systemd: do not require absolute paths in ExecStart

Absolute paths make everything simple and quick, but sometimes this requirement
can be annoying. A good example is calling 'test', which will be located in
/usr/bin/ or /bin depending on the distro. The need the provide the full path
makes it harder a portable unit file in such cases.

This patch uses a fixed search path (DEFAULT_PATH which was already used as the
default value of $PATH), and if a non-absolute file name is found, it is
immediately resolved to a full path using this search path when the unit is
loaded. After that, everything behaves as if an absolute path was specified. In
particular, the executable must exist when the unit is loaded.

1 files changed, 24 insertions, 15 deletions

diff --git a/man/systemd.service.xml b/man/systemd.service.xml
index b68d351dff..e89cfe3f0e 100644
--- a/man/systemd.service.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.service.xml
@@ -301,8 +301,9 @@
         <varname>ExecStop=</varname> line set. (Services lacking both <varname>ExecStart=</varname> and
         <varname>ExecStop=</varname> are not valid.)</para>
 
-        <para>For each of the specified commands, the first argument must be an absolute path to an
-        executable. Optionally, this filename may be prefixed with a number of special characters:</para>
+        <para>For each of the specified commands, the first argument must be either an absolute path to an executable
+        or a simple file name without any slashes. Optionally, this filename may be prefixed with a number of special
+        characters:</para>
 
         <table>
           <title>Special executable prefixes</title>
@@ -1004,11 +1005,9 @@
     <literal>&amp;</literal>, and <emphasis>other elements of shell
     syntax are not supported</emphasis>.</para>
 
-    <para>The command to execute must be an absolute path name. It may
-    contain spaces, but control characters are not allowed.</para>
+    <para>The command to execute may contain spaces, but control characters are not allowed.</para>
 
-    <para>The command line accepts <literal>%</literal> specifiers as
-    described in
+    <para>The command line accepts <literal>%</literal> specifiers as described in
     <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
 
     <para>Basic environment variable substitution is supported. Use
@@ -1022,10 +1021,20 @@
     For this type of expansion, quotes are respected when splitting
     into words, and afterwards removed.</para>
 
+    <para>If the command is not a full (absolute) path, it will be resolved to a full path using a
+    fixed search path determinted at compilation time. Searched directories include
+    <filename>/usr/local/bin/</filename>, <filename>/usr/bin/</filename>, <filename>/bin/</filename>
+    on systems using split <filename>/usr/bin/</filename> and <filename>/bin/</filename>
+    directories, and their <filename>sbin/</filename> counterparts on systems using split
+    <filename>bin/</filename> and <filename>sbin/</filename>. It is thus safe to use just the
+    executable name in case of executables located in any of the "standard" directories, and an
+    absolute path must be used in other cases. Using an absolute path is recommended to avoid
+    ambiguity.</para>
+
     <para>Example:</para>
 
     <programlisting>Environment="ONE=one" 'TWO=two two'
-ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
+ExecStart=echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
 
     <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> with four
     arguments: <literal>one</literal>, <literal>two</literal>,
@@ -1035,7 +1044,7 @@ ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO ${TWO}</programlisting>
     <programlisting>Environment=ONE='one' "TWO='two two' too" THREE=
 ExecStart=/bin/echo ${ONE} ${TWO} ${THREE}
 ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO $THREE</programlisting>
-    <para>This results in <filename>echo</filename> being
+    <para>This results in <filename>/bin/echo</filename> being
     called twice, the first time with arguments
     <literal>'one'</literal>,
     <literal>'two two' too</literal>, <literal></literal>,
@@ -1061,27 +1070,27 @@ ExecStart=/bin/echo $ONE $TWO $THREE</programlisting>
     <para>Note that shell command lines are not directly supported. If
     shell command lines are to be used, they need to be passed
     explicitly to a shell implementation of some kind. Example:</para>
-    <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
+    <programlisting>ExecStart=sh -c 'dmesg | tac'</programlisting>
 
     <para>Example:</para>
 
-    <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo one ; /bin/echo "two two"</programlisting>
+    <programlisting>ExecStart=echo one ; echo "two two"</programlisting>
 
-    <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command> two times,
+    <para>This will execute <command>echo</command> two times,
     each time with one argument: <literal>one</literal> and
     <literal>two two</literal>, respectively. Because two commands are
     specified, <varname>Type=oneshot</varname> must be used.</para>
 
     <para>Example:</para>
 
-    <programlisting>ExecStart=/bin/echo / &gt;/dev/null &amp; \; \
-/bin/ls</programlisting>
+    <programlisting>ExecStart=echo / &gt;/dev/null &amp; \; \
+ls</programlisting>
 
-    <para>This will execute <command>/bin/echo</command>
+    <para>This will execute <command>echo</command>
     with five arguments: <literal>/</literal>,
     <literal>&gt;/dev/null</literal>,
     <literal>&amp;</literal>, <literal>;</literal>, and
-    <literal>/bin/ls</literal>.</para>
+    <literal>ls</literal>.</para>
 
     <table>
       <title>C escapes supported in command lines and environment variables</title>