On Sat, Nov 12, 2022 at 10:41:15AM -0500, paulf@quillandmouse.com
wrote:
Folks:
I've been reading up on systemd, both from Red Hat's documentation,
Debian's and the man files. One thing I haven't been able to
explain is why systemd has config files in /etc, /lib, /run, and
/usr/lib.
/lib and /usr/lib are the same thing, or will be the same thing in a
future release. Don't worry about that.
/run is transient. It's an in-memory file system, created and
populated at boot time, or by running programs. It's not a place for
configuration.
So really you're looking at /etc vs. /usr/lib.
/usr/lib contains the defaults created by the Debian maintainers or
the upstream authors. When you install a new package that has a
systemd unit file, that's where it'll go.
/etc contains the overrides and configuration elements that are unique
to your system. If a service is masked or disabled, it'll be done
here. If you install a locally built service, and write a systemd
unit for it, this is where you'll put it. If you override part or
all of a package's unit file, you do it here.