1 <?xml version='
1.0'
?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC
"-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.5/docbookx.dtd">
4 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
6 <refentry id=
"systemd-userdbd.service" conditional='ENABLE_USERDB'
>
9 <title>systemd-userdbd.service
</title>
10 <productname>systemd
</productname>
14 <refentrytitle>systemd-userdbd.service
</refentrytitle>
15 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
19 <refname>systemd-userdbd.service
</refname>
20 <refname>systemd-userdbd
</refname>
21 <refpurpose>JSON User/Group Record Query Multiplexer/NSS Compatibility
</refpurpose>
25 <para><filename>systemd-userdbd.service
</filename></para>
26 <para><filename>/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-userdbd
</filename></para>
30 <title>Description
</title>
32 <para><command>systemd-userdbd
</command> is a system service that multiplexes user/group lookups to all
33 local services that provide JSON user/group record definitions to the system. In addition it synthesizes
34 JSON user/group records from classic UNIX/glibc NSS user/group records in order to provide full backwards
35 compatibility. It may also pick up statically defined JSON user/group records from files in
36 <filename>/etc/userdb/
</filename>,
<filename>/run/userdb/
</filename>,
37 <filename>/run/host/userdb/
</filename> and
<filename>/usr/lib/userdb/
</filename> with the
38 <literal>.user
</literal> extension.
</para>
40 <para>Most of
<command>systemd-userdbd
</command>'s functionality is accessible through the
41 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>userdbctl
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
44 <para>The user and group records this service provides access to follow the
<ulink
45 url=
"https://systemd.io/USER_RECORD">JSON User Records
</ulink> and
<ulink
46 url=
"https://systemd.io/GROUP_RECORD">JSON Group Record
</ulink> definitions. This service implements the
47 <ulink url=
"https://systemd.io/USER_GROUP_API">User/Group Record Lookup API via Varlink
</ulink>, and
48 multiplexes access other services implementing this API, too. It is thus both server and client of this
51 <para>This service provides three distinct
<ulink url=
"https://varlink.org/">Varlink
</ulink> services:
52 <constant>io.systemd.Multiplexer
</constant> provides a single, unified API for querying JSON user and
53 group records. Internally it talks to all other user/group record services running on the system in
54 parallel and forwards any information discovered. This simplifies clients substantially since they need
55 to talk to a single service only instead of all of them in
56 parallel.
<constant>io.systemd.NameServiceSwitch
</constant> provides compatibility with classic
57 UNIX/glibc NSS user records, i.e. converts
<type>struct passwd
</type> and
<type>struct group
</type>
58 records as acquired with APIs such as
<citerefentry
59 project='man-pages'
><refentrytitle>getpwnam
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> to
60 JSON user/group records, thus hiding the differences between the services as much as
61 possible.
<constant>io.systemd.DropIn
</constant> makes JSON user/group records from the aforementioned
62 drop-in directories available.
</para>
66 <title>See Also
</title>
67 <para><simplelist type=
"inline">
68 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
69 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>nss-systemd
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
70 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>userdbctl
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
71 <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-homed.service
</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>