--- title: Systemd Linger | daily.dev description: Systemd's KillUserProcesses feature and the 'linger' option are explained in practical terms. On Debian with default settings, user processes are not killed on... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-linger-tt1ek0hzm twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Systemd Linger | daily.dev og:description: Systemd's KillUserProcesses feature and the 'linger' option are explained in practical terms. On Debian with default settings, user processes are not killed on... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-linger-tt1ek0hzm og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/tt1ek0hZm.png og:image:alt: Systemd Linger og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Systemd Linger **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Systemd's KillUserProcesses feature and the 'linger' option are explained in practical terms. On Debian with default settings, user processes are not killed on logout, making linger unnecessary for screen/tmux/nohup. Linger's actual effect on Debian is to start user-context programs before login — useful for auto-connecting to WiFi on boot or pre-starting services like Pipewire and Bluetooth. Commands for enabling/disabling linger via loginctl are provided, along with the undocumented trick of checking /var/lib/systemd/linger to list accounts with linger enabled. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Do I need to enable systemd linger for tmux or nohup processes to survive logout on Debian? No, on Debian and probably most distributions, linger is not required for screen, tmux, or nohup processes to keep running after logout. Persistent processes surviving logout depends on whether KillUserProcesses is enabled in /etc/systemd/logind.conf, which defaults to off. Linger instead controls whether a user's systemd session starts before login, not whether processes are killed after it. _daily.dev surfaces practical clarifications like this for admins debugging systemd session behavior._ ### How do I enable or disable systemd linger for a Linux user account? Run loginctl enable-linger to turn it on for your own account, or loginctl disable-linger to turn it off, assuming polkit is installed and configured typically. As root, you can target another account with loginctl enable-linger $ACCOUNT or loginctl disable-linger $ACCOUNT. There's no documented command to list which accounts currently have linger enabled; checking the contents of /var/lib/systemd/linger is the only known way. _Admins configuring session persistence can find loginctl workflows like this through daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Systemd Dynamic Users \(2020\)](https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-dynamic-users-2020--iemjkjjqx) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The Linux desktop's biggest upgrade was learning when not to ask the user](https://daily.dev/posts/the-linux-desktop-s-biggest-upgrade-was-learning-when-not-to-ask-the-user-nwzhhyruf) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [You Don't Love systemd Timers Enough](https://daily.dev/posts/you-don-t-love-systemd-timers-enough-x0ogcxoqr) · Lobsters · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-linger-tt1ek0hzm) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Systemd Linger","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-linger-tt1ek0hzm","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/systemd-linger-tt1ek0hzm"},"datePublished":"2026-07-26T13:21:33.323Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:39:57.606Z","description":"Systemd's KillUserProcesses feature and the 'linger' option are explained in practical terms. 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Persistent processes surviving logout depends on whether KillUserProcesses is enabled in /etc/systemd/logind.conf, which defaults to off. Linger instead controls whether a user's systemd session starts before login, not whether processes are killed after it. daily.dev surfaces practical clarifications like this for admins debugging systemd session behavior."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I enable or disable systemd linger for a Linux user account?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Run loginctl enable-linger to turn it on for your own account, or loginctl disable-linger to turn it off, assuming polkit is installed and configured typically. As root, you can target another account with loginctl enable-linger $ACCOUNT or loginctl disable-linger $ACCOUNT. There's no documented command to list which accounts currently have linger enabled; checking the contents of /var/lib/systemd/linger is the only known way. 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