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   </refsect1>
  85
  86   <refsect1>
  87     <title>Options</title>
  88
  89     <para>The following options are understood:</para>
  90
  91     <variablelist>
  92       <varlistentry>
  93         <term><option>--create</option></term>
  94         <listitem><para>If this option is passed, all files and
  95         directories marked with
  96         <varname>f</varname>,
  97         <varname>F</varname>,
  98         <varname>w</varname>,
  99         <varname>d</varname>,
 100         <varname>D</varname>,
 101         <varname>v</varname>,
 102         <varname>p</varname>,
 103         <varname>L</varname>,
 104         <varname>c</varname>,
 105         <varname>b</varname>,
 106         <varname>m</varname>
 107         in the configuration files are created or written to. Files
 108         and directories marked with
 109         <varname>z</varname>,
 110         <varname>Z</varname>,
 111         <varname>t</varname>,
 112         <varname>T</varname>,
 113         <varname>a</varname>, and
 114         <varname>A</varname> have their ownership, access mode and
 115         security labels set.</para></listitem>
 116       </varlistentry>
 117
 118       <varlistentry>
 119         <term><option>--clean</option></term>
 120         <listitem><para>If this option is passed, all files and
 121         directories with an age parameter configured will be cleaned
 122         up.</para></listitem>
 123       </varlistentry>
 124
 125       <varlistentry>
 126         <term><option>--remove</option></term>
 127         <listitem><para>If this option is passed, the contents of
 128         directories marked with <varname>D</varname> or
 129         <varname>R</varname>, and files or directories themselves
 130         marked with <varname>r</varname> or <varname>R</varname> are
 131         removed.</para></listitem>
 132       </varlistentry>
 133
 134       <varlistentry>
 135         <term><option>--user</option></term>
 136         <listitem><para>Execute "user" configuration, i.e. <filename>tmpfiles.d</filename>
 137         files in user configuration directories.</para></listitem>
 138       </varlistentry>
 139
 140       <varlistentry>
 141         <term><option>--boot</option></term>
 142         <listitem><para>Also execute lines with an exclamation mark.
 143         </para></listitem>
 144       </varlistentry>
 145
 146       <varlistentry>
 147         <term><option>--prefix=<replaceable>path</replaceable></option></term>
 148         <listitem><para>Only apply rules with paths that start with
 149         the specified prefix. This option can be specified multiple
 150         times.</para></listitem>
 151       </varlistentry>
 152
 153       <varlistentry>
 154         <term><option>--exclude-prefix=<replaceable>path</replaceable></option></term>
 155         <listitem><para>Ignore rules with paths that start with the
 156         specified prefix. This option can be specified multiple
 157         times.</para></listitem>
 158       </varlistentry>
 159
 160       <varlistentry>
 161         <term><option>-E</option></term>
 162         <listitem><para>A shortcut for <literal>--exclude-prefix=/dev --exclude-prefix=/proc
 163         --exclude-prefix=/run --exclude-prefix=/sys</literal>, i.e. exclude the hierarchies typically backed
 164         by virtual or memory file systems. This is useful in combination with <option>--root=</option>, if
 165         the specified directory tree contains an OS tree without these virtual/memory file systems mounted
 166         in, as it is typically not desirable to create any files and directories below these subdirectories
 167         if they are supposed to be overmounted during runtime.</para></listitem>
 168       </varlistentry>
 169
 170       <varlistentry>
 171         <term><option>--root=<replaceable>root</replaceable></option></term>
 172         <listitem><para>Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed with the given alternate
 173         <replaceable>root</replaceable> path, including config search paths.</para>
 174
 175         <para>When this option is used, the libc Name Service Switch (NSS) is bypassed for resolving users
 176         and groups. Instead the files <filename>/etc/passwd</filename> and <filename>/etc/group</filename>
 177         inside the alternate root are read directly. This means that users/groups not listed in these files
 178         will not be resolved, i.e. LDAP NIS and other complex databases are not considered.</para>
 179
 180         <para>Consider combining this with <option>-E</option> to ensure the invocation does not create files
 181         or directories below mount points in the OS image operated on that are typically overmounted during
 182         runtime.</para></listitem>
 183       </varlistentry>
 184
 185       <varlistentry>
 186         <term><option>--image=<replaceable>image</replaceable></option></term>
 187
 188         <listitem><para>Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If specified all operations
 189         are applied to file system in the indicated disk image. This is similar to <option>--root=</option>
 190         but operates on file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The disk image should either
 191         contain just a file system or a set of file systems within a GPT partition table, following the
 192         <ulink url="https://systemd.io/DISCOVERABLE_PARTITIONS">Discoverable Partitions
 193         Specification</ulink>. For further information on supported disk images, see
 194         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
 195         switch of the same name.</para>
 196
 197         <para>Implies <option>-E</option>.</para></listitem>
 198       </varlistentry>
 199
 200       <varlistentry>
 201         <term><option>--replace=<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option></term>
 202         <listitem><para>When this option is given, one ore more positional arguments
 203         must be specified. All configuration files found in the directories listed in
 204         <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
 205         will be read, and the configuration given on the command line will be
 206         handled instead of and with the same priority as the configuration file
 207         <replaceable>PATH</replaceable>.</para>
 208
 209         <para>This option is intended to be used when package installation scripts
 210         are running and files belonging to that package are not yet available on
 211         disk, so their contents must be given on the command line, but the admin
 212         configuration might already exist and should be given higher priority.
 213         </para></listitem>
 214       </varlistentry>
 215
 216       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="cat-config" />
 217       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="no-pager" />
 218       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
 219       <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
 220     </variablelist>
 221
 222     <para>It is possible to combine <option>--create</option>, <option>--clean</option>, and <option>--remove</option>
 223     in one invocation (in which case removal and cleanup are executed before creation of new files). For example,
 224     during boot the following command line is executed to ensure that all temporary and volatile directories are
 225     removed and created according to the configuration file:</para>
 226
 227     <programlisting>systemd-tmpfiles --remove --create</programlisting>
 228   </refsect1>
 229
 230   <refsect1>
 231     <title>Unprivileged --cleanup operation</title>
 232
 233     <para><command>systemd-tmpfiles</command> tries to avoid changing
 234     the access and modification times on the directories it accesses,
 235     which requires <constant>CAP_FOWNER</constant> privileges. When
 236     running as non-root, directories which are checked for files to
 237     clean up will have their access time bumped, which might prevent
 238     their cleanup.
 239     </para>
 240   </refsect1>
 241
 242   <refsect1>
 243     <title>Exit status</title>
 244
 245     <para>On success, 0 is returned. If the configuration was syntactically invalid (syntax errors,
 246     missing arguments, …), so some lines had to be ignored, but no other errors occurred,
 247     <constant>65</constant> is returned (<constant>EX_DATAERR</constant> from
 248     <filename>/usr/include/sysexits.h</filename>). If the configuration was syntactically valid, but
 249     could not be executed (lack of permissions, creation of files in missing directories, invalid
 250     contents when writing to <filename>/sys/</filename> values, …), <constant>73</constant> is
 251     returned (<constant>EX_CANTCREAT</constant> from <filename>/usr/include/sysexits.h</filename>).
 252     Otherwise, <constant>1</constant> is returned (<constant>EXIT_FAILURE</constant> from
 253     <filename>/usr/include/stdlib.h</filename>).
 254     </para>
 255   </refsect1>
 256
 257   <refsect1>
 258     <title>See Also</title>
 259     <para>
 260       <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
 261       <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
 262     </para>
 263   </refsect1>
 264
 265 </refentry>