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d657c51f 1systemd System and Service Manager
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2
3DETAILS:
4 http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html
5
6WEB SITE:
19d9372b 7 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd
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8
9GIT:
eb0914fc 10 git@github.com:systemd/systemd.git
eb0914fc 11 https://github.com/systemd/systemd
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12
13MAILING LIST:
19d9372b 14 https://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
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15
16IRC:
17 #systemd on irc.freenode.org
18
19BUG REPORTS:
eb0914fc 20 https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues
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21
22AUTHOR:
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23 Lennart Poettering
24 Kay Sievers
25 ...and many others
31cee6f6 26
673eab9b 27LICENSE:
5430f7f2 28 LGPLv2.1+ for all code
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29 - except src/basic/MurmurHash2.c which is Public Domain
30 - except src/basic/siphash24.c which is CC0 Public Domain
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31 - except src/journal/lookup3.c which is Public Domain
32 - except src/udev/* which is (currently still) GPLv2, GPLv2+
0490b440 33 - except tools/chromiumos/* which is BSD-style
673eab9b 34
31cee6f6 35REQUIREMENTS:
dcce98a4 36 Linux kernel >= 3.13
a0c3e16b 37 Linux kernel >= 4.2 for unified cgroup hierarchy support
c2923fdc 38 Linux kernel >= 5.4 for signed Verity images support
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39
40 Kernel Config Options:
713bc0cf 41 CONFIG_DEVTMPFS
d28315e4 42 CONFIG_CGROUPS (it is OK to disable all controllers)
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43 CONFIG_INOTIFY_USER
44 CONFIG_SIGNALFD
45 CONFIG_TIMERFD
46 CONFIG_EPOLL
41938693 47 CONFIG_NET
713bc0cf 48 CONFIG_SYSFS
06d461ee 49 CONFIG_PROC_FS
5d31974e 50 CONFIG_FHANDLE (libudev, mount and bind mount handling)
713bc0cf 51
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52 Kernel crypto/hash API
53 CONFIG_CRYPTO_USER_API_HASH
54 CONFIG_CRYPTO_HMAC
55 CONFIG_CRYPTO_SHA256
56
be2ea723 57 udev will fail to work with the legacy sysfs layout:
f28cbd03 58 CONFIG_SYSFS_DEPRECATED=n
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59
60 Legacy hotplug slows down the system and confuses udev:
61 CONFIG_UEVENT_HELPER_PATH=""
62
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63 Userspace firmware loading is not supported and should
64 be disabled in the kernel:
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65 CONFIG_FW_LOADER_USER_HELPER=n
66
67 Some udev rules and virtualization detection relies on it:
68 CONFIG_DMIID
69
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70 Support for some SCSI devices serial number retrieval, to
71 create additional symlinks in /dev/disk/ and /dev/tape:
72 CONFIG_BLK_DEV_BSG
73
45a582d5 74 Required for PrivateNetwork= in service units:
13468826 75 CONFIG_NET_NS
b52a4a3b 76 Note that systemd-localed.service and other systemd units use
45a582d5 77 PrivateNetwork so this is effectively required.
13468826 78
0ca48bb0 79 Required for PrivateUsers= in service units:
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80 CONFIG_USER_NS
81
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82 Optional but strongly recommended:
83 CONFIG_IPV6
84 CONFIG_AUTOFS4_FS
713bc0cf 85 CONFIG_TMPFS_XATTR
0ceced3d 86 CONFIG_{TMPFS,EXT4_FS,XFS,BTRFS_FS,...}_POSIX_ACL
f28cbd03 87 CONFIG_SECCOMP
fd74fa79 88 CONFIG_SECCOMP_FILTER (required for seccomp support)
3b920d78 89 CONFIG_CHECKPOINT_RESTORE (for the kcmp() syscall)
713bc0cf 90
f4e74be1 91 Required for CPUShares= in resource control unit settings
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92 CONFIG_CGROUP_SCHED
93 CONFIG_FAIR_GROUP_SCHED
94
f4e74be1 95 Required for CPUQuota= in resource control unit settings
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96 CONFIG_CFS_BANDWIDTH
97
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98 Required for IPAddressDeny= and IPAddressAllow= in resource control
99 unit settings
100 CONFIG_CGROUP_BPF
101
f28cbd03 102 For UEFI systems:
f33016ff 103 CONFIG_EFIVAR_FS
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104 CONFIG_EFI_PARTITION
105
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106 Required for signed Verity images support:
107 CONFIG_DM_VERITY_VERIFY_ROOTHASH_SIG
108
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109 We recommend to turn off Real-Time group scheduling in the
110 kernel when using systemd. RT group scheduling effectively
111 makes RT scheduling unavailable for most userspace, since it
112 requires explicit assignment of RT budgets to each unit whose
113 processes making use of RT. As there's no sensible way to
114 assign these budgets automatically this cannot really be
115 fixed, and it's best to disable group scheduling hence.
