`systemctl kill` leverages systemd's knowledge of the daemon's main PID, eliminating the need to rely on PID files or external tools like `killall` or `pkill`. This ensures precise signal sending to the intended process, reducing the risk of errors in process identification. Additionally, using `systemctl kill` logs the signal sending in the service's journal, providing a record of actions taken. Requires selinux-policy-41.43 or higher (see https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2369644), available as an update for F41, F42, and Rawhide.

https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-eb98eb9e24 (F41 -- will go to stable in a few days)
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-f9f097f491 (F42 -- stable)
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2025-3db4c0ec1c (Rawhide)

The logrotate configuration snippet:

# cat /etc/logrotate.d/ntpsec.conf
# On Linux systems with logrotate,
#  drop this into /etc/logrotate.d/ntpd
# That will rotate ntpd.log monthly and then
# kick ntpd to switch to the new log file.

/var/log/ntpd.log {
    monthly
    missingok
    postrotate
      /usr/bin/killall -HUP ntpd
    endscript
    rotate 6
}

In the postrotate script, killall can be replaced by:

/usr/bin/systemctl kill --signal=HUP --kill-whom=main ntpd.service 2>/dev/null || true

Because:

# systemctl show -P MainPID ntpd.service
2411
# pgrep ntpd
2411

Reproducible: Always




Additional Information:
ntpsec-1.2.4-1.fc42.x86_64