The after.local.service fails to start with exec format error

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Environment

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 Service Pack 1 (SLES 12 SP1)

Situation

After enabling the after.local.service in SLE12, the service does not start at boot or after boot.

ls-boot:~ # systemctl status after.local
after.local.service
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/after.local)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2016-01-06 01:06:07 MST; 7h ago
  Process: 638 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/after.local start (code=exited, status=203/EXEC)

Jan 06 01:06:07 ls-boot systemd[1]: Failed to start after.local.service.

A restart of the service results in the following error:

ls-boot:~ # systemctl restart after.local
Job for after.local.service failed. See "systemctl status after.local.service" and "journalctl -xn" for details.

If you run journalctl and search for after.local, you see the following error:

ls-boot systemd[675]: Failed at step EXEC spawning /etc/init.d/after.local: Exec format error

The content of /etc/init.d/after.local is:

ls-boot:~ # cat /etc/init.d/after.local 
touch /var/log/test.log

Resolution

Add a hashpling to the beginning of /etc/init.d/after.local.

Change /etc/init.d/after.local from this:

ls-boot:~ # cat /etc/init.d/after.local 
touch /var/log/test.log

to this:

ls-boot:~ # cat /etc/init.d/after.local 
#!/bin/bash
touch /var/log/test.log

Reboot the server or restart the systemd processes as follows:

ls-boot:~ # systemctl daemon-reload
ls-boot:~ # systemctl restart after.local
ls-boot:~ # systemctl status after.local
after.local.service
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/after.local)
   Active: active (exited) since Wed 2016-01-06 09:32:19 MST; 11s ago
  Process: 2594 ExecStart=/etc/init.d/after.local start (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

ls-boot:~ # ls -l /var/log/test.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan  6 09:32 /var/log/test.log

Cause

The /etc/init.d/after.local file was missing the hashpling at the beginning of the file. A hashpling is required for any systemd service script.

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