2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
4 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
6 <refentry id="sd_notify"
7 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
10 <title>sd_notify</title>
11 <productname>systemd</productname>
15 <refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle>
16 <manvolnum>3</manvolnum>
20 <refname>sd_notify</refname>
21 <refname>sd_notifyf</refname>
22 <refname>sd_pid_notify</refname>
23 <refname>sd_pid_notifyf</refname>
24 <refname>sd_pid_notify_with_fds</refname>
25 <refname>sd_pid_notifyf_with_fds</refname>
26 <refname>sd_notify_barrier</refname>
27 <refname>sd_pid_notify_barrier</refname>
28 <refpurpose>Notify service manager about start-up completion and other service status changes</refpurpose>
33 <funcsynopsisinfo>#include <systemd/sd-daemon.h></funcsynopsisinfo>
36 <funcdef>int <function>sd_notify</function></funcdef>
37 <paramdef>int <parameter>unset_environment</parameter></paramdef>
38 <paramdef>const char *<parameter>state</parameter></paramdef>
42 <funcdef>int <function>sd_notifyf</function></funcdef>
43 <paramdef>int <parameter>unset_environment</parameter></paramdef>
44 <paramdef>const char *<parameter>format</parameter></paramdef>
45 <paramdef>…</paramdef>
49 <funcdef>int <function>sd_pid_notify</function></funcdef>
50 <paramdef>pid_t <parameter>pid</parameter></paramdef>
51 <paramdef>int <parameter>unset_environment</parameter></paramdef>
52 <paramdef>const char *<parameter>state</parameter></paramdef>
56 <funcdef>int <function>sd_pid_notifyf</function></funcdef>
57 <paramdef>pid_t <parameter>pid</parameter></paramdef>
58 <paramdef>int <parameter>unset_environment</parameter></paramdef>
59 <paramdef>const char *<parameter>format</parameter></paramdef>
60 <paramdef>…</paramdef>
64 <funcdef>int <function>sd_pid_notify_with_fds</function></funcdef>
65 <paramdef>pid_t <parameter>pid</parameter></paramdef>
66 <paramdef>int <parameter>unset_environment</parameter></paramdef>
67 <paramdef>const char *<parameter>state</parameter></paramdef>
68 <paramdef>const int *<parameter>fds</parameter></paramdef>
69 <paramdef>unsigned <parameter>n_fds</parameter></paramdef>
73 <funcdef>int <function>sd_pid_notifyf_with_fds</function></funcdef>
74 <paramdef>pid_t <parameter>pid</parameter></paramdef>
75 <paramdef>int <parameter>unset_environment</parameter></paramdef>
76 <paramdef>const int *<parameter>fds</parameter></paramdef>
77 <paramdef>size_t <parameter>n_fds</parameter></paramdef>
78 <paramdef>const char *<parameter>format</parameter></paramdef>
79 <paramdef>…</paramdef>
83 <funcdef>int <function>sd_notify_barrier</function></funcdef>
84 <paramdef>int <parameter>unset_environment</parameter></paramdef>
85 <paramdef>uint64_t <parameter>timeout</parameter></paramdef>
89 <funcdef>int <function>sd_pid_notify_barrier</function></funcdef>
90 <paramdef>pid_t <parameter>pid</parameter></paramdef>
91 <paramdef>int <parameter>unset_environment</parameter></paramdef>
92 <paramdef>uint64_t <parameter>timeout</parameter></paramdef>
98 <title>Description</title>
100 <para><function>sd_notify()</function> may be called by a service to notify the service manager about
101 state changes. It can be used to send arbitrary information, encoded in an environment-block-like string.
