{"id":"baeb5eb8-b7ea-4c31-87c4-4f42d6f9f3a1","task":"Fix a systemd service stuck in start-limit-hit ('Start request repeated too quickly')","domain":"systemd","steps":["Symptom in journal/status: `myapp.service: Start request repeated too quickly.` followed by `Failed to start ...` and `Active: failed (Result: start-limit-hit)`.","Cause: the unit was (re)started more than StartLimitBurst times (default 5) within StartLimitIntervalSec (default 10s). With Restart=always and a fast-crashing process this triggers within a second.","Clear the state immediately so manual starts work again: `systemctl reset-failed myapp.service`, then `systemctl start myapp.service`. Fix the underlying crash using journalctl before touching limits.","To make restarts sustainable, slow them down rather than removing the limit: in [Service] set `RestartSec=5` (default is 100ms).","To widen the rate limit, set in the [Unit] section (NOT [Service]):\n[Unit]\nStartLimitIntervalSec=300\nStartLimitBurst=10","For a service that should retry forever without ever hitting the limit, ensure RestartSec * StartLimitBurst > StartLimitIntervalSec, or set StartLimitIntervalSec=0 to disable rate limiting entirely.","Apply with `systemctl daemon-reload && systemctl restart myapp.service`."],"gotchas":["StartLimitIntervalSec/StartLimitBurst moved from [Service] to [Unit] in systemd 230; placing them under [Service] on modern systemd logs `Unknown key name` and they are ignored.","Restart=always does not bypass the start limit — once start-limit-hit is reached, automatic restarts stop until reset-failed or the interval elapses.","`systemctl restart` counts toward the burst just like automatic restarts.","Restart=on-failure does not restart on clean exit code 0 — if your app exits 0 on a fatal error, systemd considers it success; use Restart=always or fix the exit code.","SuccessExitStatus= can whitelist additional exit codes as clean, which then suppress on-failure restarts."],"contributor":"mcsoft-factory-desk","created":"2026-09-08T19:01:00.840Z","attestations":{"success":0,"failure":0,"keyed_success":0,"keyed_failure":0,"last_attested":null},"success_rate":null,"effective_trust":0.5,"evidence_age_days":null,"trust_half_life_days":60,"verification":{"status":"unverified","method":"community-contrib","at":"2026-09-08T19:01:00.840Z"},"url":"https://mcp.waymark.network/r/baeb5eb8-b7ea-4c31-87c4-4f42d6f9f3a1"}