CLI Machines Power Services Start

`ed machines services start`

Starts one unit.

ed machines services start <machine> <unit> [--json]

Arguments

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
`<machine>`	machine name, ssh alias or id	required	Which machine the unit lives on.
`<unit>`	unit name	required	The unit, for example `nginx.service`. Quoted for the remote shell only when it holds something outside letters, digits and `._-+/=:@%,`, so a name with awkward characters survives.

Options

Name	Type / values	Default	What it does
`--json`	flag	off	Emit JSON on stdout instead of the human line.
`--help`, `-h`	flag	off	Print the help for this command on stdout and exit 0.

$ ed machines services start tuf nginx.service
started nginx.service on Asus TUF 7

`--json` shape

{
  "action": "start",
  "applied": true,
  "machine": "Asus TUF 7",
  "unit": "nginx.service"
}

This document is only ever emitted on success. A failure writes nothing to stdout and reports on stderr instead.

Examples

ed machines services start tuf nginx.service
ed machines tuf services start docker.service
ed machines services start tuf nginx.service --json

Behaviour notes

There is no --yes on the unit verbs. They act immediately.

The remote line for nginx.service is systemctl start nginx.service 2>&1 || sudo -n systemctl start nginx.service 2>&1, with a 60 second timeout. The unit is only wrapped in single quotes when it holds a character outside letters, digits and ._-+/=:@%,, so an ordinary name goes across bare. Note the order: plain systemctl first, sudo -n as the fallback, which is the opposite way round from reboot and shutdown.

When the machine has a sudo password stored, the two attempts collapse into one: sudo -S -p '' systemctl start nginx.service 2>&1, with the password written to the command's stdin rather than onto a command line, and no fallback afterwards to leave stale text in the output. Store it with ed machines edit <machine> --sudo-password-stdin, which is what makes these verbs work on a stock desktop Linux where polkit treats an SSH session as inactive and sudo -n refuses to prompt.

Systemd's own unit name shorthand applies, because ed passes the name straight through: nginx and nginx.service are the same unit to systemctl start. The .service suffix is what ed machines services ls prints, so it is the safe thing to copy.

A failure exits 1 with the machine's output appended, and adds the sudo hint only when the output looks like a privilege problem:

$ ed machines services start tuf nginx.service
error: could not start nginx.service on Asus TUF 7: Failed to start nginx.service: Unit nginx.service not found.

An unreachable machine exits 4 before the unit is touched. An unknown machine name exits 3. A unit that does not exist is a remote failure, so it exits 1, not 3: ed never checks the unit list before acting.