102 Most importantly, it can be used for start-up or reload completion notifications.</para>
104 <para>If the <parameter>unset_environment</parameter> parameter is non-zero,
105 <function>sd_notify()</function> will unset the <varname>$NOTIFY_SOCKET</varname> environment variable
106 before returning (regardless of whether the function call itself succeeded or not). Further calls to
107 <function>sd_notify()</function> will then silently do nothing, and the variable is no longer inherited
108 by child processes.</para>
110 <para>The <parameter>state</parameter> parameter should contain a newline-separated list of variable
111 assignments, similar in style to an environment block. A trailing newline is implied if none is
112 specified. The string may contain any kind of variable assignments, but see the next section
113 for a list of assignments understood by the service manager.</para>
115 <para>Note that systemd will accept status data sent from a service only if the
116 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> option is correctly set in the service definition file. See
117 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
120 <para>Note that <function>sd_notify()</function> notifications may be attributed to units correctly only
121 if either the sending process is still around at the time PID 1 processes the message, or if the sending
122 process is explicitly runtime-tracked by the service manager. The latter is the case if the service
123 manager originally forked off the process, i.e. on all processes that match
124 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname><option>main</option> or
125 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname><option>exec</option>. Conversely, if an auxiliary process of the unit
126 sends an <function>sd_notify()</function> message and immediately exits, the service manager might not be
127 able to properly attribute the message to the unit, and thus will ignore it, even if
128 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname><option>all</option> is set for it.</para>
130 <para>Hence, to eliminate all race conditions involving lookup of the client's unit and attribution of
131 notifications to units correctly, <function>sd_notify_barrier()</function> may be used. This call acts as
132 a synchronization point and ensures all notifications sent before this call have been picked up by the
133 service manager when it returns successfully. Use of <function>sd_notify_barrier()</function> is needed
134 for clients which are not invoked by the service manager, otherwise this synchronization mechanism is
135 unnecessary for attribution of notifications to the unit.</para>
137 <para><function>sd_notifyf()</function> is similar to <function>sd_notify()</function> but takes a
138 <function>printf()</function>-like format string plus arguments.</para>
140 <para><function>sd_pid_notify()</function> and <function>sd_pid_notifyf()</function> are similar to
141 <function>sd_notify()</function> and <function>sd_notifyf()</function> but take a process ID (PID) to use
142 as originating PID for the message as first argument. This is useful to send notification messages on
143 behalf of other processes, provided the appropriate privileges are available. Effectively, this means
144 that a privileged invocation of <command>sd_pid_notify()</command> may circumvent
145 <varname>NotifyAccess=main</varname> or <varname>NotifyAccess=exec</varname> restrictions enforced for a
146 service. If the PID argument is specified as 0, the process ID of the calling process is used, in which
147 case the calls are fully equivalent to <function>sd_notify()</function> and
148 <function>sd_notifyf()</function>.</para>
150 <para><function>sd_pid_notify_with_fds()</function> is similar to <function>sd_pid_notify()</function>
151 but takes an additional array of file descriptors. These file descriptors are sent along the notification
152 message to the service manager. This is particularly useful for sending <literal>FDSTORE=1</literal>
153 messages, as described above. The additional arguments are a pointer to the file descriptor array plus
154 the number of file descriptors in the array. If the number of file descriptors is passed as 0, the call
155 is fully equivalent to <function>sd_pid_notify()</function>, i.e. no file descriptors are passed. Note
156 that file descriptors sent to the service manager on a message without <literal>FDSTORE=1</literal> are
157 immediately closed on reception.</para>
159 <para><function>sd_pid_notifyf_with_fds()</function> is a combination of
160 <function>sd_pid_notify_with_fds()</function> and <function>sd_notifyf()</function>, i.e. it accepts both
161 a PID and a set of file descriptors as input, and processes a format string to generate the state
164 <para><function>sd_notify_barrier()</function> allows the caller to synchronize against reception of
165 previously sent notification messages and uses the <varname>BARRIER=1</varname> command. It takes a
166 relative <varname>timeout</varname> value in microseconds which is passed to
167 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>ppoll</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum>
168 </citerefentry>. A value of UINT64_MAX is interpreted as infinite timeout.</para>
170 <para><function>sd_pid_notify_barrier()</function> is just like <function>sd_notify_barrier()</function>,
171 but allows specifying the originating PID for the notification message.</para>
175 <title>Well-known assignments</title>
177 <para>The following assignments have a defined meaning:</para>
183 <listitem><para>Tells the service manager that service startup is finished, or the service finished
184 re-loading its configuration. This is only used by systemd if the service definition file has
185 <varname>Type=notify</varname> or <varname>Type=notify-reload</varname> set. Since there is little
186 value in signaling non-readiness, the only value services should send is <literal>READY=1</literal>
187 (i.e. <literal>READY=0</literal> is not defined).</para></listitem>
191 <term>RELOADING=1</term>
193 <listitem><para>Tells the service manager that the service is beginning to reload its configuration.
