Description of problem:

It is impossible to create a properly working service unit file which has, for its WorkingDirectory, a path containing whitespace. None of the following will work:
* double- or single-quoting the path
* escaping the whitespace characters with backslashes
* substituting the output of 'systemd-escape -p <path>' for the path

When an attempt is made to use a unit file employing the first or third schemes above, the message "systemd[1]: [<unit file>:<line number>] Not an absolute path, ignoring: <path>" is sent to the journal; however the service does indeed run. (If backslash-escaping is tried, the error is different and the service will not start.)

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):


Systemd is up to date on my system: "systemctl --version" reports "systemd 219". 


How reproducible:


Steps to Reproduce:
1.  Create a short script, for example:

#!/bin/bash
pwd > /tmp/<output file>

2.  Create a test service unit, for example:

[Unit]
Description=Test service

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=<path containing spaces, using any of the 3 schemes quoted above>
ExecStart=<path to script>
User=<my user>
Group=<my group>
Type=simple

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

3.  Start the service using systemctl.  

Actual results:

When this service is started using systemctl, the working directory will be revealed as "/" for the first and third schemes above, and the service will fail to start for the second scheme above.

If a path not containing whitespace is entered in the unit file for WorkingDirectory (and is one accessible to the quoted user), the service will start without errors and the called script will output the correct working directory to the output file. 

Expected results:

There should be a way of specifying a path containing whitespace for WorkingDirectory.  

Additional info: