Description¶

A unit configuration file whose name ends in .target encodes information about a target unit of systemd, which is used for grouping units and as well-known synchronization points during start-up.

This unit type has no specific options. See systemd.unit(5) for the common options of all unit configuration files. The common configuration items are configured in the generic [Unit] and [Install] sections. A separate [Target] section does not exist, since no target-specific options may be configured.

Target units do not offer any additional functionality on top of the generic functionality provided by units. They exist merely to group units via dependencies (useful as boot targets), and to establish standardized names for synchronization points used in dependencies between units. Among other things, target units are a more flexible replacement for SysV runlevels in the classic SysV init system. (And for compatibility reasons special target units such as runlevel3.target exist which are used by the SysV runlevel compatibility code in systemd. See systemd.special(7) for details).

Unless DefaultDependencies= is set to false, target units will implicitly complement all configured dependencies of type Wants=, Requires=, RequiresOverridable= with dependencies of type After= if the units in question also have DefaultDependencies=true.

See Also¶

systemd(1), systemctl(8), systemd.unit(5), systemd.special(7), systemd.directives(7)