194 This is useful to allow the service manager to track the service's internal state, and present it to
195 the user. Note that a service that sends this notification must also send a
196 <literal>READY=1</literal> notification when it completed reloading its configuration. Reloads the
197 service manager is notified about with this mechanisms are propagated in the same way as they are
198 when originally initiated through the service manager. This message is particularly relevant for
199 <varname>Type=notify-reload</varname> services, to inform the service manager that the request to
200 reload the service has been received and is now being processed.</para>
202 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v217"/></listitem>
206 <term>STOPPING=1</term>
208 <listitem><para>Tells the service manager that the service is beginning its shutdown. This is useful
209 to allow the service manager to track the service's internal state, and present it to the user.
212 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v217"/></listitem>
216 <term>MONOTONIC_USEC=…</term>
218 <listitem><para>A field carrying the monotonic timestamp (as per
219 <constant>CLOCK_MONOTONIC</constant>) formatted in decimal in μs, when the notification message was
220 generated by the client. This is typically used in combination with <literal>RELOADING=1</literal>,
221 to allow the service manager to properly synchronize reload cycles. See
222 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
223 for details, specifically <literal>Type=notify-reload</literal>.</para>
225 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v253"/></listitem>
229 <term>STATUS=…</term>
231 <listitem><para>Passes a single-line UTF-8 status string back to the service manager that describes
232 the service state. This is free-form and can be used for various purposes: general state feedback,
233 fsck-like programs could pass completion percentages and failing programs could pass a human-readable
234 error message. Example: <literal>STATUS=Completed 66% of file system check…</literal></para>
236 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v233"/></listitem>
240 <term>NOTIFYACCESS=…</term>
242 <listitem><para>Reset the access to the service status notification socket during runtime, overriding
243 <varname>NotifyAccess=</varname> setting in the service unit file. See
244 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
245 for details, specifically <literal>NotifyAccess=</literal> for a list of accepted values.
248 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v254"/></listitem>
254 <listitem><para>If a service fails, the errno-style error code, formatted as string. Example:
255 <literal>ERRNO=2</literal> for ENOENT.</para>
257 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v233"/></listitem>
261 <term>BUSERROR=…</term>
263 <listitem><para>If a service fails, the D-Bus error-style error code. Example:
264 <literal>BUSERROR=org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.TimedOut</literal>.</para>
266 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v233"/></listitem>
270 <term>VARLINKERROR=…</term>
272 <listitem><para>If a service fails, the Varlink error-style error code. Example:
273 <literal>VARLINKERROR=org.varlink.service.InvalidParameter</literal>.</para>
275 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v257"/></listitem>
279 <term>EXIT_STATUS=…</term>
281 <listitem><para>The exit status of a service or the manager itself. Note that
282 <command>systemd</command> currently does not consume this value when sent by services, so this
283 assignment is only informational. The manager will send this notification to <emphasis>its</emphasis>
284 notification socket, which may be used to collect an exit status from the system (a container or
285 VM) as it shuts down. For example,
286 <citerefentry project='debian'><refentrytitle>mkosi</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
287 makes use of this. The value to return may be set via the
288 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
289 <command>exit</command> verb.</para>
291 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v254"/></listitem>
295 <term>MAINPID=…</term>
297 <listitem><para>Change the main process ID (PID) of the service. This is especially useful in the case
298 where the real main process is not directly forked off by the service manager.
299 Example: <literal>MAINPID=4711</literal>.</para>
301 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v233"/></listitem>
305 <term>MAINPIDFDID=…</term>
307 <listitem><para>The pidfd inode number of the new main process (specified through <varname>MAINPID=</varname>).
