RemainAfterExit

RemainAfterExit is a configuration directive used in systemd service unit files. It controls whether systemd should keep a service in the Active state after the main service process has exited.

When RemainAfterExit is set to yes (or true), the unit remains active even after the process has finished. When set to no (the default), the unit becomes inactive once the main process exits. This behavior is particularly relevant for oneshot services, which run a task to completion and then terminate, but may still be important for other units to observe or depend on.

Typical use involves tasks that need to be completed during boot or at activation time and must influence dependency ordering. By keeping the service active after exit, other units that specify After=, Requires=, or Wants= can reliably wait for the task to finish before proceeding. The unit can still be stopped explicitly with systemctl stop, which will transition it to inactive.

In practice, RemainAfterExit is most commonly applied to Type=oneshot services. When active after exit, status reports show Active: active (exited) rather than inactive, reflecting that the task finished but the unit remains enabled in a started state. This can be helpful for modeling one-off initialization steps or bootstrapping tasks without leaving the unit in a running state.

Caveats include the fact that enabling RemainAfterExit causes the unit to occupy an Active state indefinitely unless explicitly stopped, so use it judiciously to avoid unnecessary startup delay or complexity in dependency graphs.