Help talk:Reading

Lack of clarity in the "Control of systemd units" Section

I recently submitted an edit (without posting a talk page here first... oops!) that broadened the scope of section 7, mainly trying to address the conflation of "start" and "enable" for users stumbling across this page without first having much knowledge of systemd (which I think is probably common, because links to this section are probably only clicked by people who don't know how to start a service).

This issue has already been attempted to be addressed by so far at least two people. Micsthepick with his submission here (reverted) and Elijah Lynn here.

The fact that it is a recurring issue seems to me like it warrants being addressed for clarity, especially since this is a page frequented by people who are just getting started.

I'd like to here y'alls thought on this issue. Thanks! Mistcurve (talk) 13:30, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

What's the issue? The link to systemd#Using units is already here. — andreymal (talk) 14:41, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

I guess it's just the wording for me. "you will read something like:" is generic, and "This means that you have to run:" is specific. I think this allows a linked instruction to "enable" or "Start/enable" to be read as "something like" "Start".

I ran into this issue myself. I agree that the link to [systemd#Using units] is the right place to point. I think reading through that section is helpful, but the section we're discussing is less so.. except shuttling people to the other page. But, I think for a beginner (I ran into this) when there's a statement like "This means you have to run:" and then a command, I think it promotes running the command and thinking you're done as opposed to going to the systemd page to look at what commands whatever article linked to hear wanted you to run. Mistcurve (talk) 20:03, 9 April 2026 (UTC)

Do you have a suggestion to better show it's just an example and that reading the dedicated page is required for people who don't know about handling units? We don't want to duplicate it here: this page is a short summary of the conventions used on our page (e.g. the root and user prompts), not an introduction to what each topic is about.

-- Erus Iluvatar (talk) 15:51, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Thanks for the input. It helped me come up with what I think is a better solution than I had before. What if instead of "This means that you have to run:", it was something like "This means you have to run the corresponding systemctl command (start, enable, etc.). For example:". And also reword the first sentence of the section so that the list is not redundant.

I think that would clear up the issue, and also more encourage the reader to go click on the systemd#Using units rather than just running the command they see in front of them. Mistcurve (talk) 16:13, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Implemented, closing :) --Erus Iluvatar (talk) 17:00, 16 April 2026 (UTC)

Looks great, thanks! Mistcurve (talk) 19:10, 16 April 2026 (UTC)