308 This information can be acquired through
309 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>name_to_handle_at</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
310 or <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>fstat</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
311 on the pidfd and is used to identify the process in a race-free fashion. Alternatively,
312 a pidfd can be sent directly to the service manager (see <varname>MAINPIDFD=1</varname> below).</para>
314 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v257"/></listitem>
318 <term>MAINPIDFD=1</term>
320 <listitem><para>Similar to <varname>MAINPID=</varname> with <varname>MAINPIDFDID=</varname>, but
321 the process is referenced directly by the pidfd passed to the service manager. This is useful
322 if pidfd id is not supported on the system. Exactly one fd is expected for this notification.</para>
324 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v257"/></listitem>
328 <term>WATCHDOG=1</term>
330 <listitem><para>Tells the service manager to update the watchdog timestamp. This is the keep-alive
331 ping that services need to issue in regular intervals if <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> is enabled
333 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
334 for information how to enable this functionality and
335 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_watchdog_enabled</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
336 for the details of how the service can check whether the watchdog is enabled. </para></listitem>
340 <term>WATCHDOG=trigger</term>
342 <listitem><para>Tells the service manager that the service detected an internal error that should be
343 handled by the configured watchdog options. This will trigger the same behaviour as if
344 <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> is enabled and the service did not send <literal>WATCHDOG=1</literal>
345 in time. Note that <varname>WatchdogSec=</varname> does not need to be enabled for
346 <literal>WATCHDOG=trigger</literal> to trigger the watchdog action. See
347 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
348 for information about the watchdog behavior. </para>
350 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v243"/></listitem>
354 <term>WATCHDOG_USEC=…</term>
356 <listitem><para>Reset <varname>watchdog_usec</varname> value during runtime. Notice that this is not
357 available when using <function>sd_event_set_watchdog()</function> or
358 <function>sd_watchdog_enabled()</function>. Example :
359 <literal>WATCHDOG_USEC=20000000</literal></para>
361 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v233"/></listitem>
365 <term>EXTEND_TIMEOUT_USEC=…</term>
367 <listitem><para>Tells the service manager to extend the startup, runtime or shutdown service timeout
368 corresponding the current state. The value specified is a time in microseconds during which the
369 service must send a new message. A service timeout will occur if the message is not received, but only
370 if the runtime of the current state is beyond the original maximum times of
371 <varname>TimeoutStartSec=</varname>, <varname>RuntimeMaxSec=</varname>, and
372 <varname>TimeoutStopSec=</varname>. See
373 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
374 for effects on the service timeouts.</para>
376 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v236"/></listitem>
380 <term>FDSTORE=1</term>
382 <listitem><para>Store file descriptors in the service manager. File descriptors sent this way will be
383 held for the service by the service manager and will later be handed back using the usual file
384 descriptor passing logic at the next start or restart of the service, see
385 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
386 Any open sockets and other file descriptors which should not be closed during a restart may be stored
387 this way. When a service is stopped, its file descriptor store is discarded and all file descriptors
388 in it are closed, except when overridden with <varname>FileDescriptorStorePreserve=</varname>, see
389 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
392 <para>The service manager will accept messages for a service only if its
393 <varname>FileDescriptorStoreMax=</varname> setting is non-zero (defaults to zero, see
394 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
395 The service manager will set the <varname>$FDSTORE</varname> environment variable for services that
396 have the file descriptor store enabled, see
397 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
400 <para>If <varname>FDPOLL=0</varname> is not set and the file descriptors are pollable (see
401 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>epoll_ctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>), then
402 any <constant>EPOLLHUP</constant> or <constant>EPOLLERR</constant> event seen on them will result in
403 their automatic removal from the store.</para>
405 <para>Multiple sets of file descriptors may be sent in separate messages, in which case the sets are
406 combined. The service manager removes duplicate file descriptors (those pointing to the same object)
407 before passing them to the service.</para>
409 <para>This functionality should be used to implement services that can restart after an explicit
410 request or a crash without losing state. Application state can either be serialized to a file in
411 <filename>/run/</filename>, or better, stored in a
412 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>memfd_create</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
