346 lines
14 KiB
XML
346 lines
14 KiB
XML
<?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
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<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
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"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY % entities SYSTEM "custom-entities.ent" >
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%entities;
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]>
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<!--
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This file is part of systemd.
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Copyright 2015 Zbigniew Jędrzejewski-Szmek
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systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
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under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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systemd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
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WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
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Lesser General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
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along with systemd; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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-->
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<refentry id="systemd.generator">
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<refentryinfo>
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<title>systemd.generator</title>
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<productname>systemd</productname>
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<authorgroup>
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<author>
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<contrib>Developer</contrib>
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<firstname>Lennart</firstname>
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<surname>Poettering</surname>
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<email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
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</author>
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</authorgroup>
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</refentryinfo>
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<refmeta>
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<refentrytitle>systemd.generator</refentrytitle>
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<manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
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</refmeta>
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<refnamediv>
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<refname>systemd.generator</refname>
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<refpurpose>Systemd unit generators</refpurpose>
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</refnamediv>
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<refsynopsisdiv>
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<cmdsynopsis>
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<command>/path/to/generator</command>
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<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>normal-dir</replaceable></arg>
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<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>early-dir</replaceable></arg>
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<arg choice="plain"><replaceable>late-dir</replaceable></arg>
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</cmdsynopsis>
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<para>
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<literallayout><filename>/run/systemd/system-generators/*</filename>
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<filename>/etc/systemd/system-generators/*</filename>
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<filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/system-generators/*</filename>
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<filename>&systemgeneratordir;/*</filename></literallayout>
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</para>
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<para>
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<literallayout><filename>/run/systemd/user-generators/*</filename>
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<filename>/etc/systemd/user-generators/*</filename>
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<filename>/usr/local/lib/systemd/user-generators/*</filename>
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<filename>&usergeneratordir;/*</filename></literallayout>
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</para>
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</refsynopsisdiv>
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<refsect1>
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<title>Description</title>
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<para>Generators are small binaries that live in
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<filename>&usergeneratordir;/</filename> and other directories
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listed above.
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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will execute those binaries very early at bootup and at
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configuration reload time — before unit files are loaded.
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Generators can dynamically generate unit files or create symbolic
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links to unit files to add additional dependencies, thus extending
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or overriding existing definitions. Their main purpose is to
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convert configuration files that are not native unit files
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dynamically into native unit files.</para>
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<para>Generators are loaded from a set of paths determined during
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compilation, as listed above. System and user generators are loaded
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from directories with names ending in
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<filename>system-generators/</filename> and
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<filename>user-generators/</filename>, respectively. Generators
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found in directories listed earlier override the ones with the
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same name in directories lower in the list. A symlink to
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<filename>/dev/null</filename> or an empty file can be used to
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mask a generator, thereby preventing it from running. Please note
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that the order of the two directories with the highest priority is
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reversed with respect to the unit load path, and generators in
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<filename>/run</filename> overwrite those in
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<filename>/etc</filename>.</para>
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<para>After installing new generators or updating the
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configuration, <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command> may be
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executed. This will delete the previous configuration created by
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generators, re-run all generators, and cause
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<command>systemd</command> to reload units from disk. See
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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for more information.
