6

I'm using the sh -c exec idiom in an ExecStart statement (in a service unit file) to interpolate some shell commands. For example:

ExecStart=/bin/sh -ec "exec /usr/bin/foo $(/usr/bin/foo-config)"

It works great. However, when I look at the journal for this service, the process name is sh instead of foo. Is there a way to lie about the process name using this idiom?

Improve this question
2
  • Try adding something directly after the command argument, e.g. sh -ec "exec whatever" desired-name. It will be set as $0 for the shell. Not sure if it will carry through to where you want it but it's a good bet. Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 17:58
  • @Wildcard: Unfortunately, that did not work. Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 18:11

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
10

Ah, this turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be. Found an answer here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/a/229525/11995!

    SyslogIdentifier=foo
Improve this answer
0

Have you considered using an environment file or variable to do your last-minute configuration instead of a command? Something like (untested):

Environment= ARGS=--whatever
EnvironmentFile=-/etc/foo/foo.config
ExecStart=/usr/bin/foo $ARGS

That seems more in line with the 'systemd way'.

Improve this answer
2
  • I agree that this approach would be better; unfortunately, I'm trying to wrap something that works a certain way, and I don't have much control over it. Specifically, foo-config does some critical parsing of the config file to generate command-line arguments. This parsing needs to happen at run time to capture any subsequent changes to the config file. Is there a way to do something like Environment=ARGS=$(/usr/bin/foo-config)? Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 18:15
  • In that case (still not sure I agree), you might want to create your own shell script with the same name, e.g. /usr/local/bin/foo. This script could call foo-config and then ultimately /usr/bin/foo? (Again, not tested.) Commented Jun 13, 2016 at 18:18

You must log in to answer this question.

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.