Exercise 2: webapp.service in Both /usr/lib and /etc — Which One Wins — Possible Solution ==================================================================== Answer: systemd uses the ExecStart= value from the copy in /etc/systemd/system/, not the one in /usr/lib/systemd/system/. Explanation: Per the chapter's own location-precedence material, /etc/systemd/ system/ is explicitly described as holding "local admin overrides and custom units, taking priority over the vendor copy" in /usr/lib/systemd/system/ (or /lib/systemd/system/). When systemd encounters a unit with the same name present in more than one of its own search locations, it doesn't merge or average the two -- the chapter is explicit that "/etc wins over /usr/lib." This is exactly the mechanism the chapter names as intentional: it lets a local administrator override a package-provided unit's behavior (in this case, whatever webapp.service's own ExecStart= actually launches) without editing the original package-shipped file directly -- which, per this chapter's own warn-box, would risk being silently overwritten by a future package update targeting /usr/lib/systemd/system/. The /etc/systemd/system/ copy is genuinely the one systemd will act on when the unit is started, restarted, or reloaded. WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER ------------------------------ This states the correct answer (/etc wins) and justifies it by directly quoting the chapter's own stated precedence rule and its underlying purpose (safe local overrides that survive package updates), rather than just asserting which file "should" apply.