man/systemd-tmpfiles.xml

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   2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
   3   "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
   4 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
   5
   6 <refentry id="systemd-tmpfiles"
   7     xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
   8
   9   <refentryinfo>
  10     <title>systemd-tmpfiles</title>
  11     <productname>systemd</productname>
  12   </refentryinfo>
  13
  14   <refmeta>
  15     <refentrytitle>systemd-tmpfiles</refentrytitle>
  16     <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
  17   </refmeta>
  18
  19   <refnamediv>
  20     <refname>systemd-tmpfiles</refname>
  21     <refname>systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service</refname>
  22     <refname>systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service</refname>
  23     <refname>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service</refname>
  24     <refname>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer</refname>
  25     <refpurpose>Creates, deletes and cleans up volatile
  26     and temporary files and directories</refpurpose>
  27   </refnamediv>
  28
  29   <refsynopsisdiv>
  30     <cmdsynopsis>
  31       <command>systemd-tmpfiles</command>
  32       <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg>
  33       <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat"><replaceable>CONFIGFILE</replaceable></arg>
  34     </cmdsynopsis>
  35
  36     <para>System units:
  37 <literallayout><filename>systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service</filename>
  38 <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service</filename>
  39 <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service</filename>
  40 <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer</filename></literallayout></para>
  41
  42     <para>User units:
  43 <literallayout><filename>systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service</filename>
  44 <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service</filename>
  45 <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer</filename></literallayout></para>
  46   </refsynopsisdiv>
  47
  48   <refsect1>
  49     <title>Description</title>
  50
  51     <para><command>systemd-tmpfiles</command> creates, deletes, and
  52     cleans up volatile and temporary files and directories, based on
  53     the configuration file format and location specified in
  54     <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
  55     </para>
  56
  57     <para>If invoked with no arguments, it applies all directives from all configuration
  58     files. When invoked with <option>--replace=<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option>,
  59     arguments specified on the command line are used instead of the configuration file
  60     <replaceable>PATH</replaceable>. Otherwise, if one or more absolute filenames are
  61     passed on the command line, only the directives in these files are applied. If
  62     <literal>-</literal> is specified instead of a filename, directives are read from
  63     standard input. If only the basename of a configuration file is specified, all
  64     configuration directories as specified in
  65     <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
  66     are searched for a matching file and the file found that has the highest priority is
  67     executed.</para>
  68
  69     <para>System services (<filename>systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service</filename>,
  70     <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service</filename>,
  71     <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service</filename>) invoke <command>systemd-tmpfiles</command> to create
  72     system files and to perform system wide cleanup. Those services read administrator-controlled
  73     configuration files in <filename>tmpfiles.d/</filename> directories. User services
  74     (<filename>systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service</filename>,
  75     <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service</filename>) also invoke <command>systemd-tmpfiles</command>, but
  76     it reads a separate set of files, which includes user-controlled files under
  77     <filename>~/.config/user-tmpfiles.d/</filename> and <filename>~/.local/share/user-tmpfiles.d/</filename>,
  78     and administrator-controlled files under <filename>/usr/share/user-tmpfiles.d/</filename>. Users may use
  79     this to create and clean up files under their control, but the system instance performs global cleanup
  80     and is not influenced by user configuration. Note that this means a time-based cleanup configured in the
  81     system instance, such as the one typically configured for <filename>/tmp/</filename>, will thus also
  82     affect files created by the user instance if they are placed in <filename>/tmp/</filename>, even if the
  83     user instance's time-based cleanup is turned off.</para>
  84
  85     <para>To debug <command>systemd-tmpfiles</command>, it may be useful to invoke it directly from the
