Bug#1127834: debhelper: dh_installsystemd does not re-create WantedBy symlinks on upgrade

[Niels Thykier]

Control: tags -1 moreinfo

On Fri, 13 Feb 2026 18:49:41 +0100 Alessandro Astone <alessandro.ast...@canonical.com> wrote:

Package: debhelper
Version: 13.24.2ubuntu1
Severity: normal

Dear Maintainer,





[...]

When enabling a service that specifies [Install] WantedBy=foo.target, a symlink to this service is created at /etc/systemd/system/foo.target.wants/ On package upgrade, if the service file was changed to [Install] WantedBy=bar.target, the symlink at /etc/systemd/system/foo.target.wants/ is not removed and a new symlink at /etc/systemd/system/bar.target.wants/ is not created This may have serious consequences depending on the rest of the contents of the unit file (e.g. it may trigger activation of other dependencies when unwanted), or in the general case users will never see the effects of the update.

Hi,



Best regards,
Niels

These symlinks are not directly generated by `dh_installsystemd`, so I think you are looking for a different tool/component that needs fixing. Probably the `deb-systemd-helper` command or something it invokes.

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