Starting systemd service inside systemd service causes deadlock

I have a systemd service (let's call it first.service) that calls a bash script.

In that bash script I first stop and then start another service with systemctl (e.g. systemctl start another.service.

I have noticed that when I execute my script in a shell- everything works correctly and another.service is being stopped and later started.

When I call systemctl restart first.service systemd stops the "another.service" properly, but hangs on starting it.

When I check result of ps it says that both systemctl calls are working, i.e. systemctl restart first.service and systemctl start another.service.

I use systemd 230

Is this known behaviour? How can I fix this?

Is there any better way to handle (re)starting systemd services from within the one service?

EDIT: My first.service file:

[Unit] Description=First service #Before=local-fs.target apache2.service rsyslog.service [Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/usr/bin/test.sh RemainAfterExit=yes [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target 

My another.service file:

[Unit] Description=Test service [Service] Type=oneshot ExecStart=/bin/bash -c "while ( true ) ; do { date ; echo 'It works!' ; sleep 10 ; } done" RemainAfterExit=yes [Install] WantedBy=multi-user.target 

and my bash script:

#!/bin/bash echo stopping systemctl stop another.service echo "result of stop = $?" echo starting systemctl start another.service echo "result of start = $?" echo DONE 

After hanging I get the following output from ps:

[piotr@/etc/systemd/system] $ ps -aux | grep systemctl root 7801 0.0 0.0 27696 1336 pts/21 S+ 16:06 0:00 systemctl restart first root 7807 0.0 0.0 27696 1320 ? S 16:06 0:00 systemctl start another.service piotr 7915 0.0 0.0 15752 968 pts/22 S+ 16:06 0:00 grep --color=auto systemctl 

EDIT2: I'm posting systemctl status from both services in the exact moment when in another console I called systemctl restart first.

I have also added checking return value in my bash script. Updated above.

first.service:

● first.service - First service Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/first.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: activating (start) since Wed 2017-04-19 16:34:43 CEST; 46s ago Main PID: 12761 (test.sh) CGroup: /system.slice/first.service ├─12761 /bin/bash /usr/bin/test.sh └─12766 systemctl start another.service Apr 19 16:34:43 piotr-ideapad systemd[1]: Starting First service... Apr 19 16:34:43 piotr-ideapad test.sh[12761]: stopping Apr 19 16:34:43 piotr-ideapad test.sh[12761]: result of stop = 0 Apr 19 16:34:43 piotr-ideapad test.sh[12761]: starting 

another.service:

● another.service - Test service Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/another.service; disabled; vendor preset: enabled) Active: activating (start) since Wed 2017-04-19 16:34:43 CEST; 1min 40s ago Main PID: 12767 (bash) CGroup: /system.slice/another.service ├─12767 /bin/bash -c while ( true ) ; do { date ; echo 'It works!' ; sleep 10 ; } done └─13066 sleep 10 Apr 19 16:35:43 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: Mi 19. Apr 16:35:43 CEST 2017 Apr 19 16:35:43 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: It works! Apr 19 16:35:53 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: Mi 19. Apr 16:35:53 CEST 2017 Apr 19 16:35:53 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: It works! Apr 19 16:36:03 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: Mi 19. Apr 16:36:03 CEST 2017 Apr 19 16:36:03 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: It works! Apr 19 16:36:13 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: Mi 19. Apr 16:36:13 CEST 2017 Apr 19 16:36:13 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: It works! Apr 19 16:36:23 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: Mi 19. Apr 16:36:23 CEST 2017 Apr 19 16:36:23 piotr-ideapad bash[12767]: It works! 

EDIT3: After exchanging some comments I'll try to rephrase the problem.

Say that none of my processes listed above is enabled or started. When I call systemctl status on them - they are loaded but inactive.
Then I call systemctl start first and this terminal command does not finish.
If I call systemctl status on those services I get that status of Active: for both of them is activating (start) but my execution of systemctl start first in the terminal still did not exit and it hangs indefinitely.

I think that both of those processes are queued and systemctl start another in my bash script waits for the systemctl start first to finish before it finishes by itself and here we get a deadlock.