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Can you write service/unit files for irc clients like irssi, or one-shot file transfers like rsync or wget?

This is crazytown.

Edit: I guess I should take the massive amount of downvotes to mean that it is in fact not crazytown to write service and unit files for one-off downloads or backgrounded TTY clients, and anyone asking for more information on this does not deserve a reply. Ok.

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You wouldn't have to write service/unit files for one off commands. The release notes mention that you can use 'systemd-run' to start these[1].

[1] - https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/master/NEWS#L29

Looks like that's not enough, you also need to set some sort of "lingering" option or the last logout will kill everything despite having used systemd-run?

Sounds like a lot of pitfalls with these new defaults. Wonder how many background tasks will be ruined before somebody patches screen to automatically issue all these new systemd commands.

I don't think the 'lingering' option is necessary. That controls the default behavior for processes. Systemd-run basically makes a one off user level service.

Looks like I was wrong. You do have to enable lingering[1].

[1] - https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/User#Automatic_...

Wow, talk about insane...

I actually do wish I could write a unit for things like irssi... if it dies, I want systemd to restart it, and if my entire machine reboots, I want systemd to restart it on boot as my UID.

You can do this with user level systemd instances: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd/User

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