Bug#963000: systemd-analyze unit-paths erroneously reports /usr/lib/systemd/system/

[Thijs Kinkhorst]

Hi Michael,

On Wed, June 17, 2020 22:48, Michael Biebl wrote:
> Systemd itself does indeed search /usr/lib/systemd/system . Our
> internal/Debian tooling though
> (dh_installsystemd/invoke-rc.d/service/...) currently only handles files
> from /lib/systemd (mostly for historical reasons where a /usr on a
> separate partition mounted during late boot was still supported).
>
> So, theoretically, you can install unit files in /usr/lib/systemd/system
> and systemd will process them. What you don't get is full Debian
> integration.

Well, I'm quite sure in the sense that I had a unit file in
/usr/lib/systemd/system but indeed commands like "service" did not work. I
find it unexpected behaviour that systemd reports that it searches the
directory but at the same time something like "service x start" does not
work.

Also I found
https://lintian.debian.org/tags/systemd-service-file-outside-lib.html
which explicitly says: "Systemd in Debian searches for unit files in
/lib/systemd/system/ and /etc/systemd/system. Notably, it does not look in
/usr/lib/systemd/system/ for service files."

So I think the most clear way forward is either that it does not report
this directory as being searched, or all the tools do in fact work with
this directory. A mid way where some things work and others do not, is
confusing to me at least.

Cheers,
Thijs