systemd/User - ArchWiki

# systemd/User

Related articles

- systemd
- Automatic login to virtual console
- Start X at login

systemd offers users the ability to manage services under the user's control with a per-user systemd instance, enabling users to start, stop, enable, and disable their own units. This is convenient for daemons and other services that are commonly run for a single user, such as mpd, or to perform automated tasks like fetching mail. With some caveats it is even possible to run xorg and the entire window manager from user services.

## How it works

On the first login of a user, systemd automatically launches a `systemd --user` instance, responsible to manage user services. This process will survive as long as there is some session for that user, and will be killed as soon as the last session for the user is closed. When #Automatic start-up of systemd user instances is enabled, the instance is started on boot and won't be killed. By default no user services are run. User services can be used to run daemons or automated tasks, with all the benefits of systemd, like socket activation, timers, dependency system, strict process control via cgroups. User units are located in the following directories just as they would with system services (ordered by ascending precedence):

- `/usr/lib/systemd/user/` where services provided by installed packages go.
- `/etc/systemd/user/` where system-wide user services are placed by the system administrator.
- `~/.config/systemd/user/` where the user puts its own services.

When systemd user instance starts, it brings up the target `default.target`. After that systemd's user instance can be controlled manually with `systemctl --user`.

Note:

- Be aware that the `systemd --user` instance is a per-user process, and not per-session. The rationale is that most resources handled by user services, like sockets or state files will be per-user (live on the user's home dir) and not per session. This means that all user services run outside of a session. As a consequence, programs that need to be run inside a session will probably break in user services. The way systemd handles user sessions is pretty much in flux. See [1] and [2] for some hints on where things are going.
- `systemd --user` runs as a separate process from the `systemd --system` process. User units can not reference or depend on system units.

## Basic setup

Systemd user instance should be started automatically on first login. To check that it is already running you can use `systemctl --user status`.

Note: If systemd user instance is not started automatically check the file `/etc/pam.d/system-login`. It should contain a line similar to `-session optional pam_systemd.so`. Also check if a .pacnew file exists.

All the user services will be placed in `~/.config/systemd/user`. If you want to run services on first login, execute `systemctl --user enable service` for any service you want to be autostarted.

Note: Since systemd 206, the mechanism for systemd user instances has changed. Now the `pam_systemd.so` module launches a user instance by default. There is no need to launch it manually. `user-session@.service` from user-session-unitsAUR is obsolete now. With this change `systemd --user` runs outside of a user session, with the consequences this entails.

### D-Bus

Some programs will need a D-Bus user message bus. Traditionally this is started when launching a desktop environment via `dbus-launch`. However, if you are going to use some program depending on D-Bus as a systemd user service, you will also need to run the D-Bus server as a systemd service to satisfy this dependency.

Note: With the upcoming transition of systemd to kdbus, systemd will become the manager of system and user message buses anyway.

To set this up, you need to:

1. Add a service and socket units for the dbus server in `/etc/systemd/user/`

    /etc/systemd/user/dbus.socket

    [Unit]
    Description=D-Bus User Message Bus Socket

    [Socket]
    ListenStream=%t/bus

    [Install]
    WantedBy=sockets.target
    Also=dbus.service

    /etc/systemd/user/dbus.service

    [Unit]
    Description=D-Bus User Message Bus
    Documentation=man:dbus-daemon(1)
    Requires=dbus.socket

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/dbus-daemon --session --address=systemd: --nofork --nopidfile --systemd-activation
    ExecReload=/usr/bin/dbus-send --print-reply --session --type=method_call --dest=org.freedesktop.DBus / org.freedesktop.DBus.ReloadConfig

    [Install]
    Also=dbus.socket

2. The environment variable `DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS` must be set. It can be done using a drop-in config file for `user@.service`, by creating the following file:

    /etc/systemd/system/user@.service.d/dbus.conf

    [Service]
    Environment=DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/run/user/%I/bus

Note: Before systemd 209 `DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS` was set in upstream's `user@.service` unit, but not anymore. The reason seems to be that once the transition to kdbus is done, this variable will be set by `pam_systemd.so`.

3. Activate the socket for all users by running as root:

    # systemctl --global enable dbus.socket

### Environment variables

The user instance of systemd does not inherit any of the environment variables set in places like `.bashrc`, etc. There are three ways to set environment variables for the systemd user instance:

1. For users with a $HOME directory, use the `DefaultEnvironment` option in `~/.config/systemd/user.conf`. Affects only that user's user unit.
2. Use the `DefaultEnvironment` option in `/etc/systemd/user.conf` file. Affects all user units.
3. Add a drop-in config file in `/etc/systemd/system/user@.service.d/`. Affects all user units.
4. At any time, use `systemctl --user set-environment` or `systemctl --user import-environment`. Affects all user units started after setting the environment variables, but not the units that were already running.