413 memory file descriptor. Use <function>sd_pid_notify_with_fds()</function> to send messages with
414 <literal>FDSTORE=1</literal>. It is recommended to combine <varname>FDSTORE=</varname> with
415 <varname>FDNAME=</varname> to make it easier to manage the stored file descriptors.</para>
417 <para>For further information on the file descriptor store see the <ulink
418 url="https://systemd.io/FILE_DESCRIPTOR_STORE">File Descriptor Store</ulink> overview.</para>
420 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
424 <term>FDSTOREREMOVE=1</term>
426 <listitem><para>Removes file descriptors from the file descriptor store. This field needs to be
427 combined with <varname>FDNAME=</varname> to specify the name of the file descriptors to
430 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v236"/></listitem>
434 <term>FDNAME=…</term>
436 <listitem><para>When used in combination with <varname>FDSTORE=1</varname>, specifies a name for the
437 submitted file descriptors. When used with <varname>FDSTOREREMOVE=1</varname>, specifies the name for
438 the file descriptors to remove. This name is passed to the service during activation, and may be
440 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds_with_names</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
441 File descriptors submitted without this field will be called <literal>stored</literal>.</para>
443 <para>The name may consist of arbitrary ASCII characters except control characters or
444 <literal>:</literal>. It may not be longer than 255 characters. If a submitted name does not follow
445 these restrictions, it is ignored.</para>
447 <para>Note that if multiple file descriptors are submitted in a single message, the specified name
448 will be used for all of them. In order to assign different names to submitted file descriptors,
449 submit them in separate messages.</para>
451 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v233"/></listitem>
455 <term>FDPOLL=0</term>
457 <listitem><para>When used in combination with <varname>FDSTORE=1</varname>, disables polling of the
458 submitted file descriptors regardless of whether or not they are pollable. As this option disables
459 automatic cleanup of the submitted file descriptors on EPOLLERR and EPOLLHUP, care must be taken to
460 ensure proper manual cleanup. Use of this option is not generally recommended except for when
461 automatic cleanup has unwanted behavior such as prematurely discarding file descriptors from the
464 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v246"/></listitem>
468 <term>BARRIER=1</term>
470 <listitem><para>Tells the service manager that the client is explicitly requesting synchronization by
471 means of closing the file descriptor sent with this command. The service manager guarantees that the
472 processing of a <varname>BARRIER=1</varname> command will only happen after all previous notification
473 messages sent before this command have been processed. Hence, this command accompanied with a single
474 file descriptor can be used to synchronize against reception of all previous status messages. Note
475 that this command cannot be mixed with other notifications, and has to be sent in a separate message
476 to the service manager, otherwise all assignments will be ignored. Note that sending 0 or more than 1
477 file descriptor with this command is a violation of the protocol.</para>
479 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v246"/></listitem>
483 <para>The notification messages sent by services are interpreted by the service manager. Unknown
484 assignments are ignored. Thus, it is safe (but often without effect) to send assignments which are not
485 in this list. The protocol is extensible, but care should be taken to ensure private extensions are
486 recognizable as such. Specifically, it is recommend to prefix them with <literal>X_</literal> followed by
487 some namespace identifier. The service manager also sends some messages to <emphasis>its</emphasis>
488 notification socket, which may then consumed by a supervising machine or container manager further up the
489 stack. The service manager sends a number of extension fields, for example
490 <varname>X_SYSTEMD_UNIT_ACTIVE=</varname>, for details see
491 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
495 <title>Return Value</title>
497 <para>On failure, these calls return a negative errno-style error code. If
498 <varname>$NOTIFY_SOCKET</varname> was not set and hence no status message could be sent, 0 is
499 returned. If the status was sent, these functions return a positive value. In order to support both
500 service managers that implement this scheme and those which do not, it is generally recommended to ignore
501 the return value of this call. Note that the return value simply indicates whether the notification
502 message was enqueued properly, it does not reflect whether the message could be processed
503 successfully. Specifically, no error is returned when a file descriptor is attempted to be stored using
504 <varname>FDSTORE=1</varname> but the service is not actually configured to permit storing of file
505 descriptors (see above).</para>
507 <refsect2 id='errors'>
508 <title>Errors</title>
510 <para>Returned errors may indicate the following problems:</para>
514 <term><constant>-E2BIG</constant></term>
516 <listitem><para>More file descriptors passed at once than the system allows. On Linux the number of
517 file descriptors that may be passed across <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> sockets at once is 253, see
519 project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>unix</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
