2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
4 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
6 <refentry id="systemd.scope" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
8 <title>systemd.scope</title>
9 <productname>systemd</productname>
13 <refentrytitle>systemd.scope</refentrytitle>
14 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
18 <refname>systemd.scope</refname>
19 <refpurpose>Scope unit configuration</refpurpose>
23 <para><filename><replaceable>scope</replaceable>.scope</filename></para>
27 <title>Description</title>
29 <para>Scope units are not configured via unit configuration files,
30 but are only created programmatically using the bus interfaces of
31 systemd. They are named similar to filenames. A unit whose name
32 ends in <literal>.scope</literal> refers to a scope unit. Scopes
33 units manage a set of system processes. Unlike service units, scope
34 units manage externally created processes, and do not fork off
35 processes on its own.</para>
37 <para>The main purpose of scope units is grouping worker processes
38 of a system service for organization and for managing resources.</para>
40 <para><command>systemd-run <option>--scope</option></command> may
41 be used to easily launch a command in a new scope unit from the
45 url="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/ControlGroupInterface">New
46 Control Group Interfaces</ulink> for an introduction on how to make
47 use of scope units from programs.</para>
49 <para>Note that, unlike service units, scope units have no "main" process: all processes in the scope are
50 equivalent. The lifecycle of the scope unit is thus not bound to the lifetime of one specific process,
51 but to the existence of at least one process in the scope. This also means that the exit statuses of
52 these processes are not relevant for the scope unit failure state. Scope units may still enter a failure
53 state, for example due to resource exhaustion or stop timeouts being reached, but not due to programs
54 inside of them terminating uncleanly. Since processes managed as scope units generally remain children of
55 the original process that forked them off, it is also the job of that process to collect their exit
56 statuses and act on them as needed.</para>
60 <title>Automatic Dependencies</title>
63 <title>Implicit Dependencies</title>
65 <para>Implicit dependencies may be added as result of
66 resource control parameters as documented in
67 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
71 <title>Default Dependencies</title>
73 <para>The following dependencies are added unless
74 <varname>DefaultDependencies=no</varname> is set:</para>
77 <listitem><para>Scope units will automatically have dependencies of
78 type <varname>Conflicts=</varname> and
79 <varname>Before=</varname> on
80 <filename>shutdown.target</filename>. These ensure
81 that scope units are removed prior to system
82 shutdown. Only scope units involved with early boot or
83 late system shutdown should disable
84 <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> option.</para></listitem>
90 <title>Options</title>
92 <para>Scope files may include a [Unit] section, which is described in
93 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
96 <para>Scope files may include a [Scope]
97 section, which carries information about the scope and the
98 units it contains. A number of options that may be used in
99 this section are shared with other unit types. These options are
101 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
103 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
104 The options specific to the [Scope] section
105 of scope units are the following:</para>
107 <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
108 <xi:include href="systemd.service.xml" xpointer="oom-policy" />
111 <term><varname>RuntimeMaxSec=</varname></term>
113 <listitem><para>Configures a maximum time for the scope to run. If this is used and the scope has been
114 active for longer than the specified time it is terminated and put into a failure state. Pass
115 <literal>infinity</literal> (the default) to configure no runtime limit.</para>
117 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v244"/></listitem>
121 <term><varname>RuntimeRandomizedExtraSec=</varname></term>
123 <listitem><para>This option modifies <varname>RuntimeMaxSec=</varname> by increasing the maximum runtime by an
124 evenly distributed duration between 0 and the specified value (in seconds). If <varname>RuntimeMaxSec=</varname> is
125 unspecified, then this feature will be disabled.
128 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v250"/></listitem>
132 <xi:include href="systemd.service.xml" xpointer="shared-unit-options" />
136 <title>See Also</title>
138 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
139 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-run</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
140 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
141 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
142 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
143 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.