bird systemd startup init debian

[Rob Lister]

Hi,

I'm working on upgrading our route servers to the latest versions 
(debian stretch and the bird debian package 1.6.3.

I need to specify during startup "-c /path/to/config/file" but whatever 
I do, it just gets ignored and still tries to use /etc/bird/bird.conf

I have tried:

- Editing /etc/init.d/bird and adding BIRD_ARGS="-c 
/etc/bird/bird-vlanid1-ipv4.conf"
- Editing /etc/defaults/bird (deprecated??)
- Editing /etc/bird/envvars
- Editing the systemctl with "systemctl edit bird.service" as suggested 
here:

https://www.mail-archive.com/debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org/msg1503154.html


- Restarting systemctl daemon-reload

There is clearly some step I am missing to make it pick up the config 
change, but I can't find what it is.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,


Rob



root at rs1f:~# systemctl status bird.service
● bird.service - BIRD Internet Routing Daemon (IPv4)
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bird.service; enabled; vendor 
preset: enabled)
   Drop-In: /etc/systemd/system/bird.service.d
            └─override.conf
    Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Mon 2018-03-05 19:11:50 UTC; 
19s ago
   Process: 305 ExecStartPre=/usr/sbin/bird -p (code=exited, 
status=1/FAILURE)
   Process: 280 ExecStartPre=/usr/lib/bird/prepare-environment 
(code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Mar 05 19:11:49 rs1f.lonap.net systemd[1]: Starting BIRD Internet 
Routing Daemon (IPv4)...
Mar 05 19:11:50 rs1f.lonap.net bird[305]: Unable to open configuration 
file /etc/bird/bird.conf: No such file or directory
Mar 05 19:11:50 rs1f.lonap.net bird[305]: bird: Unable to open 
configuration file /etc/bird/bird.conf: No such file or directory
Mar 05 19:11:50 rs1f.lonap.net systemd[1]: bird.service: Control process 
exited, code=exited status=1
Mar 05 19:11:50 rs1f.lonap.net systemd[1]: Failed to start BIRD Internet 
Routing Daemon (IPv4).
Mar 05 19:11:50 rs1f.lonap.net systemd[1]: bird.service: Unit entered 
failed state.
Mar 05 19:11:50 rs1f.lonap.net systemd[1]: bird.service: Failed with 
result 'exit-code'.