How to restart service on every configuration change

Monitor file system events to restart service on every configuration change.

I will use varnish service and wait for changes to the /etc/varnish/default.vcl configuration file before initiating restart operation.

Install varnish web application accelerator.

$ sudo apt install varnish

Install inotify-tools package that provides inotifywait utility that waits for changes to the specific file and exit once the desired event occurs.

$ sudo apt install inotify-tools

Create a simple service that will make use of the utility as mentioned above.

$ cat << EOF | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service
[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/inotifywait -e modify /etc/varnish/default.vcl
Restart=always
RestartSec=10
ExecStop=/usr/bin/systemctl restart varnish
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
[Unit]
Description=Restart varnish on configuration change
Requires=varnish.service
After=varnish.service
EOF

Reload the systemd manager configuration.

$ sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Enable and start created service.

$ sudo systemctl enable --now restart-varnish-on-configuration-change

Inspect varnish service status to see that it is running normally.

$ systemctl status varnish

● varnish.service - Varnish HTTP accelerator
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/varnish.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-09-19 22:54:25 GMT; 31min ago
     Docs: https://www.varnish-cache.org/docs/6.1/
           man:varnishd
 Main PID: 9170 (varnishd)
    Tasks: 217 (limit: 1149)
   Memory: 54.4M
   CGroup: /system.slice/varnish.service
           ├─9170 /usr/sbin/varnishd -j unix,user=vcache -F -a :6081 -T localhost:6082 -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl -S /etc/varnish/secret -s malloc,256m
           └─9221 /usr/sbin/varnishd -j unix,user=vcache -F -a :6081 -T localhost:6082 -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl -S /etc/varnish/secret -s malloc,256m

Inspect restart-varnish-on-configuration-change service status to see that it is waiting for a specific event.

$ systemctl status restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service

● restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service - Restart varnish on configuration change
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-09-19 23:18:24 GMT; 8min ago
 Main PID: 13331 (inotifywait)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 1149)
   Memory: 244.0K
   CGroup: /system.slice/restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service
           └─13331 /usr/bin/inotifywait -e modify /etc/varnish/default.vcl

Alter varnish configuration file.

$ echo | sudo tee -a /etc/varnish/default.vcl

Inspect restart-varnish-on-configuration-change service status to see that it was restarted.

$ systemctl status restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service

● restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service - Restart varnish on configuration change
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-09-19 23:27:00 GMT; 8s ago
 Main PID: 13688 (inotifywait)
    Tasks: 1 (limit: 1149)
   Memory: 244.0K
   CGroup: /system.slice/restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service
           └─13688 /usr/bin/inotifywait -e modify /etc/varnish/default.vcl

Inspect restart-varnish-on-configuration-change logs to know that it was restarted after a particular event occurred.

$ sudo journalctl -u restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service

-- Logs begin at Sat 2020-09-19 22:38:39 GMT, end at Sat 2020-09-19 23:34:36 GMT. --
Sep 19 23:18:24 debian systemd[1]: Started restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service.
Sep 19 23:18:24 debian inotifywait[13331]: Setting up watches.
Sep 19 23:18:24 debian inotifywait[13331]: Watches established.
Sep 19 23:26:49 debian inotifywait[13331]: /etc/varnish/default.vcl MODIFY
Sep 19 23:26:50 debian systemd[1]: restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service: Succeeded.
Sep 19 23:27:00 debian systemd[1]: restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service: Service RestartSec=10s expired, scheduling restart.
Sep 19 23:27:00 debian systemd[1]: restart-varnish-on-configuration-change.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
Sep 19 23:27:00 debian systemd[1]: Stopped Restart varnish on configuration change.
Sep 19 23:27:00 debian systemd[1]: Started Restart varnish on configuration change.
Sep 19 23:27:00 debian inotifywait[13688]: Setting up watches.
Sep 19 23:27:00 debian inotifywait[13688]: Watches established.

Inspect varnish service status to confirm that it was restarted.

$ systemctl status varnish

● varnish.service - Varnish HTTP accelerator
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/varnish.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Sat 2020-09-19 23:26:50 GMT; 29s ago
     Docs: https://www.varnish-cache.org/docs/6.1/
           man:varnishd
 Main PID: 13460 (varnishd)
    Tasks: 217 (limit: 1149)
   Memory: 57.4M
   CGroup: /system.slice/varnish.service
           ├─13460 /usr/sbin/varnishd -j unix,user=vcache -F -a :6081 -T localhost:6082 -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl -S /etc/varnish/secret -s malloc,256m
           └─13472 /usr/sbin/varnishd -j unix,user=vcache -F -a :6081 -T localhost:6082 -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl -S /etc/varnish/secret -s malloc,256m

It is excellent for testing when you expose configuration file using nginx/web-dav to upload it using curl.