Bug 2114005

Summary: systemd path unit fails when triggered unit conditions not met
Product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Reporter: Michael Nguyen <mnguyen>
Component: systemdAssignee: David Tardon <dtardon>
Status: CLOSED ERRATA QA Contact: Frantisek Sumsal <fsumsal>
Severity: unspecified Docs Contact:
Priority: unspecified    
Version: 8.4CC: dtardon, jamacku, jschinta, msekleta, rmetrich, systemd-maint-list
Target Milestone: rcKeywords: Regression, Reproducer, Triaged, ZStream
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: Unspecified   
OS: Unspecified   
Whiteboard:
Fixed In Version: systemd-239-65.el8 Doc Type: If docs needed, set a value
Doc Text:
Story Points: ---
Clone Of:
: 2123801 2123802 (view as bug list) Environment:
Last Closed: 2022-11-08 10:49:56 UTC Type: Bug
Regression: --- Mount Type: ---
Documentation: --- CRM:
Verified Versions: Category: ---
oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Bug Depends On:    
Bug Blocks: 2123801, 2123802    

Description Michael Nguyen 2022-08-02 14:27:53 UTC
Description of problem:

In OpenShift (versions 4.7 - 4.10) we build Red Hat CoreOS using RHEL 8.4 EUS content. We recently picked up systemd-239-45.el8_4.11.x86_64 and one of our systemd units started failing. If we roll back to systemd-239-45.el8_4.10.x86_64 the systemd unit runs fine. 

Looking at the change log, we believe Propagate condition failed state to triggering units (#2095950) is causing it.  In the path unit, we are checking for changes in a particular directory with `PathChanged`.  In the service we are checking for the additioin of a specific file type in that directory with `ConditionPathExistsGlob`. For some reason the path unit is detecting a change (maybe the creation of the directory by systemd-tmpfiles?) and triggering the service, but there are not files in the directory so the service does not run.  This gets propagated back up to the path and monitoring of the path is disabled.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
systemd-239-45.el8_4.11.x86_64

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Here are the path and service units.

https://github.com/coreos/console-login-helper-messages/blob/v0.20.3/usr/lib/systemd/system/console-login-helper-messages-issuegen.path

https://github.com/coreos/console-login-helper-messages/blob/v0.20.3/usr/lib/systemd/system/console-login-helper-messages-issuegen.service

2. On startup, the path unit triggers the service but since there are no `*.issues` in the directory, the service will not start.  This is considered a failure and it gets propagated up to the path and the path will no longer monitor the path.

Actual results:
Path unit gets shut down and no longer monitors the path for changes

Expected results:
The service should not be considered failed if the condition to start the unit is not met.


Additional info:
This change was also recently picked up in RHEL 8.6 EUS and is affecting OCP 4.11

Comment 1 Michael Nguyen 2022-08-02 14:37:46 UTC
We dug into the changelog and found the patch which references commit12ab94a1e4961a39c32efb60b71866ab588d3ea2 which was reverted upstream:
- https://github.com/systemd/systemd/commit/40f41f3
- https://github.com/systemd/systemd/pull/21808

I was told by David Tardon this was reverted because it incorrectly failed the path unit when if the service was manually started.

Comment 3 Plumber Bot 2022-08-18 11:56:51 UTC
fix merged to github master branch -> https://github.com/redhat-plumbers/systemd-rhel8/pull/303

Comment 9 David Tardon 2022-10-05 14:01:03 UTC
*** Bug 2132374 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 11 errata-xmlrpc 2022-11-08 10:49:56 UTC
Since the problem described in this bug report should be
resolved in a recent advisory, it has been closed with a
resolution of ERRATA.

For information on the advisory (systemd bug fix and enhancement update), and where to find the updated
files, follow the link below.

If the solution does not work for you, open a new bug report.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHBA-2022:7727