bug: syncthing-init stuck in activating when not using managed configuration

[jackwilsdon]

Are you following the right branch?

• My Nixpkgs and Home Manager versions are in sync

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Issue description

When not setting any syncthing options (i.e. a config with just services.syncthing.enable = true), syncthing-init runs (which I assume it shouldn't). It then hangs forever in activating:

Starting Syncthing configuration updater...
I/O warning : failed to load "/home/jack/.local/state/syncthing/config.xml": No such file or directory
I/O warning : failed to load "/home/jack/.local/state/syncthing/config.xml": No such file or directory
I/O warning : failed to load "/home/jack/.local/state/syncthing/config.xml": No such file or directory
I/O warning : failed to load "/home/jack/.local/state/syncthing/config.xml": No such file or directory
I/O warning : failed to load "/home/jack/.local/state/syncthing/config.xml": No such file or directory
I/O warning : failed to load "/home/jack/.local/state/syncthing/config.xml": No such file or directory
I/O warning : failed to load "/home/jack/.local/state/syncthing/config.xml": No such file or directory

The real configuration is at /home/jack/.config/syncthing/config.xml, but I don't think syncthing-init should be touching this either.

It seems like this was introduced by #8644.

My current workaround is setting systemd.user.services.syncthing-init.Install.WantedBy = lib.mkForce [].

Maintainer CC

@rycee @aionescu

System information

- system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 6.19.11, NixOS, 26.05 (Yarara), 26.05.20260416.ca8c62a`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.34.6`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/store/ffyzy4z3n2r531hairifwjx7j28z6168-source`

[keysmashes]

Same problem here. (My workaround: systemd.user.services.syncthing-init.Service.ExecStart = lib.mkForce "${pkgs.coreutils}/bin/true";)

Syncthing's own documentation, linked to in the module (https://docs.syncthing.net/users/config.html), notes that "Previously the default config location was $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/syncthing or $HOME/.config/syncthing ... Existing installations may still use these directories instead of the newer defaults."