How to Make Systemd Kill or Stop Respawning the Rsyslog Daemon

To prevent systemd from respawning or automatically restarting the rsyslog daemon, you need to modify the service configuration. Here’s how you can do that:

1. Modify rsyslog Service Configuration

By default, systemd will manage the rsyslog service and may restart it if it fails or is stopped. You can change these settings by creating or editing the rsyslog service unit file.

Edit the Service File

1. Locate the Service File:

   The default service unit file for rsyslog is usually located at /lib/systemd/system/rsyslog.service or /etc/systemd/system/rsyslog.service. You should create an override file to modify the default behavior rather than editing the file directly.

2. Create an Override File:

   Use the following command to create or edit an override file:

    

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   sudo systemctl edit rsyslog
   

   This will open an editor for a drop-in configuration file in /etc/systemd/system/rsyslog.service.d/.

3. Add Configuration to Prevent Restart:

   In the editor, add the following content to prevent systemd from restarting the rsyslog service:

    

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   [Service]
   Restart=no
   

   Save and exit the editor.

2. Reload Systemd Configuration

After making changes to the service configuration, reload the systemd daemon to apply the changes:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

3. Stop the Rsyslog Service

To stop the rsyslog service, use the following command:

sudo systemctl stop rsyslog

4. Verify Service Status

You can check the status of the rsyslog service to ensure it is not running and is not set to restart:

systemctl status rsyslog

Example of Full Override File

The complete override file might look like this:

[Service]
Restart=no

Additional Notes

• Disabling Autostart: If you want to ensure rsyslog does not start automatically at boot, you can disable it with:

   

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  sudo systemctl disable rsyslog
  

• Manual Start: If you need to start rsyslog manually later, you can do so with:

   

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  sudo systemctl start rsyslog
  

This approach gives you control over the rsyslog service behavior and prevents systemd from automatically restarting it.

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