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
+10
View File
@@ -27,3 +27,13 @@ grep -F 'ExecStart=%h/.local/share/omarchy/bin/omarchy-system-sleep-monitor' "$u
grep -F 'ExecStart=/usr/bin/omarchy-system-sleep-monitor' "$upgrade_to_quattro" >/dev/null
grep -F 'reset-failed omarchy-sleep-lock.service' "$upgrade_to_quattro" >/dev/null
pass "Omarchy 4 upgrade repairs the legacy sleep lock unit path"
notify_path="$ROOT/default/systemd/user/omarchy-update-user-notify.path"
! grep -q 'PathExistsGlob' "$notify_path"
grep -Fx 'PathModified=/usr/share/omarchy/migrations' "$notify_path" >/dev/null
pass "migration watcher is edge-triggered so applied migrations on disk cannot re-trigger it"
notify_service="$ROOT/default/systemd/user/omarchy-update-user-notify.service"
! grep -q 'StartLimit' "$notify_service"
grep -Fx 'WantedBy=graphical-session.target' "$notify_service" >/dev/null
pass "migration notifier keeps its start-rate limit and still runs once per login"