  86     command line with increased log level (see <varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL</varname> below).</para>
  87   </refsect1>
  88
  89   <refsect1>
  90     <title>Options</title>
  91
  92     <para>The following options are understood:</para>
  93
  94     <variablelist>
  95       <varlistentry>
  96         <term><option>--create</option></term>
  97         <listitem><para>If this option is passed, all files and
  98         directories marked with
  99         <varname>f</varname>,
 100         <varname>F</varname>,
 101         <varname>w</varname>,
 102         <varname>d</varname>,
 103         <varname>D</varname>,
 104         <varname>v</varname>,
 105         <varname>p</varname>,
 106         <varname>L</varname>,
 107         <varname>c</varname>,
 108         <varname>b</varname>,
 109         <varname>m</varname>
 110         in the configuration files are created or written to. Files
 111         and directories marked with
 112         <varname>z</varname>,
 113         <varname>Z</varname>,
 114         <varname>t</varname>,
 115         <varname>T</varname>,
 116         <varname>a</varname>, and
 117         <varname>A</varname> have their ownership, access mode and
 118         security labels set.</para></listitem>
 119       </varlistentry>
 120
 121       <varlistentry>
 122         <term><option>--clean</option></term>
 123         <listitem><para>If this option is passed, all files and
 124         directories with an age parameter configured will be cleaned
 125         up.</para></listitem>
 126       </varlistentry>
 127
 128       <varlistentry>
 129         <term><option>--remove</option></term>
 130         <listitem><para>If this option is passed, the contents of
 131         directories marked with <varname>D</varname> or
 132         <varname>R</varname>, and files or directories themselves
 133         marked with <varname>r</varname> or <varname>R</varname> are
 134         removed.</para></listitem>
 135       </varlistentry>
 136
 137       <varlistentry>
 138         <term><option>--user</option></term>
 139         <listitem><para>Execute "user" configuration, i.e. <filename>tmpfiles.d</filename>
 140         files in user configuration directories.</para></listitem>
 141       </varlistentry>
 142
 143       <varlistentry>
 144         <term><option>--boot</option></term>
 145         <listitem><para>Also execute lines with an exclamation mark.
 146         </para></listitem>
 147       </varlistentry>
 148
 149       <varlistentry>
 150         <term><option>--prefix=<replaceable>path</replaceable></option></term>
 151         <listitem><para>Only apply rules with paths that start with
 152         the specified prefix. This option can be specified multiple
 153         times.</para></listitem>
 154       </varlistentry>
 155
 156       <varlistentry>
 157         <term><option>--exclude-prefix=<replaceable>path</replaceable></option></term>
 158         <listitem><para>Ignore rules with paths that start with the
 159         specified prefix. This option can be specified multiple
 160         times.</para></listitem>
 161       </varlistentry>
 162
 163       <varlistentry>
 164         <term><option>-E</option></term>
 165         <listitem><para>A shortcut for <literal>--exclude-prefix=/dev --exclude-prefix=/proc
 166         --exclude-prefix=/run --exclude-prefix=/sys</literal>, i.e. exclude the hierarchies typically backed
 167         by virtual or memory file systems. This is useful in combination with <option>--root=</option>, if
 168         the specified directory tree contains an OS tree without these virtual/memory file systems mounted
 169         in, as it is typically not desirable to create any files and directories below these subdirectories
 170         if they are supposed to be overmounted during runtime.</para></listitem>
 171       </varlistentry>
 172
 173       <varlistentry>
 174         <term><option>--root=<replaceable>root</replaceable></option></term>
 175         <listitem><para>Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed with the given alternate
 176         <replaceable>root</replaceable> path, including config search paths.</para>
 177
 178         <para>When this option is used, the libc Name Service Switch (NSS) is bypassed for resolving users
 179         and groups. Instead the files <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename>
 180         inside the alternate root are read directly. This means that users/groups not listed in these files
 181         will not be resolved, i.e. LDAP NIS and other complex databases are not considered.</para>
 182
 183         <para>Consider combining this with <option>-E</option> to ensure the invocation does not create files
 184         or directories below mount points in the OS image operated on that are typically overmounted during
 185         runtime.</para></listitem>
 186       </varlistentry>
 187
 188       <varlistentry>
 189         <term><option>--image=<replaceable>image</replaceable></option></term>
 190
 191         <listitem><para>Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If specified all operations
 192         are applied to file system in the indicated disk image. This is similar to <option>--root=</option>
