diff --git a/ENVIRONMENT.md b/ENVIRONMENT.md
index 4ae561a8924..581bf3c2384 100644
--- a/ENVIRONMENT.md
+++ b/ENVIRONMENT.md
@@ -13,10 +13,21 @@ documented in the proper man pages.
 
 All tools:
 
+* `$SYSTEMD_OFFLINE=[0|1]` — if set to `1`, then `systemctl` will
+  refrain from talking to PID 1; this has the same effect as the historical
+  detection of `chroot()`.  Setting this variable to `0` instead has a similar
+  effect as `SYSTEMD_IGNORE_CHROOT=1`; i.e. tools will try to
+  communicate with PID 1 even if a `chroot()` environment is detected.
+  You almost certainly want to set this to `1` if you maintain a package build system
+  or similar and are trying to use a modern container system and not plain
+  `chroot()`.
+
 * `$SYSTEMD_IGNORE_CHROOT=1` — if set, don't check whether being invoked in a
-  chroot() environment. This is particularly relevant for systemctl, as it will
-  not alter its behaviour for chroot() environments if set. (Normally it
-  refrains from talking to PID 1 in such a case.)
+  `chroot()` environment. This is particularly relevant for systemctl, as it
+  will not alter its behaviour for `chroot()` environments if set.  Normally it
+  refrains from talking to PID 1 in such a case; turning most operations such
+  as `start` into no-ops.  If that's what's explicitly desired, you might
+  consider setting `SYSTEMD_OFFLINE=1`.
 
 * `$SD_EVENT_PROFILE_DELAYS=1` — if set, the sd-event event loop implementation
   will print latency information at runtime.
diff --git a/src/basic/verbs.c b/src/basic/verbs.c
index cb42e6dd087..fcad5ae1b14 100644
--- a/src/basic/verbs.c
+++ b/src/basic/verbs.c
@@ -23,12 +23,54 @@
 #include <stdbool.h>
 #include <stddef.h>
 
+#include "env-util.h"
 #include "log.h"
 #include "macro.h"
 #include "string-util.h"
 #include "verbs.h"
 #include "virt.h"
 
+/* Wraps running_in_chroot() which is used in various places,
+ * but also adds an environment variable check so external processes
+ * can reliably force this on.
+ */
+bool running_in_chroot_or_offline(void) {
+        int r;
+
+        /* Added to support use cases like rpm-ostree, where from %post
+         * scripts we only want to execute "preset", but not "start"/"restart"
+         * for example.
+         *
+         * See ENVIRONMENT.md for docs.
+         */
+        r = getenv_bool("SYSTEMD_OFFLINE");
+        if (r < 0)
+                log_debug_errno(r, "Parsing SYSTEMD_OFFLINE: %m");
+        else if (r == 0)
+                return false;
+        else
+                return true;
+
+        /* We've had this condition check for a long time which basically
+         * checks for legacy chroot case like Fedora's
+         * "mock", which is used for package builds.  We don't want
+         * to try to start systemd services there, since without --new-chroot
+         * we don't even have systemd running, and even if we did, adding
+         * a concept of background daemons to builds would be an enormous change,
+         * requiring considering things like how the journal output is handled, etc.
+         * And there's really not a use case today for a build talking to a service.
+         *
+         * Note this call itself also looks for a different variable SYSTEMD_IGNORE_CHROOT=1.
+         */
+        r = running_in_chroot();
+        if (r < 0)
+                log_debug_errno(r, "running_in_chroot(): %m");
+        else if (r > 0)
+                return true;
+
+        return false;
+}
+
 int dispatch_verb(int argc, char *argv[], const Verb verbs[], void *userdata) {
         const Verb *verb;
         const char *name;
@@ -84,8 +126,11 @@ int dispatch_verb(int argc, char *argv[], const Verb verbs[], void *userdata) {
                 return -EINVAL;
         }
 
-        if ((verb->flags & VERB_NOCHROOT) && running_in_chroot() > 0) {
-                log_info("Running in chroot, ignoring request.");
+        if ((verb->flags & VERB_NOCHROOT) && running_in_chroot_or_offline()) {
+                if (name)
+                        log_info("Running in chroot, ignoring request: %s", name);
+                else
+                        log_info("Running in chroot, ignoring request.");
                 return 0;
         }
 
diff --git a/src/basic/verbs.h b/src/basic/verbs.h
index 5f44a18f8e4..a35a3a9fc00 100644
--- a/src/basic/verbs.h
+++ b/src/basic/verbs.h
@@ -35,4 +35,6 @@ typedef struct {
         int (* const dispatch)(int argc, char *argv[], void *userdata);
 } Verb;
 
+bool running_in_chroot_or_offline(void);
+
 int dispatch_verb(int argc, char *argv[], const Verb verbs[], void *userdata);
diff --git a/src/systemctl/systemctl.c b/src/systemctl/systemctl.c
index ef76af817c1..92d844f1fd7 100644
--- a/src/systemctl/systemctl.c
+++ b/src/systemctl/systemctl.c
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ static bool install_client_side(void) {
         /* Decides when to execute enable/disable/... operations
          * client-side rather than server-side. */
 
-        if (running_in_chroot() > 0)
+        if (running_in_chroot_or_offline())
                 return true;
 
         if (sd_booted() <= 0)