Understanding systemd units

Conclusions

Creating systemd units yourself is not rocket science. What may seem a little confused at first glance is actually a well organized combination of interacting components. Compared to the init files in SysVinit, system units are easier to create and maintain. In particular, unlike with some other init systems, you do not need to be familiar with a scripting language to create unit files, since these are simple INI files.

Plenty of documentation is available for Systemd in general and system units in particular. The DigitalOcean [1] website provides a good overview of the relationships between units. Other reliable points of contact on Systemd and its components are Freedesktop [2] and Systemd-creator Lennart Poettering's blog site "Pid Eins" [3].

TIP

When determining the optimal start time for a service, take a look at the output of systemd-analyze blame, which breaks down the boot process.

Infos

  1. DigitalOcean: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/understanding-systemd-units-and-unit-files
  2. Freedesktop: https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/
  3. Systemd blog: http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd-for-admins-1.html

The Author

Ferdinand Thommes lives and works as a Linux developer, freelance writer, and tour guide in Berlin.

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