systemd Toolkit

Language support for editing systemd unit, network, and daemon configuration files, plus systemctl / journalctl integration: a Units panel, CodeLens, live logs, and unit-file deploy — locally and over SSH.

Features

Editing

• Syntax highlighting for unit files (.service, .socket, .timer, .path, .mount, .swap, .automount, .target, .slice, .scope, .device), network files (.network, .netdev, .link, .nspawn, .dnssd, .dns-delegate) and daemon config files (journald.conf, logind.conf, resolved.conf, system.conf, …).
• Directive completion — directives are inferred from the current [Section] and file type. Inside [Service] of a .service file you get ExecStart, Type, Restart, …, not socket or timer options.
• Value completion — for enumerable directives (Type=, Restart=, KillMode=, booleans, …) the allowed values are offered after =.
• Section completion — typing [ lists the valid sections for the file.
• Hover documentation — hovering a directive shows a summary, allowed values, and a link to the upstream man page.
• Ctrl+Click — opens the online HTML man page (anchored at the directive), and jumps to dependency targets (After=, Wants=, WantedBy=, …) when they are deployed.
• Snippets — templates for service, oneshot, timer, socket, mount, automount, path, slice and target units (e.g. type service).

Commands

The unit name is inferred from the active editor (e.g. sshd.service), or you are prompted. Commands run in an integrated systemd terminal. Diagnostics (extension logs and a record of every command executed) go to the systemd Toolkit output channel.

Units panel

The systemd activity-bar container has three views:

• Target — the current host and unit scope (click either to switch). The Refresh button lives here and refreshes all three views.
• Loaded — units currently in memory (systemctl list-units), with a list/tree toggle, a Show/Hide inactive toggle, and a name filter. Both modes show each unit's state via icon and colour.
• Installed — units present in list-unit-files but not loaded (collapsed by default, fetched lazily when expanded), with its own list/tree toggle and filter. Freshly-deployed-but-inactive units surface here (systemd garbage-collects inactive units out of list-units).

Actions on a unit are state-dependent (same matrix as CodeLens):

Every unit also offers Status, View Unit File, and Edit Unit File. In the Installed tree, each group has a New button to create a unit of that type.

Editor CodeLens

For unit files the editor shows a state-dependent CodeLens:

• not deployed → a single Deploy action;
• deployed → live status (active (running)), then:
  • active → Stop + Restart; inactive → Start; failed → Restart;
  • enabled → Disable; disabled → Enable;
  • Logs, and Edit (read-only preview) / Deploy (editable copy).

Deploy writes the file and runs systemctl daemon-reload:

• an edited unit is written back to its FragmentPath (or to the unit dir if the fragment is a vendor file under /usr/lib/systemd/ or /lib/systemd/);
• a new file goes to /etc/systemd/system/<name> (or ~/.config/systemd/user/<name> for user scope);
• overwriting an existing file on the target asks for confirmation first.

Deploy does not start or enable the unit — those are separate steps (Start / Enable).

Live logs

Show Unit Logs opens a read-only tab streaming journalctl -u <unit> --follow -n 300 (locally or over SSH). It refreshes continuously, throttled and capped, and stops its process when the tab closes. Log views carry no CodeLens.

Status bar

The status bar shows the current target (host · scope · vNNN); click it to switch host or scope for the session.

Remote (SSH) & scope

• systemd-toolkit.host — SSH alias (from ~/.ssh/config) to operate on; empty = local. Remote commands reuse one multiplexed SSH connection.
• systemd-toolkit.scope — system (default) or user (systemctl --user). User scope deploys to ~/.config/systemd/user/ and never elevates.

The Target view and status bar switch these for the session without changing the settings. The panel follows the session; the editor CodeLens follows the file's own scope (a file under /etc/systemd/system/ is always system).

Supported systemd versions

Ships directive data for systemd 258, 259, 260, 261 (latest stable patch of each series). The extension automatically matches the target's systemd version (systemctl --version, honouring systemd-toolkit.host) so language features always use the right directive data. If the target has no systemd, or its version has no matching data, a picker asks you to choose a version — the choice applies to the current host connection only and is re-evaluated when you switch hosts.

Settings

• systemd-toolkit.docSource — online (default) or man.
• systemd-toolkit.onlineDocBase — base URL for online.
• systemd-toolkit.systemctlPath / systemd-toolkit.journalctlPath — binary paths.
• systemd-toolkit.host — SSH alias to operate on (empty = local).
• systemd-toolkit.scope — system | user.
• systemd-toolkit.sshPath — path to ssh.
• systemd-toolkit.authMethod — sudo (default) / pkexec / none.

How the directive data is produced

Completion and hover data is generated from the systemd source tree's man pages (DocBook XML) by scripts/generate-data.py. See DEVELOPMENT.md for details.

Building

npm install
npm run compile
npm run package   # → systemd-toolkit-0.1.0.vsix

License & attribution

The extension is licensed under LGPL-2.1-or-later (see LICENSE). The systemd logo used for the icon is © Tobias Bernard (GNOME), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 — see THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for details.

This extension is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the systemd project.

Notes / limitations

• Boolean directives complete as yes/no/true/false/on/off.
• Time-span (5min, 1h 30min) and size (512M) values are free-form, not auto-completed.
• Privileged commands run through systemd-toolkit.authMethod (default sudo) in a terminal for interactive auth.