RFE: migrate StateDirectory= and friends back from DynamicUser=1 subdir to regular one if needed

[kouros17]

systemd version the issue has been seen with

241.1023-1

Used distribution

Manjaro

From Journalctl I get:

manjaro systemd[694]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed at step STATE_DIRECTORY spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[694]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed to set up special execution directory in /var/lib: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[1]: Failed to start Network Time Synchronization.
manjaro systemd[691]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed at step STATE_DIRECTORY spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[691]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed to set up special execution directory in /var/lib: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[1]: Failed to start Network Time Synchronization.
manjaro systemd[688]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed at step STATE_DIRECTORY spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[688]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed to set up special execution directory in /var/lib: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[1]: Failed to start Network Time Synchronization.
manjaro systemd[685]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed at step STATE_DIRECTORY spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[685]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed to set up special execution directory in /var/lib: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[1]: Failed to start Network Time Synchronization.
manjaro systemd[681]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed at step STATE_DIRECTORY spawning /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-timesyncd: Not a directory
manjaro systemd[681]: systemd-timesyncd.service: Failed to set up special execution directory in /var/lib: Not a directory
manjaro systemd-fsck[651]: fsck failed with exit status 16.

[poettering]

this suggests your /var/lib is read-only or so?

[kouros17]

ls -l /var

drwxr-xr-x  8 root root  4096 Οκτ  26 14:21 cache
drwxr-xr-x  4 root root  4096 Οκτ  26 14:50 db
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Σεπ  30 10:25 empty
drwxrwxr-x  2 root games 4096 Σεπ  30 10:25 games
drwxr-xr-x 36 root root  4096 Μαρ  28 12:55 lib
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Σεπ  30 10:25 local
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    11 Σεπ  30 10:25 lock -> ../run/lock
drwxr-xr-x 11 root root  4096 Μαρ  18 03:20 log
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root    10 Σεπ  30 10:25 mail -> spool/mail
drwxr-xr-x  2 root root  4096 Σεπ  30 10:25 opt
lrwxrwxrwx  1 root root     6 Σεπ  30 10:25 run -> ../run
drwxr-xr-x  6 root root  4096 Οκτ  13 11:51 spool
drwxrwxrwt  8 root root  4096 Μαρ  28 12:57 tmp

[poettering]

is it mounted read-only or so?

[kouros17]

How I can check this?

[kouros17]

Finally managed to solve the issue with following steps:

1. execute rm /var/lib/systemd/timesync to remove the old symlink
2. restart systemd-timesyncd

New directory is successfully created by systemd-timesyncd and the service starts normally

[yuwata]

C.f. 787a133.

[floppym]

So what's the deal on this issue?
Is the sysadmin supposed to remove some file?
Or should I do this in the package upgrade post-install script?

[keszybz]

@poettering suggested adding code to move the state dirs back from private/. We currently have the code to move them one way, but not the other.