Systemd
systemd
Yes, like daemons are usually written this has to be written lowercase.
What is systemd?
systemd is a replacement for the old and rusty init system of Linux. It has many new features and extends the normal init system with the ability to watch processes after the start has done, list sockets owned by processes started with systemd, adds security features like capabilities(7) and a lot more.
Maybe it will be as good as SMF (Service Management Facility) of Solaris one day :-).
Take a look with systemctl
List units
As you can see, there are hardware and software related units.
# systemctl list-units
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION
proc-sys-fs-binfmt_misc.automount loaded active running Arbitrary Executable File Formats File System Automount Point
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:02.0-backlight-acpi_video0.device loaded active plugged /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/backlight/acpi_video0
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:02.0-drm-card0-card0\x2dLVDS\x2d1-intel_backlight.device loaded active plugged /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:19.0-net-eth0.device loaded active plugged 82579LM Gigabit Network Connection
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1a.0-usb1-1\x2d1-1\x2d1.4-1\x2d1.4:1.0-bluetooth-hci0-rfkill3.device loaded active plugged /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1a.0-usb1-1\x2d1-1\x2d1.4-1\x2d1.4:1.0-bluetooth-hci0.device loaded active plugged /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1a.0
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1b.0-sound-card0.device loaded active plugged 6 Series/C200 Series Chipset Family High Definition Audio Contro
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1c.1-0000:03:00.0-ieee80211-phy0-rfkill2.device loaded active plugged /sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:1c.1/0000:03:00.0
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1c.1-0000:03:00.0-net-wlan0.device loaded active plugged Centrino Advanced-N 6205 [Taylor Peak] (Centrino Advanced-N 62
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1d.0-usb2-2\x2d1-2\x2d1.4-2\x2d1.4:1.1-tty-ttyACM0.device loaded active plugged F5521gw
sys-devices-pci0000:00-0000:00:1d.0-usb2-2\x2d1-2\x2d1.4-2\x2d1.4:1.3-tty-ttyACM1.device loaded active plugged F5521gw
...
session-c2.scope loaded active running Session c2 of user lollypop
accounts-daemon.service loaded active running Accounts Service
● anacron.service loaded failed failed Run anacron jobs
apparmor.service loaded active exited LSB: AppArmor initialization
apport.service loaded active exited LSB: automatic crash report generation
...
In this example you can see that the anacron.service failed to start.
Display unit status
# systemctl status anacron
● anacron.service - Run anacron jobs
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/anacron.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fr 2015-08-28 09:18:13 CEST; 31min ago
Process: 1591 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/anacron -dsq (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Main PID: 1591 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Aug 28 09:18:13 lollybook systemd[1]: Started Run anacron jobs.
Aug 28 09:18:13 lollybook systemd[1]: Starting Run anacron jobs...
Aug 28 09:18:13 lollybook systemd[1]: anacron.service: main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Aug 28 09:18:13 lollybook anacron[1591]: anacron: Can't chdir to /var/spool/anacron: No such file or directory
Aug 28 09:18:13 lollybook systemd[1]: Unit anacron.service entered failed state.
Aug 28 09:18:13 lollybook systemd[1]: anacron.service failed.
Ah, deleted the anacron spool directory. ;-)
Restart units
Fix the problem and restart the service.
root@lollybook:~# mkdir /var/spool/anacron
root@lollybook:~# systemctl restart anacron.service
root@lollybook:~# systemctl status anacron
● anacron.service - Run anacron jobs
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/anacron.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Fr 2015-08-28 09:53:49 CEST; 4s ago
Main PID: 5179 (anacron)
CGroup: /system.slice/anacron.service
└─5179 /usr/sbin/anacron -dsq
Aug 28 09:53:49 lollybook systemd[1]: Started Run anacron jobs.
Aug 28 09:53:49 lollybook systemd[1]: Starting Run anacron jobs...
Aug 28 09:53:49 lollybook anacron[5179]: Anacron 2.3 started on 2015-08-28
Aug 28 09:53:49 lollybook anacron[5179]: Will run job `cron.daily' in 5 min.
Aug 28 09:53:49 lollybook anacron[5179]: Will run job `cron.weekly' in 10 min.
Aug 28 09:53:49 lollybook anacron[5179]: Will run job `cron.monthly' in 15 min.