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</para>
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</refsect1>
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<refsect1>
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<title>Writing generators</title>
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<para>Generators are invoked with three arguments: paths to
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runtime directories where generators can place their generated
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unit files or symlinks.</para>
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<orderedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><parameter>normal-dir</parameter></para>
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<para>argv[1] may be used to override unit files in
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<filename>/usr</filename>, but not those in
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<filename>/etc</filename>. This means that unit files placed
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in this directory take precedence over vendor unit
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configuration but not over native user/administrator unit
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configuration.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><parameter>early-dir</parameter></para>
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<para>argv[2] may be used to override unit files in
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<filename>/usr</filename> and in
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<filename>/etc</filename>. This means that unit files placed
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in this directory take precedence over all configuration,
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both vendor and user/administrator.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><parameter>late-dir</parameter></para>
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<para>argv[3] may be used to extend the unit file tree without
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overriding any other unit files. Any native configuration
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files supplied by the vendor or user/administrator take
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precedence over the generated ones placed in this directory.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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<refsect2>
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<title>Notes</title>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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All generators are executed in parallel. That means all
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executables are started at the very same time and need to
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be able to cope with this parallelism.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Generators are run very early at boot and cannot rely on
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any external services. They may not talk to any other
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process. That includes simple things such as logging to
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<citerefentry
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project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>syslog</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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or <command>systemd</command> itself (this means: no
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>!). They
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can however rely on the most basic kernel functionality to
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be available, including a mounted <filename>/sys</filename>,
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<filename>/proc</filename>, <filename>/dev</filename>.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Units written by generators are removed when the configuration
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is reloaded. That means the lifetime of the generated
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units is closely bound to the reload cycles of
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<command>systemd</command> itself.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Generators should only be used to generate unit files, not
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any other kind of configuration. Due to the lifecycle
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logic mentioned above, generators are not a good fit to
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generate dynamic configuration for other services. If you
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need to generate dynamic configuration for other services,
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do so in normal services you order before the service in
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question.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Since
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<citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>syslog</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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is not available (see above), log messages have to be
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written to <filename>/dev/kmsg</filename> instead.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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It is a good idea to use the
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<varname>SourcePath=</varname> directive in generated unit
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files to specify the source configuration file you are
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generating the unit from. This makes things more easily
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understood by the user and also has the benefit that
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systemd can warn the user about configuration files that
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changed on disk but have not been read yet by systemd.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Generators may write out dynamic unit files or just hook
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unit files into other units with the usual
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<filename>.wants/</filename> or
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<filename>.requires/</filename> symlinks. Often, it is
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nicer to simply instantiate a template unit file from
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<filename>/usr</filename> with a generator instead of
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writing out entirely dynamic unit files. Of course, this
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works only if a single parameter is to be used.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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If you are careful, you can implement generators in shell
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scripts. We do recommend C code however, since generators
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are executed synchronously and hence delay the
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entire boot if they are slow.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Regarding overriding semantics: there are two rules we
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try to follow when thinking about the overriding semantics:
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</para>
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<orderedlist numeration="lowerroman">
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<listitem>
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<para>User configuration should override vendor
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configuration. This (mostly) means that stuff from
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<filename>/etc</filename> should override stuff from
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<filename>/usr</filename>.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>Native configuration should override non-native
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configuration. This (mostly) means that stuff you
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generate should never override native unit files for the
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same purpose.</para>
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</listitem>
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</orderedlist>
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<para>Of these two rules the first rule is probably the more
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important one and breaks the second one sometimes. Hence,
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when deciding whether to user argv[1], argv[2], or argv[3],
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your default choice should probably be argv[1].</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para>
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Instead of heading off now and writing all kind of
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generators for legacy configuration file formats, please
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think twice! It's often a better idea to just deprecate
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old stuff instead of keeping it artificially alive.
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</para>
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</listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</refsect2>
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</refsect1>
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<refsect1>
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<title>Examples</title>
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<example>
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<title>systemd-fstab-generator</title>
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<para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-fstab-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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converts <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> into native mount
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units. It uses argv[1] as location to place the generated unit
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files in order to allow the user to override
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<filename>/etc/fstab</filename> with her own native unit files,
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but also to ensure that <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>
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overrides any vendor default from <filename>/usr</filename>.
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</para>
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<para>After editing <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>, the user
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should invoke <command>systemctl daemon-reload</command>. This
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will re-run all generators and cause <command>systemd</command>
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to reload units from disk. To actually mount new directories
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added to <filename>fstab</filename>, <command>systemctl start
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<replaceable>/path/to/mountpoint</replaceable></command> or
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<command>systemctl start local-fs.target</command> may be used.
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</para>
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</example>
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<example>
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<title>systemd-system-update-generator</title>
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<para><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system-update-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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temporarily redirects <filename>default.target</filename> to
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<filename>system-update.target</filename> if a system update is
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scheduled. Since this needs to override the default user
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configuration for <filename>default.target</filename>, it uses
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argv[2]. For details about this logic, see
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<ulink url="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/SystemUpdates">Implementing
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Offline System Updates</ulink>.</para>
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</example>
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<example>
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<title>Debuging a generator</title>
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<programlisting>dir=$(mktemp -d)
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SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL=debug &systemgeneratordir;/systemd-fstab-generator \
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"$dir" "$dir" "$dir"
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find $dir</programlisting>
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</example>
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</refsect1>
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<refsect1>
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<title>See also</title>
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<para>
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-cryptsetup-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-debug-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-fstab-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>fstab</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-getty-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-gpt-auto-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-hibernate-resume-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system-update-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-sysv-generator</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
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<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
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</para>
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</refsect1>
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</refentry>
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