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This is a somewhat mystifying situation - not a crisis as far as I can tell, since the service in question still seems to work.

The background is, I wanted to upgrade to the latest apache2, which isn't available in my version of Debian, so I built it from source, installed it in /usr/local/apache2/, changed the service file and did the systemctl daemon-reload:

root@vogon:~# cat /lib/systemd/system/apache2.service
[Unit]
Description=The Apache HTTP Server
After=network.target remote-fs.target nss-lookup.target
Documentation=https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/

[Service]
Type=forking
Environment=APACHE_STARTED_BY_SYSTEMD=true
ExecStart=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl start
ExecStop=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl graceful-stop
ExecReload=/usr/local/apache2/bin/apachectl graceful
KillMode=mixed
PrivateTmp=true
Restart=on-abort

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

This didn't work for some reason I still have to figure out, so I changed it back to what it was before - and now I see the service twice:

root@vogon:~# systemctl status *apa*
● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2024-03-06 10:29:12 UTC; 21min ago
       Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
    Process: 3660993 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apachectl start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 3660997 (apache2)
      Tasks: 9 (limit: 35927)
     Memory: 68.8M
        CPU: 22.258s
     CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
             ├─3660997 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3660998 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3660999 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661000 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661001 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661002 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661003 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661006 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             └─3661007 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Mar 06 10:29:12 vogon systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Mar 06 10:29:12 vogon systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.

● apache2.service - The Apache HTTP Server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Wed 2024-03-06 10:29:12 UTC; 21min ago
       Docs: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/
    Process: 3660993 ExecStart=/usr/sbin/apachectl start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 3660997 (apache2)
      Tasks: 9 (limit: 35927)
     Memory: 68.8M
        CPU: 22.258s
     CGroup: /system.slice/apache2.service
             ├─3660997 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3660998 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3660999 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661000 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661001 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661002 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661003 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             ├─3661006 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start
             └─3661007 /usr/sbin/apache2 -k start

Mar 06 10:29:12 vogon systemd[1]: Starting The Apache HTTP Server...
Mar 06 10:29:12 vogon systemd[1]: Started The Apache HTTP Server.

If I spell out the service name apache2, it shows up just once, but it used to be the same with wildcards. Why is that?

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  • Are you sure you don't have two files or directories on your current $PWD? One would be named apache2, the other apache2.service for example. Try again with quotes. Commented Mar 6, 2024 at 11:01
  • @A.B That's it! I made a backup copy of the service file. God, I feel stupid :-) Commented Mar 6, 2024 at 11:04

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

If you have any files that match your pattern in your current working directory, it your shell would expand those files ("Pathname Expansion", AKA Globbing).

For instance, I create two files that match the pattern. If I echo the command to be executed, you'll see it will run status on the expanded filenames:

$ touch apache apache2
$ echo systemctl status *apa* 
systemctl status apache apache2

That's why you get 2 results:

$ systemctl status *apa* |grep -B1 Loaded:
● apache2.service - The Apache Webserver
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
--
● apache2.service - The Apache Webserver
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)

In order to avoid this, you need to quote the pattern to avoid the expansion.

$ systemctl status '*apa*' |grep -B1 Loaded:
● apache2.service - The Apache Webserver
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/apache2.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
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