    Tip: To set multiple variables at once, write a configuration file with a list of blank separated list of key=value pairs, and add `xargs systemctl --user set-environment < /path/to/file.conf` in your shell start-up file.

Some variables you probably may want to set are `DISPLAY` or `PATH`.

#### DISPLAY

Display is used by any X application to know which display to use. If you plan on launching X applications from systemd units, you need to set this variable. For example:

    /etc/systemd/user.conf

    ...
    DefaultEnvironment=DISPLAY=:0
    ...

Alternatively you can install an xinitrc script to get the correct environment variables:

    /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/import-display.sh

    #!/bin/sh

    systemctl --user import-environment DISPLAY XAUTHORITY

#### PATH

As any other environment variable you set in `.bashrc` or `.bash_profile`, the `PATH` variable is not available to systemd. If you customize your `PATH` and plan on launching applications that make use of it from systemd units, you should make sure the modified `PATH` is set on the systemd environment. Assuming you set your `PATH` in `.bash_profile`, the best way to make systemd aware of your modified `PATH` is by adding the following to `.bash_profile` after the `PATH` variable is set:

    ~/.bash_profile

    systemctl --user import-environment PATH

### Automatic start-up of systemd user instances

The systemd user instance is started after the first login of a user and killed after the last session of the user is closed. Sometimes it may be useful to start it right after boot, and keep the systemd user instance running after the last session closes, for instance to have some user process running without any open session. Lingering is used to that effect. Use the following command to enable lingering for specific user:

    # loginctl enable-linger username

Warning: systemd services are not sessions, they run outside of logind. Do not use lingering to enable automatic login as it will break the session.

## Xorg and systemd

There are several ways to run xorg within systemd units. Below there are two options, either by starting a new user session with an xorg process, or by launching xorg from a systemd user service.

### Automatic login into Xorg without display manager

The factual accuracy of this article or section is disputed.

Reason: This setup ends up with two user D-Bus buses, one for the desktop, and an other for systemd. Why can't we use the systemd one alone? (Discuss in Talk:Systemd/User#)

This option will launch a system unit that will start a user session with an xorg server and then run the usual `~/.xinitrc` to launch the window manager, etc.

You need to have #D-Bus correctly set up and xlogin-gitAUR installed.

Set up your xinitrc from the skeleton, so that it will source the files in `/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/`. Running your `~/.xinitrc` should not return, so either have `wait` as the last command, or add `exec` to the last command that will be called and which should not return (your window manager, for instance).

The session will use its own dbus daemon, but various systemd utilities will automatically connect to the `dbus.service` instance.

Finally, enable (as root) the xlogin service for automatic login at boot:

    # systemctl enable xlogin@username

The user session lives entirely inside a systemd scope and everything in the user session should work just fine.

### Xorg as a systemd user service

Alternatively, xorg can be run from within a systemd user service. This is nice since other X-related units can be made to depend on xorg, etc, but on the other hand, it has some drawbacks explained below.

Since version 1.16 xorg-server provides better integration with systemd in two ways:

- Can be run unprivileged, delegating device management to logind (see Hans de Goede commits around this commit).
- Can be made into a socket activated service (see this commit). This removes the need for systemd-xorg-launch-helper-gitAUR.

Unfortunately, to be able to run xorg in unprivileged mode, it needs to run inside a session. So, right now the handicap of running xorg as user service is that it must be run with root privileges (like before 1.16), and can't take advantage of the unprivileged mode introduced in 1.16.

Note: This is not a fundamental restriction imposed by logind, but the reason seems to be that xorg needs to know which session to take over, and right now it gets this information calling logind's `GetSessionByPID` using its own pid as argument. See this thread and xorg sources. It seems likely that xorg could be modified to get the session from the tty it is attaching to, and then it could run unprivileged from a user service outside a session.

This is how to launch xorg from a user service:

1. Make xorg run with root privileges and for any user, by editing `/etc/X11/Xwrapper.config`

    /etc/X11/Xwrapper.config

    allowed_users=anybody
    needs_root_rights=yes

2. Add the following units to `~/.config/systemd/user`

    ~/.config/systemd/user/xorg@.socket

    [Unit]
    Description=Socket for xorg at display %i

    [Socket]
    ListenStream=/tmp/.X11-unix/X%i

    ~/.config/systemd/user/xorg@.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Xorg server at display %i

    Requires=xorg@%i.socket
    After=xorg@%i.socket

    [Service]
    Type=simple
    SuccessExitStatus=0 1

    ExecStart=/usr/bin/Xorg :%i -nolisten tcp -noreset -verbose 2 "vt${XDG_VTNR}"

where `${XDG_VTNR}` is the virtual terminal where xorg will be launched, either hard-coded in the service unit, or set in the systemd environment with

    $ systemctl --user set-environment XDG_VTNR=1

Note: xorg should be launched at the same virtual terminal where the user logged in. Otherwise logind will consider the session inactive.

