man: add more detail about quoting in ExecStart lines

Fixes #624.

1 files changed, 8 insertions, 6 deletions

diff --git a/man/systemd.service.xml b/man/systemd.service.xml
index 0678855945..da35a5205d 100644
--- a/man/systemd.service.xml
+++ b/man/systemd.service.xml
@@ -916,12 +916,14 @@
 
     <para>Each command line is split on whitespace, with the first item being the command to
     execute, and the subsequent items being the arguments. Double quotes ("…") and single quotes
-    ('…') may be used, in which case everything until the next matching quote becomes part of the
-    same argument. Quotes themselves are removed. C-style escapes are also supported. The table
-    below contains the list of known escape patterns. Only escape patterns which match the syntax in
-    the table are allowed; other patterns may be added in the future and unknown patterns will
-    result in a warning. In particular, any backslashes should be doubled. Finally, a trailing
-    backslash (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to merge lines.</para>
+    ('…') may be used to wrap a whole item (the opening quote may appear only at the beginning or
+    after whitespace that is not quoted, and the closing quote must be followed by whitespace or the
+    end of line), in which case everything until the next matching quote becomes part of the same
+    argument. Quotes themselves are removed. C-style escapes are also supported. The table below
+    contains the list of known escape patterns. Only escape patterns which match the syntax in the
+    table are allowed; other patterns may be added in the future and unknown patterns will result in
+    a warning. In particular, any backslashes should be doubled. Finally, a trailing backslash
+    (<literal>\</literal>) may be used to merge lines.</para>
 
     <para>This syntax is inspired by shell syntax, but only the meta-characters and expansions
     described in the following paragraphs are understood, and the expansion of variables is