mjhjmtu

The systemd documentation and various online sources are declaring that systemd should start (by default) the "special" target called "default.target". It is possible to change this by systemctl set-default which basically makes a symlink from default.target to the desired target.

However in my system there is no such file. No /etc/systemd/system/default.target, no /usr/lib/systemd/system/default.target (actually this file is not exists in the whole system). The system is still booting. My question is how can it be?

(Of course I could make a symlink myself, I just want to know how it is possible to define a default without default.target)

Additional info:

# systemctl get-default
graphical.target

So my default target is graphical.target. But where (and how) is it defined?

# find /usr/lib -iname "default.target" # no results
# find /etc -iname "default.target" # no results
# lsb_release -a
LSB Version: n/a
Distributor ID: Gentoo
Description: Gentoo Base System release 2.4.1
Release: 2.4.1
Codename: n/a

# systemctl list-units --type=target
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION 
basic.target loaded active active Basic System 
getty.target loaded active active Login Prompts 
graphical.target loaded active active Graphical Interface 
local-fs-pre.target loaded active active Local File Systems (Pre) 
local-fs.target loaded active active Local File Systems 
machines.target loaded active active Containers 
multi-user.target loaded active active Multi-User System 
network-online.target loaded active active Network is Online 
network.target loaded active active Network 
nss-lookup.target loaded active active Host and Network Name Lookups
paths.target loaded active active Paths 
remote-fs.target loaded active active Remote File Systems 
slices.target loaded active active Slices 
sockets.target loaded active active Sockets 
sound.target loaded active active Sound Card 
swap.target loaded active active Swap 
sysinit.target loaded active active System Initialization 
timers.target loaded active active Timers 

LOAD = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.

18 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.

Gentoo changed the location of the systemd files to /lib/systemd in July of 2017. On my system, I can see the default symlink in /lib/systemd/system:

$ ls -l /lib/systemd/system/default.target
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 16 Apr 2 15:48 /lib/systemd/system/default.target -> graphical.target

If you add a symlink in /etc/systemd/system (like systemctl set-default does), it will override the distribution's default setting.