Systemd unit's ExecStartPre with script gives error, how to specify the path to the script?

Question

There's a script which has to be run by a systemd service's ExecStartPre. What would be the proper path to put this script into and how to specify it in the unit? Currently using paths such as these fail (the service won't start due to bad unit file):

• script.sh
• ./script.sh
• /etc/systemd/system/script.sh
• /usr/local/sbin/script.sh

Here's the error I get in the status:

Process: 8679 ExecStartPre=/usr/local/sbin/script.sh (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)

And here's the script:

#!/bin/bash
if [ ! -e /var/log/myservice ];
        then
                echo "myservice's log directory doesn't exist. creating it."
                mkdir /var/log/myservice
fi

Answer 1

Since you don’t need to change your script, the advice in this answer applies: the script should go in /usr/local/sbin. It also needs to be executable. Your ExecStartPre would be

ExecStartPre=/usr/local/sbin/script.sh

However you don’t need a script at all to create a directory:

ExecStartPre=mkdir -p /var/log/myservice

Better yet, use LogsDirectory=, which will create the directory if necessary and ensure it’s available inside the sandbox if the service is sandboxed:

LogsDirectory=myservice