geth/docs/adr/0015-user-service-installation.md

ADR 0015: User Service Installation

Status

Accepted.

Decision

Geth provides geth daemon service ... commands to install, uninstall, start, stop, inspect, and print daemon service definitions.

The service is always installed as a user service:

• Linux: systemd user unit, ~/.config/systemd/user/geth.service
• macOS: launchd user agent, ~/Library/LaunchAgents/local.geth.daemon.plist
• Windows: per-user scheduled task named geth-daemon

The service runs the same single binary as geth daemon run and preserves GETH_HOME in the service environment.

Consequences

There are still no separate gethd or gethctl binaries. Installation does not require privileged system service access. Linux users who need the daemon before interactive login may still need platform-specific user-service setup such as systemd lingering.

Future service managers can be added behind the same service-manager enum and CLI shape.