Run as Service in monitor mode

[HTroost]

How do I specify the monitor mode (CLI argument -m or —monitor) in de commands lines that enable, disable start and stop the OneDrive service. Example would really help.
I’ have all the pieces and tried them, but don’t know how to puzzle them together.

Thanks in advance,
Kind regards, Hans Troost (The Netherlands)

[abraunegg]

@HTroost

What distribution are you using?

Enabling a background service is documented here: https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive/blob/master/docs/usage.md#how-to-initiate-the-client-as-a-background-service

[HTroost]

Dear Alex, thanks for your fast reply. Apologies for the missing info: Debian 13 (KDE Plasma 6.3.6) as a VM in preparation of ditching Windows for Linux Of course, I studied your extensive and good documentation but I’m a bit confused: systemctl --user enable onedrive but how to tell Onedrive to run in -–monitor mode? Or is that the default mode for the service? systemctl --user start onedrive and I would like to have the service running that way automatically at boot/login (have automatic login enabled) I will add sync_list = “True” to the config file. I made a sync_list file Kind regards, Hans Troost From: abraunegg ***@***.***> Sent: vrijdag 2 januari 2026 08:31 To: abraunegg/onedrive ***@***.***> Cc: Hans Troost ***@***.***>; Mention ***@***.***> Subject: Re: [abraunegg/onedrive] Run as Service in monitor mode (Discussion #3590) @HTroost <https://github.com/HTroost> What distribution are you using? Enabling a background service is documented here: https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive/blob/master/docs/usage.md#how-to-initiate-the-client-as-a-background-service — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#3590 (comment)> , or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMQIICJPPDPPS36ZUS33EGD4EYNERAVCNFSM6AAAAACQQFPQF6VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTKMZYHEZTKNI> . You are receiving this because you were mentioned. <https://github.com/notifications/beacon/AMQIICKTTTDKJ77TSLR3NJ34EYNERA5CNFSM6AAAAACQQFPQF6WGG33NNVSW45C7OR4XAZNRIRUXGY3VONZWS33OINXW23LFNZ2KUY3PNVWWK3TUL5UWJTQA5LJKW.gif> Message ID: ***@***.*** ***@***.***> >

[abraunegg]

@HTroost

Debian 13 ...

To run a systemd service under Debian 13, as your user, you want to use the following commands:

systemctl --user enable onedrive
systemctl --user start onedrive

To check the status of the service, use:

systemctl --user status onedrive

By default, the systemd service runs in --monitor mode.

and I would like to have the service running that way automatically at boot/login (have automatic login enabled)

The service will automatically start when you login to your system. To negate that, you need to tell your system to 'linger' user services:

loginctl enable-linger <your_user_name>

This is detailed here: https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive/blob/master/docs/usage.md#how-to-start-a-user-systemd-service-at-boot-without-user-login

and I would like to have the service running that way automatically at boot/login (have automatic login enabled)
I will add sync_list = “True” to the config file. I made a sync_list file

All you need to do is create the 'sync_list' file. There is nothing else to do. Adding sync_list = “True” will result in a 100% invalid configuration:

Reading configuration file: /home/alex/.config/onedrive/config
Malformed config line: sync_list = "true”

Please review the documentation on how to correctly configure this application.

I am unsure where you read that 'help' .. or if that was a hallucination from AI assistance - however please read the documentation and refer to https://github.com/abraunegg/onedrive/blob/master/docs/application-config-options.md as your source of truth for configuration options.

[HTroost]

Thanks Alex,
I will try today.

It seems that I was a bit careless when reading the documentation despite spending about 2 hours yesterday evening to read and understand it.

But - thanks to your help - I think to be able now to implement it in the way I want it working.

Best regards, Hans

[abraunegg]

No problem. If you have any other questions please reach out

[HTroost]

Hi Alex,
Got it working. A first the "status" showed error messages and I didn´t get the service working properly. Possibly caused by earlier manual runs?
Repaired with "brute force¨:

• Stopped and disabled the service.
• onedrive --sync --resync (as expected: took some time to scan a large OneDrive and I need only a few folders in sync_list.... But warning is in your documentation!)
• Enabled and started the service: everything working fine now.

Only problem left is GitHub itself - as a non-contributor (Iḿ not a developer) - I seldom use it and don´t know how to mark our discussion as closed or solved.

Thanks again and have a nice day and a happy 2026
Hans

[abraunegg]

There is no need to close a discussion, or mark as solved. My first response is the correct answer and has been ticked as the answer.