All files with the suffix - .conf from this directory will be parsed after the file itself is - parsed. This is useful to alter or add configuration settings for a unit, without having to - modify unit files. Each drop-in file must have appropriate section headers. Note that for - instantiated units, this logic will first look for the instance .d/ - subdirectory and read its .conf files, followed by the template - .d/ subdirectory and the .conf files there. + foo.service.d/ may exist. All files with the suffix .conf from this + directory will be parsed after the unit file itself is parsed. This is useful to alter or add configuration + settings for a unit, without having to modify unit files. Drop-in files must contain appropriate section + headers. For instantiated units, this logic will first look for the instance .d/ subdirectory + (e.g. foo@bar.service.d/) and read its .conf files, followed by the template + .d/ subdirectory (e.g. foo@.service.d/) and the .conf + files there. Moreover for units names containing dashes (-), the set of directories generated by + truncating the unit name after all dashes is searched too. Specifically, for a unit name + foo-bar-baz.service not only the the regular drop-in directory + foo-bar-baz.service.d/ is searched but also both foo-bar-.service.d/ and + foo-.service.d/. This is useful for defining common drop-ins for a set of related units, whose + names begin with a common prefix. This scheme is particularly useful for mount, automount and slice units, whose + systematic naming structure is built around dashes as component separators. Note that equally named drop-in files + further down the prefix hierarchy override those further up, + i.e. foo-bar-.service.d/10-override.conf overrides + foo-.service.d/10-override.conf. - In addition to /etc/systemd/system, the drop-in .d + In addition to /etc/systemd/system, the drop-in .d/ directories for system services can be placed in /usr/lib/systemd/system or /run/systemd/system directories. Drop-in files in /etc take precedence over those in /run which in turn take precedence over those