3. Make sure to configure the `DISPLAY` environment variable as explained above.

4. Then, to enable socket activation for xorg on display 0 and tty 2 one would do:

    $ systemctl --user set-environment XDG_VTNR=2     # So that xorg@.service knows which vt use
    $ systemctl --user start xorg@0.socket            # Start listening on the socket for display 0

Now running any X application will launch xorg on virtual terminal 2 automatically.

The environment variable `XDG_VTNR` can be set in the systemd environment from `.bash_profile`, and then one could start any X application, including a window manager, as a systemd unit that depends on `xorg@0.socket`.

Warning: Currently running a window manager as a user service means it runs outside of a session with the problems this may bring: break the session. However, it seems that systemd developers intend to make something like this possible. See [3] and [4]

## Writing user units

### Example

The following is an example of a user version of the mpd service.

    ~/.config/systemd/user/mpd.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Music Player Daemon

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/mpd --no-daemon

    [Install]
    WantedBy=default.target

### Example with variables

The following is an example of a user version of `sickbeard.service`, which takes into account variable home directories where SickBeard can find certain files:

    ~/.config/systemd/user/sickbeard.service

    [Unit]
    Description=SickBeard Daemon

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/env python2 /opt/sickbeard/SickBeard.py --config %h/.sickbeard/config.ini --datadir %h/.sickbeard

    [Install]
    WantedBy=default.target

As detailed in `man systemd.unit`, the `%h` variable is replaced by the home directory of the user running the service. There are other variables that can be taken into account in the systemd manpages.

### Note about X applications

Most X apps need a `DISPLAY` variable to run (so it's likely the first reason why your service files aren't starting). See #DISPLAY for how to set this variable for the entire systemd user instance. Alternatively, you could set this variable for a single unit as follows:

    ~/.config/systemd/user/parcellite.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Parcellite clipboard manager

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/parcellite
    Environment=DISPLAY=:0

    [Install]
    WantedBy=mystuff.target

## Some use cases

### Persistent terminal multiplexer

This article or section is out of date.

Reason: References `user-session@.service` instead of `user@.service`; the latter does not contain `Conflicts=getty@tty1.service`. (Discuss in Talk:Systemd/User#)

You may wish your user session to default to running a terminal multiplexer, such as GNU Screen or Tmux, in the background rather than logging you into a window manager session. Separating login from X login is most likely only useful for those who boot to a TTY instead of to a display manager (in which case you can simply bundle everything you start in with myStuff.target).

To create this type of user session, procede as above, but instead of creating wm.target, create multiplexer.target:

    [Unit]
    Description=Terminal multiplexer
    Documentation=info:screen man:screen(1) man:tmux(1)
    After=cruft.target
    Wants=cruft.target

    [Install]
    Alias=default.target

`cruft.target`, like `mystuff.target` above, should start anything you think should run before tmux or screen starts (or which you want started at boot regardless of timing), such as a GnuPG daemon session.

You then need to create a service for your multiplexer session. Here is a sample service, using tmux as an example and sourcing a gpg-agent session which wrote its information to `/tmp/gpg-agent-info`. This sample session, when you start X, will also be able to run X programs, since DISPLAY is set.

    [Unit]
    Description=tmux: A terminal multiplixer
    Documentation=man:tmux(1)
    After=gpg-agent.service
    Wants=gpg-agent.service

    [Service]
    Type=forking
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/tmux start
    ExecStop=/usr/bin/tmux kill-server
    Environment=DISPLAY=:0
    EnvironmentFile=/tmp/gpg-agent-info

    [Install]
    WantedBy=multiplexer.target

Once this is done, `systemctl --user enable` `tmux.service`, `multiplexer.target` and any services you created to be run by `cruft.target` and you should be set to go! Activated `user-session@.service` as described above, but be sure to remove the `Conflicts=getty@tty1.service` from `user-session@.service`, since your user session will not be taking over a TTY. Congratulations! You have a running terminal multiplexer and some other useful programs ready to start at boot!

### Window manager

To run a window manager as a systemd service, you first need to run #Xorg as a systemd user service. In the following we will use awesome as an example:

    ~/.config/systemd/user/awesome.service

    [Unit]
    Description=Awesome window manager
    After=xorg.target
    Requires=xorg.target

    [Service]
    ExecStart=/usr/bin/awesome
    Restart=always
    RestartSec=10

    [Install]
    WantedBy=wm.target

Note: The `[Install]` section includes a `WantedBy` part. When using `systemctl --user enable` it will link this as `~/.config/systemd/user/wm.target.wants/window_manager.service`, allowing it to be started at login. Is recommended to enable this service, not to link it manually.

## See also

- KaiSforza's Bitbucket wiki
- Zoqaeski's units on GitHub
- Collection of useful systemd user units
- Arch forum thread about changes in systemd 206 user instances

Categories:

- Daemons and system services
- Boot process