Q about Environment files of systemd

[Patrick O'Callaghan]

On Thu, 2015-08-13 at 05:40 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
> On 08/13/15 05:34, Patrick O'Callaghan wrote:
> > On Thu, 2015-08-13 at 05:19 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
> > > On 08/13/15 04:43, jd1008 wrote:
> > > > Just wondering why some values of EnvironmentFile variable in 
> > > > the
> > > > services files are as follows (output of grep):
> > > > 
> > > > /usr/lib/systemd/system/irda.service:EnvironmentFile=
> > > > -/etc/sysconfig/irda
> > > > /usr/lib/systemd/system/sshd.service:EnvironmentFile=/etc/sysco
> > > > nfig
> > > > /sshd
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > So, what's with the hyphen after = ??
> > > > 
> > > > What does it mean?
> > > The answer you seek is in the man pages.
> > > 
> > > -- 
> > > If I wanted a blog or social media I'd go elsewhere
> > Actually I was intrigued by this (it's not standard Shell syntax) 
> > and
> > had a quick look at the man pages. It certainly doesn't jump out at
> > you. I looked at the pages for systemd-system.conf and 
> > systemd.service.
> > 
> Knowing that the man pages are also on the internet can be useful as 
> it makes searching them much easier.  Found the answer in one google 
> search and another extra click.  The extra click would not have been 
> necessary had I picked the second of the returned search results. 
>  But I hadn't had my coffee yet so the apparent nature of the second 
> result didn't register.

If the man pages are clear it shouldn't be necessary to use a search
engine to find essential information on basic system functionality.
What if the info you're looking for relates to getting your net
connection to work?

poc