DietPi-Services | Feature Req | Make DietPi-Services Stop accept service name arguments

[ReanimationXP]

Self-explanatory. Would like to be able to use this akin to net start / net stop, and use the commands on individual services.

dietpi-services stop apache
dietpi-services restart apache
dietpi-services disable apache (would prevent autostart on boot)

[Fourdee]

@ReanimationXP

dietpi-services stop apache

Great idea 👍

dietpi-services disable apache

Yep, we can do that. Although we'd need to mask the service as all services are disabled by default, to allow dietpi-services to take control.

[Invictaz]

Interesting idea

[ReanimationXP]

we'd need to mask the service as all services are disabled by default, to allow dietpi-services to take control.

Mask which service? I don't follow.

[Fourdee]

I added the ability to mask/unmask services using:
dietpi-services mask servicename

https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/blob/testing/dietpi/dietpi-services#L16

This will prevent it from running. We cant use disable as DietPi relies on this to take over control from SystemD.

[Fourdee]

Reopened to consider:

dietpi-services stop apache
dietpi-services restart apache

[Fourdee]

[ReanimationXP]

Thanks for implementing this. I'd like to suggest the term mask be changed to something else more akin to disable. Without reading this thread, even with the help above, I'm completely unclear on what that functionality would do.

[Fourdee]

@ReanimationXP

I'd like to suggest the term mask be changed to something else more akin to disable

Agree 👍

[ReanimationXP]

I assume what is happening is all dietpi-services are separate from the list of systemd services, and thus you are enabling/disabling within the context of dietpi, correct? If so, I think disable still applies, just perhaps with an asterisk that enable, disable, and any other related commands cannot be used on systemd services without importing/converting them into the dietpi context.

If it's tried, a simple return of "I can't disable a systemd service - here's how to convert/import it into dietpi" would be nice.

[Fourdee]

@ReanimationXP

• enable/disable/stop/start will work for any SystemD service.
• Items marked (all services), will only effect services known to DietPi: https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/1114#issuecomment-350516067

[ReanimationXP]

I'm still confused then. I was drawing my conclusions from this comment:

dietpi-services mask servicename
This will prevent it from running. We cant use disable as DietPi relies on this to take over control from SystemD.

Back to wording, activate/deactivate or mark/unmark might be good alternatives to mask/unmask. Only problem there is active might infer running state.

[ReanimationXP]

I see what you're saying now.. that disable when applied to a systemd service would take a different action. Applied to a dietpi-service, disable would be functionally the same as mask. Perhaps that could just happen silently if they attempt a disable/enable on a known dietpi service?

[Fourdee]

[ReanimationXP]

erhm, k now confused again. lol. Assuming there was already a cron service in systemd, what happened to it when you symlink it to dev/null?

[Fourdee]

@ReanimationXP

Assuming there was already a cron service in systemd, what happened to it when you symlink it to dev/null?

Disables it, prevents it from running. Enabling it will restore the service and remove /dev/null symlink:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/816285/what-is-the-difference-between-systemctl-mask-and-systemctl-disable

[ReanimationXP]

Well, right, but was it not overwritten? Where did it go should they want to add it back manually? (Forgive my ignorance, I'm a Windows guy.)

[Fourdee]

@ReanimationXP

https://askubuntu.com/questions/816285/what-is-the-difference-between-systemctl-mask-and-systemctl-disable
When you mask a service, a symlink is created from /etc/systemd/system to /dev/null, leaving the original unit file elsewhere untouched. When you unmask a service the symlink is deleted.

dietpi-services disable XXX = mask
dietpi-services enable XXX = unmask

[Fourdee]

Marking as completed.

[jkossis]

@Fourdee

For clarity, if I wanted to disable a diet-pi service from starting at boot (such as transmission-daemon),
do I do it through systemctl, or through dietpi-services? If the later, do I need to run some combination of mask/unmask as well as disable? Just a little confused. Could be my lack of understanding here.

I appreciate the help.

[Fourdee]

@jkossis

For clarity, if I wanted to disable a diet-pi service from starting at boot (such as transmission-daemon),
do I do it through systemctl, or through dietpi-services? If the later, do I need to run some combination of mask/unmask as well as disable? Just a little confused. Could be my lack of understanding here.

By default DietPi-Services disables services which allows it to take manual start/stop control of.

To disable DietPi-Services from controlling the service, you need to either:

• Mask service systemctl mask servicename
• dietpi-services disable servicename. This is the same as running the command above.

[MichaIng]

@jkossis
And as masking does not work, if the original .service file is placed within /etc/systemd/system/, to completely disable those services, you need to remove the related files or better move them to a backup location.

This is the opened issue: https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/issues/1809

[jkossis]

@MichaIng

It seems that the issue linked is for manually created services.

@Fourdee

I don't want to disable dietpi-services from controlling transmission-daemon. I am looking for a way in which I can tell dietpi-services to not auto start transmission-daemon, but rather, wait for me to manually start it.

To achieve this, do I need to relinquish the control from dietpi-services to systemctl?

[MichaIng]

@jkossis

It seems that the issue linked is for manually created services.

Jep mostly, but indeed also some software installs place their systemd units into that folder.

If I see it right, then currently dietpi-services handles services in every case, if they are found either within /lib/systemd/system or /etc/systemd/system.
Thus you need to remove the service name from the script for this currently:
sed -i '/transmission-daemon/d' /DietPi/dietpi/dietpi-services

After every dietpi-update this needs to be redone.

Makes sense we think about a user friendly solution to exclude services from dietpi-services (and systemd), if desired.

[Fourdee]

@MichaIng

Makes sense we think about a user friendly solution to exclude services from dietpi-services (and systemd), if desired.

Yep, we have an include, not exclude. I'll see about adding that in.

root@DietPi:~# echo cron > /DietPi/dietpi/.dietpi-services_exclude
root@DietPi:~# dietpi-services stop
[  OK  ] DietPi-Services | Root access verified.

 DietPi-Services
─────────────────────────────────────────────────────
 Mode: stop

[ INFO ] DietPi-Services | Excluding service: cron

[Fourdee]

@jkossis

Please update the script:

wget https://github.com/Fourdee/DietPi/raw/6444d764b4d0a9bce099fecf9452370b32082ed4/dietpi/dietpi-services -O /DietPi/dietpi/dietpi-services

Run DietPi services at least once to generate the new include/exlude file:

Edit the file /DietPi/dietpi/.dietpi-services_include_exclude to add include/excludes. All info is in there.