How tell systemd to reload an updated systemd service file?

Rocky Linux Help & Support
1

I created a systemd service on Rocky 9.5 but it had a typo in it:

# systemctl status keycloak
○ keycloak.service - keycloak-26.3.1
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)

systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service:14: Unknown key name 'ExexStop' in sec>

So I corrected the typo (ExexStop → ExecStop):

# cat /etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service 
[Unit]
Description=keycloak-26.3.1
After=network.target

[Service]
SuccessExitStatus=143
User=kcloak
Group=kcloak
Type=forking
WorkingDirectory=/opt/kcloak/keycloak-26.3.1
StandardOutput=append:/opt/kcloak/keycloak-stdout.txt
StandardError=append:/opt/kcloak/keycloak-stderr.txt
ExecStart=/opt/kcloak/keycloak-26.3.1/run.sh
ExecStop=/bin/kill -15 $MAINPID

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

and did a daemon-reload:

# systemctl daemon-reload

but to no effect. The typo persists:

# systemctl status keycloak
○ keycloak.service - keycloak-26.3.1
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)

systemd[1]: /etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service:14: Unknown key name 'ExexStop' in sec>

I even removed the file entirely, did a daemon-reload

# systemctl daemon-reload 
# systemctl status keycloak
Unit keycloak.service could not be found.

and then re-installed the file but again, it’s still using the old file content and generating the same error.

How do I get systemd to see the updated .service control file?

2

Hi,

Have you tried:-

systemctl restart keycloak

Regards Tom.

3

Changing the file and a daemon-reload should be enough. If the file isn’t updating correctly, perhaps there is another keycloak.service file on the server?

find / -iname keycloak.service

or perhaps there is a /etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service.d/override.conf if someone has used something like systemctl edit keycloak.service.

4

This particular system is very stock, virtually unused and when it is, only by me.

# find . -path ./mnt -prune -o -print | grep keycloak.service
./root/keycloak.service
./opt/kcloak/keycloak-26.3.1/lib/lib/main/org.keycloak.keycloak-services-26.3.1.jar
# rpm -qa | grep keycloak
<no results>
# ps fax | grep systemd
      1 ?        Ss     0:05 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd rhgb --switched-root --system --deserialize 31
    641 ?        Ss     0:02 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-journald
    655 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-udevd
    807 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-logind
 322406 pts/1    S+     0:00              \_ grep --color=auto systemd
   2433 ?        Ssl    0:11 /usr/sbin/automount --systemd-service --dont-check-daemon
  83421 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
 312508 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
 314186 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
 322379 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-hostnamed
# systemctl daemon-reload
# ps fax | grep systemd
      1 ?        Ss     0:05 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd rhgb --switched-root --system --deserialize 31
    641 ?        Ss     0:02 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-journald
    655 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-udevd
    807 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-logind
 322464 pts/1    S+     0:00              \_ grep --color=auto systemd
   2433 ?        Ssl    0:11 /usr/sbin/automount --systemd-service --dont-check-daemon
  83421 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
 312508 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
 314186 ?        Ss     0:00 /usr/lib/systemd/systemd --user
# systemctl status keycloak
× keycloak.service - keycloak-26.3.1
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: failed [because of incorrect Type=forking]
# shutdown -r now

…

# systemctl status keycloak
○ keycloak.service - keycloak-26.3.1
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)

Now fixed unrelated issue Type=forking to Type=simple and:

# systemctl daemon-reload
# systemctl stop keycloak
# systemctl start keycloak
# systemctl status keycloak
● keycloak.service - keycloak-26.3.1
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/keycloak.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: active (running) since Mon 2025-07-14 14:12:16 EDT; 3s ago 
   Main PID: 2411 (run.sh)
      Tasks: 33 (limit: 22779)
     Memory: 263.6M
        CPU: 9.055s
     CGroup: /system.slice/keycloak.service
             ├─2411 /bin/sh /opt/kcloak/keycloak-26.3.1/run.sh
             └─2412 java -Dkc.config.built=true -Djava.util.concurrent.ForkJoinPool.common.threadFactory=io.qua>

systemd[1]: Started keycloak-26.3.1.

So rebooting seems to have fixed it.

But maybe there’s a sporatic bug lurking in the systemd services caching.

5

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