Hello,

I have been trying to create a system service that would run a script on shutdown (hence why I went for a system service over a user service) and landed on something like this

[Unit]
Description=Run backup script on shutdown
DefaultDependencies=no
Before=poweroff.target halt.target
Requires=network.target

[Service]
Type=oneshot
RemainAfterExit=true
ExecStart=/bin/true
ExecStop=/var/home/blackeco/scripts/backup.sh
User=blackeco
Group=blackeco

[Install]
WantedBy=poweroff.target halt.target

Unfortunately, when the shutdown occurs, systemd fails to execute the script:

backup-on-shutdown.service: Unable to locate executable '/var/home/blackeco/scripts/backup.sh': Permission denied
backup-on-shutdown.service: Failed at step EXEC spawning /var/home/blackeco/scripts/backup.sh: Permission denied

This script is correctly owned by user blackeco and permissions look fine

$ ls -la /var/home/blackeco/scripts
drwxr-xr-x. 1 blackeco blackeco 154  5 Feb. 13:50 ./
drwxr-xr-x. 1 blackeco blackeco 116  3 Feb. 13:07 ../
-rwxr-xr-x. 1 blackeco blackeco 794  4 Feb. 15:44 backup.sh*

I’m very puzzled as to why. I’m running Bluefin 41 (itself based on Fedora Silverblue 41).

  • Telorand@reddthat.comEnglish
    4·
    2 days ago

    It’s not sus at all. The reason /home is in /var is because /var and /etc are the only writeable directories on the system. There is a /home, but it’s actually just a symlink to /var/home.

    This is how all of the Fedora atomic systems are set up, and it’s been the case for a lot of the other immutable distros I’ve tried. It’s just a different way of doing things.