To test this, i created an Installer live image with 100 containers configured and bootet it.

All containers start now. The start fails without this fix.

@infinisil can you review it again?

Oh actually, while running nix-build nixos/release.nix -A tests.containers-imperative.x86_64-linux:

machine# [   61.148540] systemd[1]: /nix/store/ar6287z36akl2m2a9mdvan37ad17scjh-unit-container-.service/container@.service:31:
  Failed to parse TimeoutStartSec= parameter, ignoring:

You should probably make the dummy be valid too

@infinisil thanks for mentioning the tests. They run sucessfull now!

I set the dummy to the current default (systemd default) of 15s.

Hello @davidak, I am slightly confused by this PR.

You say the current default set by systemd is 15s. But I don‘t think this is the case. I am curious where you got this number. At least on my systems (using nixos for two years) the timeout is and has been since the introduction of systemd in arch years ago 90s.

I mean it doesn‘t really matter, but this PR actually lowered the default TimeoutStartSec for my containers and subsequently my containers now fail more often.

So I am wondering: What do you think about raising the timeout to 90s or making this option null-able and just not setting it by default to make sure we use the systemd default (even if they change it)?

@maralorn i got the information from this stackexchange answer :D

#65001 (comment)

I mean it doesn‘t really matter, but this PR actually lowered the default TimeoutStartSec for my containers and subsequently my containers now fail more often.

That was not my intention. Do you use NixOS stable or unstable? They might have different systemd versions.

So I am wondering: What do you think about raising the timeout to 90s or making this option null-able and just not setting it by default to make sure we use the systemd default (even if they change it)?

When it's actually 90s, we might be fine with a null-able option. But since we depend on it, it might be more stable to set 90s as default. Would you create a PR for that? I can review it then.