diff --git a/svc b/svc
index f2810af..967856b 100644
--- a/svc
+++ b/svc
@@ -3,9 +3,6 @@
 # runit sv utility ignores evironment variable SVDIR
 # and unable to list services, fully relying to user this knowlege
 
-# TODO handle root user case as system mode!
-# TODO handle system mode correctly
-
 use strict;
 use warnings "all";
 use JSON::PP;
@@ -14,29 +11,45 @@ sub help;
 sub ctrl ($);
 sub status;
 
-my $sep = $/;
-$/ = '';
+my $c;
 
-open (CONF, "$ENV{HOME}/.local/etc/svc.json") or die "No config at $ENV{HOME}/.local/etc/svc.json\n";
+if ($>) {
+# looks like we run in user-mode, so manage user services
+	die "\$HOME is not set\n" unless (defined($ENV{HOME}));
+	die "$ENV{HOME} does not exist\n" unless (-d $ENV{HOME});
 
-my $c = <CONF>;
-close CONF;
-$/ = $sep;
+	my $sep = $/;
+	$/ = '';
 
-$c = decode_json($c);
+# TODO: actually, to be the most XDG-compatible, we should put config to $ENV{HOME}/.config/svc/svc.json
+	open (CONF, "$ENV{HOME}/.local/etc/svc.json") or die "No config at $ENV{HOME}/.local/etc/svc.json\n";
+	$c = <CONF>;
+	close CONF;
+	$/ = $sep;
 
-if ($c->{mode} eq 'user') {
-	die "\$HOME is no set\n" unless (defined($ENV{HOME}));
-	die "$ENV{HOME} does not exist" unless (-d $ENV{HOME});
-	chdir $ENV{HOME};
-	die "No such directory $ENV{HOME}$c->{dir}\n" unless(-d "$ENV{HOME}$c->{dir}");
-	chdir "$ENV{HOME}$c->{dir}";
+	$c = decode_json($c);
+	$c->{dir} = sprintf("%s%s", $ENV{HOME}, $c->{dir});
+	$c->{servicedir} = sprintf("%s%s", $ENV{HOME}, $c->{servicedir});
 } else {
-	die "No such directory $c->{dir}" unless(-d $c->{dir});
-	chdir $c->{dir};
+# looks like we run with root privileges, manage system services
+	$c->{mode} = "system";
+	$c->{dir} = "/etc/service";
+
+	if (-d "/etc/service.d") {
+		$c->{servicedir} = "/etc/service.d";
+	} else {
+
+# guideline of runit suggest to use /service directory, also sv utility expects services placed there by default
+		$c->{servicedir} = "/service";
+	}
+
+	$c->{timeout} = 3;
 }
 
-unless(defined($ARGV[0])) {
+die "No such directory $c->{dir}\n" unless (-d $c->{dir});
+chdir $c->{dir};
+
+unless (defined($ARGV[0])) {
 	help;
 } else {
 	if ($ARGV[0] ne 'list') {
@@ -48,32 +61,32 @@ if ($ARGV[0] eq 'list') {
 	my $d;
 
 	if (defined($ARGV[1]) && $ARGV[1] eq '--all') {
-		$d = "$ENV{HOME}$c->{servicedir}";
+		$d = $c->{servicedir};
 	} else {
-		$d = "$ENV{HOME}$c->{dir}";
+		$d = $c->{dir};
 	}
 
-	opendir(D, $d) or die "Unable to list services\n";
-	print join("\n", sort(grep {!/^\.{1,2}$/} readdir(D))) . "\n";
+	opendir(D, $d) or die "Unable to list services, no such directory $d\n";
+	print join("\n", sort (grep {!/^\.{1,2}$/} readdir(D))) . "\n";
 	closedir D;
 } elsif ($ARGV[1] eq 'disable') {
-	my $d = "$ENV{HOME}$c->{dir}/$ARGV[0]";
+	my $d = "$c->{dir}/$ARGV[0]";
 
 	if (-l $d) {
-		unlink("$d") or die "Unable to disable $ARGV[0]\n";
+		unlink ("$d") or die "Unable to disable $ARGV[0]\n";
 	} else {
 		die "No such service $ARGV[0]\n";
 	}
 } elsif ($ARGV[1] eq 'enable') {
-	my $d = "$ENV{HOME}$c->{dir}/$ARGV[0]";
+	my $d = "$c->{dir}/$ARGV[0]";
 
 	if (-l $d) {
 		die "Service $ARGV[0] already enabled\n";
 	} else {
-		my $svcdir = "$ENV{HOME}$c->{servicedir}/$ARGV[0]";
+		my $svcdir = "$c->{servicedir}/$ARGV[0]";
 
 		if (-d $svcdir) {
-			symlink($svcdir, $d) or die "Unable to enable service $ARGV[0]\n";
+			symlink ($svcdir, $d) or die "Unable to enable service $ARGV[0]\n";
 		} else {
 			die "No such service $ARGV[0]\n";
 		}
@@ -132,16 +145,17 @@ sub help {
 
 sub ctrl ($) {
 	my $command = shift;
-	open (C, ">", "control") or die;
+	open (C, ">", "control") or die "Unable to write to control socket\n";
 	print C $command;
 	close C;
 }
 
 sub status {
-	open (S, "stat") or die;
+	open (S, "stat") or die "Unable to read status.\n";
 	my $status = <S>;
-	chomp($status);
+	chomp $status;
 	close S;
 	return $status;
 }
-# vim: set ft=perl noet ai :
+
+# vim: set ft=perl noet ai ts=4 sw=4 sts=4:
diff --git a/svc.json b/svc.json
index 9535917..fc37f3b 100644
--- a/svc.json
+++ b/svc.json
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 {
 	"mode": "user",
 	"dir": "/.local/etc/services",
+	"servicedir": "/.local/etc/service.d",
 	"timeout": 3
 }