Systemd Service & Timer Generator

Build .service and .timer unit files for systemd interactively. Fill in the form, toggle security and limits, copy or download. 100% client-side.

[Unit]

Description

Documentation— URL to docs

After— start after these units

network.target

Wants— weak dependencies

Requires— hard dependencies (fail if missing)

Before— start this unit before these targets

[Service]

Type

User

Group

WorkingDirectory

ExecStart— required

ExecStartPre— run before ExecStart

ExecStartPost— run after ExecStart succeeds

ExecStop— custom stop command

ExecReload— reload without restart

Restart

RestartSec

TimeoutStartSec

TimeoutStopSec

Environment variables

EnvironmentFile— load env from file

StandardOutput

StandardError

SyslogIdentifier— tag in journal logs

[Install]

WantedBy— enable targets

multi-user.target

Alias— alternative name for the unit

Generated Config

my-application.service

[Unit]
Description=My Application
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/myapp
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Quick Install

# 1. Save the file(s)

sudo cp my-application.service /etc/systemd/system/

# 2. Reload systemd

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

# 3. Enable and start

sudo systemctl enable --now my-application

# 4. Check status

sudo systemctl status my-application

Quick Recipes

Click a recipe to populate the form with a common service configuration.

Systemd Service File Guide

systemd is the default init system on most modern Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, CentOS/RHEL, Arch). Service unit files define how processes are started, stopped, and monitored. They live in /etc/systemd/system/ and use an INI-like format with three main sections. To convert between cron schedules and systemd calendar expressions, see the Cron ↔ Systemd Timer Converter.

Unit File Structure

[Unit]
Description=My Application
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/myapp
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Service Types Explained

Type	When to use	Example
simple	Default. Process stays in foreground.	Node.js, Go, Python
exec	Like simple, but “started” only after exec() succeeds	Gunicorn, Java
forking	Process forks to background. Needs PIDFile.	Apache, traditional daemons
oneshot	Runs once and exits. Good for scripts.	Migrations, cleanup scripts
notify	Process sends sd_notify() when ready	Nginx, Caddy, PostgreSQL
idle	Waits for all other jobs to finish	Low-priority tasks

Common Commands

Command	Description
systemctl start myapp	Start the service
systemctl stop myapp	Stop the service
systemctl restart myapp	Restart the service
systemctl enable myapp	Start on boot
systemctl status myapp	Check status and recent logs
journalctl -u myapp -f	Follow live logs
systemctl daemon-reload	Reload after editing unit files

Security Hardening

NoNewPrivileges — prevents privilege escalation via setuid/setgid binaries
ProtectSystem — makes /usr, /boot, /efi read-only (full adds /etc, strict makes everything read-only)
ProtectHome — makes /home, /root, /run/user inaccessible
PrivateTmp — gives the service its own /tmp namespace
PrivateDevices — restricts access to physical devices
ReadWritePaths — whitelist writable directories when using ProtectSystem=strict

Privacy First

All configuration is generated entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Your service paths, usernames, environment variables, and infrastructure details are never sent to any server.