[SOLVED] default.target in Centos 7.3.1611 is graphical instead of multiuser

vincix · 06-09-2017, 09:53 AM

I'm currently in /usr/lib/systemd/system.
If I do a cat default.target I get:

Code:

[Unit]
Description=Graphical Interface
Documentation=man:systemd.special(7)
Requires=multi-user.target
Wants=display-manager.service
Conflicts=rescue.service rescue.target
After=multi-user.target rescue.service rescue.target display-manager.service
AllowIsolate=yes

However, if I run systemctl get-default I get "multi-user.target". Any idea why this is happening?

In RHCA/RCHE 7 Certificate Guide there's an example of how multi-user.taget looks like.
And there are two rows that are missing from my OS:
[Install]
Alias=default.target

How does this all work?

vincix · 06-09-2017, 12:52 PM

Ok, the explanation consists in the fact that actual default.target resides in /etc/systemd/system, not in /usr/lib/systemd/system, where I'm guessing all units can be found.

When I enable a service, I really find the output rather misleading, but I guess that's just me (maybe because I'm not a native speaker, I don't know):

Code:

systemctl enable iptables
Created symlink from /etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/iptables.service to /usr/lib/systemd/system/iptables.service.

And I thought the second file (in /usr/lib) was a symlink for the first file (in /etc). But it's the other way around:

Code:

ll -d /etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/iptables.service
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 40 Jun  9 20:48 /etc/systemd/system/basic.target.wants/iptables.service -> /usr/lib/systemd/system/iptables.service

dejank · 06-09-2017, 01:00 PM

Systemd by default, on most/all distros that install graphical environment has default target under /lib/systemd/system/default.target (or in some distros under usr/lib/systemd/...) that is symbolic link to /lib/systemd/system/graphical.target. However, real default for every system is determined by symbolic link of /etc/systemd/system/default.target(if it exists, otherwise original one under /lib/systemd/... is used), where customization on per system basis is done. That link points to the /lib/systemd/system/multi-user.target in your case, that is why you get it with systemctl get-default.

Quote:

And I thought the second file (in /usr/lib) was a symlink for the first file (in /etc). But it's the other way around

Yes, it is as it should be. Those go from /etc/... to /lib/...(/usr/lib/...). That "from to" means "this points to that".