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Change service settings with an override

caution rootsystemddebian, ubuntu

Caution: This command changes the system. Understand what it does before you run it.

Adjust the values, the command updates live
root@server
systemctl edit mariadb

Creates /etc/systemd/system/<unit>.d/override.conf and opens it in the editor. Values entered there, for example [Service] with LimitNOFILE=65535 or Restart=on-failure, override the original file and survive package updates. After saving, systemd reloads the configuration automatically, but the service itself still needs to be restarted.

Note: List settings like ExecStart= must first be reset in the override with an empty ExecStart= line. The editor is determined by the SYSTEMD_EDITOR or EDITOR variable.

Also searched as

  • modify service file without losing it on update
  • create systemd override
  • increase limitnofile for a service
  • make service restart automatically

Related one-liners

All in systemd

Show a service's unit file including overrides

$systemctl cat mariadb
harmlesssystemd

Test the sshd config and reload the SSH service

#sshd -t && systemctl reload ssh
cautionSSH

Enable a service and start it immediately

#systemctl enable --now fail2ban
cautionsystemd

List all running systemd services

$systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running --no-pager
harmlesssystemd

List all services enabled at boot

$systemctl list-unit-files --type=service --state=enabled --no-pager
harmlesssystemd

Permanently limit the size of the systemd journal

#mkdir -p /etc/systemd/journald.conf.d && printf '[Journal]\nSystemMaxUse=500M\n' > /etc/systemd/journald.conf.d/size.conf && systemctl restart systemd-journald
cautionsystemd

Read first, then run.

The commands on myline.de act directly on servers, files and databases. A wrong path or placeholder can delete data irreversibly or make a server unreachable.

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