Bug#806291: systemd: systemctl status ignores -n argument

Thu Nov 26 07:00:16 GMT 2015

Package: systemd
Version: 228-2

Dear Maintainer,

   * What led up to the situation?

I created a buggy configuration of apt-cacher-ng and wondered why it did not start. When I run the service from command line, it dumps a couple of usefull hints to STDERR. I expected to see this in "systemctl status" output. I saw only ten lines and this contained only useless cruft, something about "hold-off time over" etc.

   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?

Since I expected useful information to be before this cruft, I used the 
-n option as described in the systemctl manpage. -n 20, actually.

   * What was the outcome of this action?

The same output was displayed. Only 10 lines with useless information. Feels
like -n ... value is simply ignored, I can set -n100 or -n1000, makes no
difference.

% sudo systemctl status apt-cacher-ng.service -n 20
● apt-cacher-ng.service - Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apt-cacher-ng.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: start-limit) since Di 2015-11-24 22:04:02 CET; 1min 10s ago
  Process: 2842 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apt-cacher-ng SocketPath=/var/run/apt-cacher-ng/socket -c /etc/apt-cacher-ng ForeGround=1 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
 Main PID: 2842 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)

Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: Failed to start Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy.
Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Unit entered failed state.
Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: Stopped Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy.
Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: Failed to start Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy.
Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Unit entered failed state.
Nov 24 22:04:02 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Failed with result 'start-limit'.

It also told me to use "journalctl -xn" alternatively but it doesn't show much
more information either.

   * What outcome did you expect instead?

USEFUL INFORMATION FROM THE DAEMON ITSELF! Not the logs of some process
management of systemd which I don't care that much about.

Eventually, I can find something valuable in "journalctl -b0" output that
happened in the second before. This makes sense, but it's hard to find.

Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: Stopped Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: Starting Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy...
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix apt-cacher-ng[2832]: WARNING: No configuration was read from file:backends_debvol
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix apt-cacher-ng[2832]: WARNING: No configuration was read from file:sfnet_mirrors
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix apt-cacher-ng[2832]: Warning, unknown configuration directive: OptProxyCheckCommand
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix apt-cacher-ng[2832]: Error reading main options, terminating.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: Failed to start Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Unit entered failed state.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix sudo[2825]: pam_unix(sudo:session): session closed for user root
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix polkitd(authority=local)[989]: Unregistered Authentication Agent for unix-process:2826:56921 (system bus name :1.56, object path /org/freedesktop/PolicyKit1/Authenticati
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Service hold-off time over, scheduling restart.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: Stopped Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: Starting Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy...
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix apt-cacher-ng[2836]: WARNING: No configuration was read from file:backends_debvol
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix apt-cacher-ng[2836]: WARNING: No configuration was read from file:sfnet_mirrors
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix apt-cacher-ng[2836]: Warning, unknown configuration directive: OptProxyCheckCommand
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix apt-cacher-ng[2836]: Error reading main options, terminating.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: Failed to start Apt-Cacher NG software download proxy.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Unit entered failed state.
Nov 24 22:04:01 idefix systemd[1]: apt-cacher-ng.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Regards,
Eduard.

-- Package-specific info:

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)
Foreign Architectures: i386

Kernel: Linux 4.3.0+ (SMP w/2 CPU cores; PREEMPT)
Locale: LANG=de_DE.UTF-8, LC_CTYPE=de_DE.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: sysvinit (via /sbin/init)

Versions of packages systemd depends on:
ii  adduser         3.113+nmu3
ii  libacl1         2.2.52-2
ii  libapparmor1    2.10-2+b1
ii  libaudit1       1:2.4.4-3+b1
ii  libblkid1       2.27-3
ii  libc6           2.19-22
ii  libcap2         1:2.24-12
ii  libcap2-bin     1:2.24-12
ii  libcryptsetup4  2:1.6.6-5
ii  libgcrypt20     1.6.3-2
ii  libkmod2        21-1
ii  liblzma5        5.1.1alpha+20120614-2.1
ii  libmount1       2.27-3
ii  libpam0g        1.1.8-3.1
ii  libseccomp2     2.2.3-2
ii  libselinux1     2.3-2+b1
ii  libsystemd0     228-2
ii  mount           2.27-3
ii  sysv-rc         2.88dsf-59.2
ii  util-linux      2.27.1-1

Versions of packages systemd recommends:
ii  dbus            1.10.0-3
ii  libpam-systemd  228-2

Versions of packages systemd suggests:
pn  systemd-container  <none>
pn  systemd-ui         <none>

Versions of packages systemd is related to:
ii  udev  215-17

-- no debconf information