Bug#770633: systemd: Suggestion for a method to handle multiple providers of the same service

[Andrei POPESCU]

Package: systemd
Version: 215-6
Severity: wishlist
Tags: upstream

Hello,

I think systemd needs a method to deal with multiple providers of the 
same service that under usual circumstances (i.e. default configuration) 
can't run at the same time, e.g. display managers.

Here's what I came up with, as possible addition to systemd.unit(5)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

[INSTALL] SECTION OPTIONS
....
AlternativeFor=
The name of a service this unit provides, of which there might be 
several providers that can't (under normal circumstances) run at the
same time. At installation time systemctl enable will only create
symlinks from this name to the unit filename, with the same suffix as 
this unit.

This option implies a Conflicts= against all other providers of the same
service.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

I think this would be quite simple to implement and is generic enough to 
be used for all kinds of services.


Kind regards,
Andrei