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@nickjacob
Last active March 17, 2023 16:11
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execute arbitrary bash code/variable substitution in systemd units
[Unit]
Description=Demonstrate Bash
[Service]
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/bash -c "/usr/bin/systemctl set-environment MYVAR=$(( 2 + 2 ))"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/echo "2 + 2 = ${MYVAR}"
@tzkmx
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tzkmx commented Oct 18, 2017

The scope of this variables is at systemd manager, so they are available to all systemd units, you can clean it with ExecStop directive invoking systemctl unset-environment. Also, you can use templated units, and use the variable %i to populate a different variable for every different instance thus avoiding variables collision without copypasting unit files.

https://gist.github.com/tzkmx/0ae0d2686ee5da5f245f330e3a6a3329

@katcaola
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katcaola commented Jan 25, 2018

Must you use ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/bash or ExecStart=/usr/bin/echo ?
Could you use ExecStartPre=/bin/sh?

@a0s
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a0s commented Jun 14, 2018

👍

@markstos
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@katcaola Yes. The binary just has to be given with an absolute path.

@d-baranowski
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thx 👍

@PhilipSchmid
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Thanks! Used it to dynamically set a USB Ethernet dongle to a separate namespace:

https://gist.github.com/PhilipSchmid/55e40dba4e323e9236a1101a7d0d6abb

@dtrv
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dtrv commented May 22, 2020

Note it won't work if user is not root (i.e. if you define "User" in [Service] section). It can be fixed with "PermissionsStartOnly=true", so all commands will be executed as root, and ExecStart command will be run as the defined user as intended.

add --user to systemctl and it works.

@zffocussss
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nice! I have a question why does env variables generated by ExecStartPre can be used by ExecStart?

@maffe
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maffe commented Apr 27, 2022

I prefer to write the variable to a file specific to this unit:

[Service]
EnvironmentFile=-/dev/shm/demo.env
ExecStartPre=/usr/bin/bash -c "echo MYVAR=$(( 2 + 2 )) >/dev/shm/demo.env"
ExecStart=/usr/bin/echo "2 + 2 = ${MYVAR}"

@mjtiempo
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Thanks. I use it to finally make tigervnc work with SDDM:
https://gist.github.com/mjtiempo/8662e88da74236c58115bed5cc78ceaf

@KalanaDananjaya
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KalanaDananjaya commented Mar 17, 2023

Beware that there's a pitfall if you have to use %s with your command.
echo (date +%s)
SystemD sees this as user shell and resolve to /bin/sh instead. You need to use %%s to avoid that.

EnvironmentFile=/tmp/timestamp.txt
ExecStartPre=/bin/bash -c "echo TIMESTAMP=$(date +%%s) > /tmp/timestamp.txt;"

Although this seems simple, it was quite hard to find this info. ChatGPT was not yielding a correct result either.

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