Hey so, this is is a half-baked thought, but here goes: One problem I've hit when trying to use systemd unit file features is that they only work when executed by systemd. Let's take the example of User=, but it applies to tons of other ones too.
Wait you ask - your service runs under systemd, why do you care about running it not under systemd? The main case I hit is I often want to run my service under a debugger. If I just do gdb /usr/lib/myservice ... it will run as root. Now of course, I could runuser myservice gdb --args /usr/lib/myservice. But as a unit file gains more features, from WorkingDirectory to ProtectSystem=, I find myself wanting something like: systemd-run --exec-from-unit myservice.service /path/to/myservice/src/myservice Basically exec an uninstalled copy from the builddir. Or alternatively, do a `sudo make install` type thing and: systemd-run --exec-from-unit myservice.service --execstart-args gdb --args Has anyone else hit this? Am I missing something obvious? Taking this out a little bit, I could imagine having the systemd unit -> execprep as a shared library. This would make it easier to use inside daemon code itself. This solves a few scenarios like having the service itself spawn helper processes that don't quite fit into the template model. _______________________________________________ systemd-devel mailing list systemd-devel@lists.freedesktop.org https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
