Stop the migration notifier from busy-looping the session

omarchy-update-user-notify.path used PathExistsGlob= on the packaged
migrations directory. That directive is level-triggered: systemd re-checks
it every time the triggered unit deactivates and fires again while the glob
still matches. Since applied migrations stay on disk forever (state lives in
~/.local/state/omarchy/migrations), the glob always matches, so the oneshot
notifier re-triggered itself in a tight loop (~26-66 starts/sec) — burning
about a core and flooding the journal for the whole session.

The loop existed since the unit was introduced, but the default start-rate
limit killed it after 5 iterations, taking the .path unit down with
'unit-start-limit-hit'. That symptom was reported as #6174 and fixed
yesterday by setting StartLimitIntervalSec=0 — which removed the only brake
and turned the capped hiccup into an unbounded busy-loop.

Fix the actual cause instead:

* Drop PathExistsGlob= from the .path unit, keeping the edge-triggered
  PathModified= watch for updates that land mid-session.
* Revert the StartLimitIntervalSec=0 override; with the level trigger gone
  there is no self-re-fire to trip the limit, and the default limit is a
  useful backstop again.
* Preserve the once-per-login pending check the glob used to provide by
  giving the service its own WantedBy=graphical-session.target, enabled at
  first-run alongside the other user units.
* Add a migration that daemon-reloads, revives a rate-limit-killed .path,
  restarts the watcher, and enables the login-time notifier on existing
  installs.

Verified with transient path/service units: the old config runs the service
200 times in 3 seconds; the new config runs it zero times while idle and
exactly once when a new migration file lands.

Thanks to @HANCORE-Linux for finding and diagnosing the problem.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
This commit is contained in:
David Heinemeier Hansson
2026-07-19 21:49:41 -07:00
co-authored by Claude Fable 5
parent 844859a000
commit b87de89372
6 changed files with 35 additions and 13 deletions
@@ -1,14 +1,10 @@
[Unit]
Description=Notify about pending Omarchy migrations
ConditionPathIsDirectory=/usr/share/omarchy/migrations
# A single update can drop several migration files at once, so the .path
# unit re-triggers this oneshot in a burst. Without this, the default
# start-rate limit (5 starts / 10s) trips and the watching .path unit
# itself dies with 'unit-start-limit-hit', silently stopping migration
# notifications for the rest of the session. The notifier is idempotent,
# so disable the start-rate limit.
StartLimitIntervalSec=0
[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/bin/omarchy-migrate-notify
[Install]
WantedBy=graphical-session.target