Aug 28 09:53:49 lollybook anacron[5179]: Jobs will be executed sequentially
Display unit declaration
# systemctl cat zfs.target
# /lib/systemd/system/zfs.target
[Unit]
Description=ZFS startup target
Requires=zfs-mount.service
Requires=zfs-share.service
Wants=zed.service
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Sockets
# systemctl list-sockets --all
LISTEN UNIT ACTIVATES
/run/acpid.socket acpid.socket acpid.service
/run/systemd/fsckd systemd-fsckd.socket systemd-fsckd.service
/run/systemd/initctl/fifo systemd-initctl.socket systemd-initctl.service
/run/systemd/journal/dev-log systemd-journald-dev-log.socket systemd-journald.service
/run/systemd/journal/socket systemd-journald.socket systemd-journald.service
/run/systemd/journal/stdout systemd-journald.socket systemd-journald.service
/run/systemd/journal/syslog syslog.socket rsyslog.service
/run/systemd/shutdownd systemd-shutdownd.socket systemd-shutdownd.service
/run/udev/control systemd-udevd-control.socket systemd-udevd.service
/run/uuidd/request uuidd.socket uuidd.service
/var/run/avahi-daemon/socket avahi-daemon.socket avahi-daemon.service
/var/run/cups/cups.sock cups.socket cups.service
/var/run/dbus/system_bus_socket dbus.socket dbus.service
127.0.0.1:631 cups.socket cups.service
[::1]:631 cups.socket cups.service
audit 1 systemd-journald-audit.socket systemd-journald.service
kobject-uevent 1 systemd-udevd-kernel.socket systemd-udevd.service
17 sockets listed.
View dependencies
What depends on zfs.target:
# systemctl list-dependencies --reverse zfs.target
zfs.target
● ├─basic.target
...
● └─multi-user.target
...
And what do we need to reach the zfs.target?
# systemctl list-dependencies --recursive zfs.target
zfs.target
● ├─zed.service
● ├─zfs-mount.service
● └─zfs-share.service
Security
Use capabilities to drop user privileges (CapabilityBoundingSet)
# systemctl cat systemd-networkd.service --no-pager
...
[Service]
Type=notify
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=0
ExecStart=/lib/systemd/systemd-networkd
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_NET_ADMIN CAP_NET_BIND_SERVICE CAP_NET_BROADCAST CAP_NET_RAW CAP_SETUID CAP_SETGID CAP_SETPCAP CAP_CHOWN CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE CAP_FOWNER
ProtectSystem=full
ProtectHome=yes
WatchdogSec=1min
...
Now the process is started with exactly the capabilities it needs to have. Even if it starts as root all unnessesary capabilities are dropped for starting the process.
I dont want to copy the whole man page of capabilities(7) here but you can take a look to understand what this capabilities are.
Units
[Unit]
Define dependencies
For example the zfs.target is defined like this:
# systemctl cat zfs.target
# /lib/systemd/system/zfs.target
[Unit]
Description=ZFS startup target
Requires=zfs-mount.service
Requires=zfs-share.service
Wants=zed.service
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
This means to reach the zfs.target we want that zed.service is started if enabled and we need zfs-mount.service and zfs-share.service.
Directories
ReadWrite-, ReadOnly- and InaccessibleDirectories
Private Tmp-Directories
Mounts a private incarnation of /tmp and /var/tmp which only lives as long as the unit is up. When the unit comes down the directories are cleared. This is done by a seperate namespace for this unit.
[Unit]
...
PrivateTmp=true|false
...
If several units should share a private tmp-directory you can use JoinsNamespaceOf=<unit1>[,<unit2>,<unit3>].
[Service]
[Install]
Tools
Testing around with capabilities
For example arping:
# getcap /usr/bin/arping
/usr/bin/arping = cap_net_raw+ep
With this capability set we can use this as normal user:
lollypop $ /usr/bin/arping -I wlan0 192.168.178.1
ARPING 192.168.178.1 from 192.168.178.31 wlan0
Unicast reply from 192.168.178.1 [24:65:11:F0:DC:A8] 1.774ms
Unicast reply from 192.168.178.1 [24:65:11:F0:DC:A8] 1.658ms
If we remove this capability it does not work:
# setcap cap_net_raw=-ep /usr/bin/arping
lollypop $ /usr/bin/arping -I wlan0 192.168.178.1
arping: socket: Operation not permitted
Of course it still works as root as root has all capabilities:
root@lollybook:~# /usr/bin/arping -I wlan0 192.168.178.1
ARPING 192.168.178.1 from 192.168.178.31 wlan0
Unicast reply from 192.168.178.1 [24:65:11:F0:DC:A8] 2.052ms
Unicast reply from 192.168.178.1 [24:65:11:F0:DC:A8] 1.852ms
Received 2 response(s)
So we better set this capability again:
# setcap cap_net_raw=+ep /usr/bin/arping