 193         but operates on file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The disk image should either
 194         contain just a file system or a set of file systems within a GPT partition table, following the
 195         <ulink url="https://systemd.io/DISCOVERABLE_PARTITIONS">Discoverable Partitions
 196         Specification</ulink>. For further information on supported disk images, see
 197         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
 198         switch of the same name.</para>
 199
 200         <para>Implies <option>-E</option>.</para></listitem>
 201       </varlistentry>
 202
 203       <varlistentry>
 204         <term><option>--replace=<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option></term>
 205         <listitem><para>When this option is given, one ore more positional arguments
 206         must be specified. All configuration files found in the directories listed in
 207         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
 208         will be read, and the configuration given on the command line will be
 209         handled instead of and with the same priority as the configuration file
 210         <replaceable>PATH</replaceable>.</para>
 211
 212         <para>This option is intended to be used when package installation scripts
 213         are running and files belonging to that package are not yet available on
 214         disk, so their contents must be given on the command line, but the admin
 215         configuration might already exist and should be given higher priority.
 216         </para></listitem>
 217       </varlistentry>
 218
 219       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="cat-config" />
 220       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="no-pager" />
 221       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
 222       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
 223     </variablelist>
 224
 225     <para>It is possible to combine <option>--create</option>, <option>--clean</option>, and <option>--remove</option>
 226     in one invocation (in which case removal and cleanup are executed before creation of new files). For example,
 227     during boot the following command line is executed to ensure that all temporary and volatile directories are
 228     removed and created according to the configuration file:</para>
 229
 230     <programlisting>systemd-tmpfiles --remove --create</programlisting>
 231   </refsect1>
 232
 233   <refsect1>
 234     <title>Environment</title>
 235
 236     <variablelist class='environment-variables'>
 237       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="log-level" />
 238       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="log-color" />
 239       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="log-time" />
 240       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="log-location" />
 241       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="log-target" />
 242       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="pager" />
 243       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="less" />
 244       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="lesscharset" />
 245       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="lesssecure" />
 246       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="colors" />
 247       <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" xpointer="urlify" />
 248     </variablelist>
 249   </refsect1>
 250
 251   <refsect1>
 252     <title>Unprivileged --cleanup operation</title>
 253
 254     <para><command>systemd-tmpfiles</command> tries to avoid changing
 255     the access and modification times on the directories it accesses,
 256     which requires <constant>CAP_FOWNER</constant> privileges. When
 257     running as non-root, directories which are checked for files to
 258     clean up will have their access time bumped, which might prevent
 259     their cleanup.
 260     </para>
 261   </refsect1>
 262
 263   <refsect1>
 264     <title>Exit status</title>
 265
 266     <para>On success, 0 is returned. If the configuration was syntactically invalid (syntax errors,
 267     missing arguments, …), so some lines had to be ignored, but no other errors occurred,
 268     <constant>65</constant> is returned (<constant>EX_DATAERR</constant> from
 269     <filename>/usr/include/sysexits.h</filename>). If the configuration was syntactically valid, but
 270     could not be executed (lack of permissions, creation of files in missing directories, invalid
 271     contents when writing to <filename>/sys/</filename> values, …), <constant>73</constant> is
 272     returned (<constant>EX_CANTCREAT</constant> from <filename>/usr/include/sysexits.h</filename>).
 273     Otherwise, <constant>1</constant> is returned (<constant>EXIT_FAILURE</constant> from
 274     <filename>/usr/include/stdlib.h</filename>).
 275     </para>
 276   </refsect1>
 277
 278   <refsect1>
 279     <title>See Also</title>
 280     <para>
 281       <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
 282       <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
 283     </para>
 284   </refsect1>
 285
 286 </refentry>