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journalctl --user --unit and --user-unit differ #26742

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#27961
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journalctl --user --unit and --user-unit differ#26742
#27961
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bug 🐛Programming errors, that need preferential fixingjournal
@smopucilowski

Description

@smopucilowski
smopucilowski
opened on Mar 10, 2023

systemd version the issue has been seen with

systemd 253 (253) +PAM -AUDIT -SELINUX -APPARMOR +IMA +SMACK +SECCOMP +GCRYPT -GNUTLS +OPENSSL -ACL +BLKID -CURL -ELFUTILS -FIDO2 +IDN2 -IDN -IPTC +KMOD -LIBCRYPTSETUP +LIBFDISK +PCRE2 -PWQUALITY -P11KIT -QRENCODE -TPM2 -BZIP2 +LZ4 -XZ -ZLIB +ZSTD -BPF_FRAMEWORK -XKBCOMMON +UTMP -SYSVINIT default-hierarchy=unified

Used distribution

Gentoo

Linux kernel version used

6.1.12-gentoo

CPU architectures issue was seen on

x86_64

Component

journalctl

Expected behaviour you didn't see

I have a backup script that invokes rsync using systemd-run:

systemd-run \
        --user \
        --collect \
        --pty \
        --quiet \
        --wait \
        --property=ExitType=cgroup \
        --property=IOSchedulingClass=idle \
        --slice backup \
        --unit "backup" \
        rsync -aPh $args $src $dst

When inspecting the journal naively, I can see the journal entries for the invocation (ignore the ctrl-C aborts):

# journalctl -b -g backup
Mar 10 12:36:07 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Created slice backup.slice.
Mar 10 12:36:07 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:37:09 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 2.408s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:37:09 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:41:00 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=23/n/a
Mar 10 12:41:00 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 10 12:41:00 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 52.683s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:41:00 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:43:25 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=23/n/a
Mar 10 12:43:25 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 10 12:43:25 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 5.110s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:44:08 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:44:08 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:47:19 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=23/n/a
Mar 10 12:47:19 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 10 12:47:19 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 46.194s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:47:19 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:47:24 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=23/n/a
Mar 10 12:47:24 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 10 12:47:24 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 1.815s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:48:32 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:48:34 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=20/n/a
Mar 10 12:48:35 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 10 12:48:35 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:48:36 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=20/n/a
Mar 10 12:48:36 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 10 12:48:36 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 1.048s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:48:36 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:48:37 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=20/n/a
Mar 10 12:48:37 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 10 12:50:38 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:50:51 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 2.360s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:50:51 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:53:27 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 56.583s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:53:27 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 13:06:42 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 4min 32.738s CPU time.

When trying to view the journal entries directly, they do not appear:

# journalctl -b --unit backup
-- No entries --
# journalctl -b --user --unit backup
No journal files were found.
-- No entries --

The desired entries only appear when using --user-unit, which the documentation appears to suggest is equivalent to --user --unit:

# journalctl -b --user-unit backup
Mar 10 12:36:07 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:37:09 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 2.408s CPU time.
Mar 10 12:37:09 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: Started backup.service.
Mar 10 12:41:00 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=23/n/a
Mar 10 12:41:00 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Mar 10 12:41:00 wanderweg.smoddom.local systemd[709036]: backup.service: Consumed 52.683s CPU time.
etc
  1. It is not clear from journalctl -b -g backup which are entries from the user journal vs the system journal, leaving a lot of puzzled confusion on viewing relevant journal entries, and
  2. It appears that --user --unit and --user-unit are different and not working as expected.

Possibly related to bug #23679

Unexpected behaviour you saw

As above.

Steps to reproduce the problem

As above.

Additional program output to the terminal or log subsystem illustrating the issue

No response

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