this post was submitted on 18 Oct 2023
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Privacy
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Systemd "enabled" services are literal symlinks... whenever a target runs, it tries to start also all the service files on its "wants" directory.
You can literally enable any service for next boot by making a symlink in
/etc/systemd/system/multi-user.target.wants/
(or whichever other target you want it to run on) as root (and installation scripts are run as root).This is actually very close (just tested and confirmed it). I somehow stand corrected about requiring manual enablement but this is just using the package manager to do the dirty work for you.
However the program itself cannot write into those directories without root permissions. You still have to allow your package manager to do this with root permissions as mentioned.
Installing as user does not require root, to be clear. You can use systemd without root by specifying user.
Installing a package requires root which will automatically give the package manager permission to write anywhere on the system. To create a systemd service in user that will automatically start at boot requires root, someguy here commented with the how.
However you can run any installed binary via Desktop files as a user (no root) on login by writing to
~/.config/autostart
.My comment wasn't about installing the package. You seemed to think that systemd required root, which it does not. Further, you can have systemd user processes start at boot. I do this exact thing with Duplicacy, no root required.
The entire premise is for a package/manager to create a running/permanent service that will be started after boot AND does not require user intervention (for the avoidance of doubt, enabling the systemd service counts as intervention).
One way to do this is to create the service file and do the symlink to a folder that systemd automatically runs on boot. For both user and system systemd files you require root to make these modifications.
Another way is to create a Desktop file in the path I shared.
If you have more ways I'd be happy to hear them.