Re: Custom name for a template’s temporary file name?

dnmvisser
Wed, 25 Feb 2026 15:38:42 +0000
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While doing maintenance on some roles/playbooks, I came across several template tasks that create systemd service unit files.
A few years ago I had a question about how to validate those: Custom name for a template's temporary file name?

What I wanted was impossible, so I created an issue for it in the systemd github repo.

That eventually got fixed in systemd version 250:

systemd-analyze verify gained support for verifying unit files under an explicitly specified unit name, independently of what the filename actually is.

I just returned to this and can confirm it now does what I wanted back in 2021.
The validate parameter would look like this:

- name: Ensure systemd service unit is available for the foobar service
  become: true
  ansible.builtin.template:
    src: foobar.service.j2
    dest: /etc/systemd/system/foobar.service
    owner: root
    group: root
    mode: "0644"
    validate: systemd-analyze verify %s:foobar.service

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