522 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v257"/></listitem>
531 <xi:include href="libsystemd-pkgconfig.xml" xpointer="pkgconfig-text"/>
532 <xi:include href="threads-aware.xml" xpointer="getenv"/>
534 <para>These functions send a single datagram with the state string as payload to the socket referenced in
535 the <varname>$NOTIFY_SOCKET</varname> environment variable. If the first character of
536 <varname>$NOTIFY_SOCKET</varname> is <literal>/</literal> or <literal>@</literal>, the string is
537 understood as an <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> or Linux abstract namespace socket (respectively), and in
538 both cases the datagram is accompanied by the process credentials of the sending service, using
539 SCM_CREDENTIALS. If the string starts with <literal>vsock:</literal> then the string is understood as an
540 <constant>AF_VSOCK</constant> address, which is useful for hypervisors/VMMs or other processes on the
541 host to receive a notification when a virtual machine has finished booting. Note that in case the
542 hypervisor does not support <constant>SOCK_DGRAM</constant> over <constant>AF_VSOCK</constant>,
543 <constant>SOCK_SEQPACKET</constant> will be used instead. <literal>vsock-stream</literal>,
544 <literal>vsock-dgram</literal> and <literal>vsock-seqpacket</literal> can be used instead of
545 <literal>vsock</literal> to force usage of the corresponding socket type. The address should be in the
546 form: <literal>vsock:CID:PORT</literal>. Note that unlike other uses of vsock, the CID is mandatory and
547 cannot be <literal>VMADDR_CID_ANY</literal>. Note that PID1 will send the VSOCK packets from a
548 privileged port (i.e.: lower than 1024), as an attempt to address concerns that unprivileged processes in
549 the guest might try to send malicious notifications to the host, driving it to make destructive decisions
550 based on them.</para>
553 <title>Standalone Implementations</title>
554 <para>Note that, while using this library should be preferred in order to avoid code duplication, it is
555 also possible to reimplement the simple readiness notification protocol without external dependencies,
556 as demonstrated in the following self-contained examples from several languages:</para>
559 <programlisting><xi:include href="notify-selfcontained-example.c" parse="text"/></programlisting>
562 <title>Python</title>
563 <programlisting><xi:include href="notify-selfcontained-example.py" parse="text"/></programlisting>
569 <title>Environment</title>
571 <variablelist class='environment-variables'>
573 <term><varname>$NOTIFY_SOCKET</varname></term>
575 <listitem><para>Set by the service manager for supervised processes for status and start-up
576 completion notification. This environment variable specifies the socket
577 <function>sd_notify()</function> talks to. See above for details.</para></listitem>
583 <title>Examples</title>
586 <title>Start-up Notification</title>
588 <para>When a service finished starting up, it might issue the following call to notify the service
591 <programlisting>sd_notify(0, "READY=1");</programlisting>
595 <title>Extended Start-up Notification</title>
597 <para>A service could send the following after completing initialization:</para>
600 sd_notifyf(0, "READY=1\n"
601 "STATUS=Processing requests…\n"
603 (unsigned long) getpid());</programlisting>
607 <title>Error Cause Notification</title>
609 <para>A service could send the following shortly before exiting, on failure:</para>
612 sd_notifyf(0, "STATUS=Failed to start up: %s\n"
614 strerror_r(errnum, (char[1024]){}, 1024),
615 errnum);</programlisting>
619 <title>Store a File Descriptor in the Service Manager</title>
621 <para>To store an open file descriptor in the service manager, in order to continue operation after a
622 service restart without losing state, use <literal>FDSTORE=1</literal>:</para>
624 <programlisting>sd_pid_notify_with_fds(0, 0, "FDSTORE=1\nFDNAME=foobar", &fd, 1);</programlisting>
628 <title>Eliminating race conditions</title>
630 <para>When the client sending the notifications is not spawned by the service manager, it may exit too
631 quickly and the service manager may fail to attribute them correctly to the unit. To prevent such
632 races, use <function>sd_notify_barrier()</function> to synchronize against reception of all
633 notifications sent before this call is made.</para>
636 sd_notify(0, "READY=1");
637 /* set timeout to 5 seconds */
638 sd_notify_barrier(0, 5 * 1000000);
644 <title>History</title>
645 <para><function>sd_pid_notify()</function>,
646 <function>sd_pid_notifyf()</function>, and
647 <function>sd_pid_notify_with_fds()</function> were added in version 219.</para>
648 <para><function>sd_notify_barrier()</function> was added in version 246.</para>
649 <para><function>sd_pid_notifyf_with_fds()</function> and
650 <function>sd_pid_notify_barrier()</function> were added in version 254.</para>
654 <title>See Also</title>
655 <para><simplelist type="inline">
656 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
657 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd-daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
658 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
659 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds_with_names</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
660 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_watchdog_enabled</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
661 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
662 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>