116 CONFIG_RT_GROUP_SCHED=n
117
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118 It's a good idea to disable the implicit creation of networking bonding
119 devices by the kernel networking bonding module, so that the
120 automatically created "bond0" interface doesn't conflict with any such
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121 device created by systemd-networkd (or other tools). Ideally there
122 would be a kernel compile-time option for this, but there currently
123 isn't. The next best thing is to make this change through a modprobe.d
124 drop-in. This is shipped by default, see modprobe.d/systemd.conf.
f5a93d5d 125
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126 Required for systemd-nspawn:
127 CONFIG_DEVPTS_MULTIPLE_INSTANCES or Linux kernel >= 4.7
128
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129 Note that kernel auditing is broken when used with systemd's
130 container code. When using systemd in conjunction with
19aadacf 131 containers, please make sure to either turn off auditing at
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132 runtime using the kernel command line option "audit=0", or
133 turn it off at kernel compile time using:
134 CONFIG_AUDIT=n
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135 If systemd is compiled with libseccomp support on
136 architectures which do not use socketcall() and where seccomp
137 is supported (this effectively means x86-64 and ARM, but
70a44afe 138 excludes 32-bit x86!), then nspawn will now install a
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139 work-around seccomp filter that makes containers boot even
140 with audit being enabled. This works correctly only on kernels
141 3.14 and newer though. TL;DR: turn audit off, still.
77b6e194 142
3dd26f3e 143 glibc >= 2.16
3ede835a 144 libcap
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145 libmount >= 2.30 (from util-linux)
146 (util-linux *must* be built without --enable-libmount-support-mtab)
6abfd303 147 libseccomp >= 2.3.1 (optional)
d47f6ca5 148 libblkid >= 2.24 (from util-linux) (optional)
a18535d9 149 libkmod >= 15 (optional)
3ede835a 150 PAM >= 1.1.2 (optional)
c2923fdc 151 libcryptsetup (optional), >= 2.3.0 required for signed Verity images support
3ede835a 152 libaudit (optional)
19d5d4cb 153 libacl (optional)
e71f5585 154 libfdisk >= 2.33 (from util-linux) (optional)
3ede835a 155 libselinux (optional)
19d5d4cb 156 liblzma (optional)
e0a1d4b0 157 liblz4 >= 1.3.0 / 130 (optional)
ef5924aa 158 libzstd >= 1.4.0 (optional)
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159 libgcrypt (optional)
160 libqrencode (optional)
161 libmicrohttpd (optional)
2cc86f09 162 libpython (optional)
87057e24 163 libidn2 or libidn (optional)
38e053c5 164 gnutls >= 3.1.4 (optional, >= 3.6.0 is required to support DNS-over-TLS with gnutls)
096cbdce 165 openssl >= 1.1.0 (optional, required to support DNS-over-TLS with openssl)
5b244719 166 elfutils >= 158 (optional)
d79a2f5f 167 polkit (optional)
781748af 168 tzdata >= 2014f (optional)
72cdb3e7 169 pkg-config
8f968c73 170 gperf
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171 docbook-xsl (optional, required for documentation)
172 xsltproc (optional, required for documentation)
173 python-lxml (optional, required to build the indices)
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174 python >= 3.5
175 meson >= 0.46 (>= 0.49 is required to build position-independent executables)
176 ninja
72cdb3e7 177 gcc, awk, sed, grep, m4, and similar tools
2cc86f09 178
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179 During runtime, you need the following additional
180 dependencies:
2cc86f09 181
1d40ddbf 182 util-linux >= v2.27.1 required
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183 dbus >= 1.4.0 (strictly speaking optional, but recommended)
184 NOTE: If using dbus < 1.9.18, you should override the default
185 policy directory (--with-dbuspolicydir=/etc/dbus-1/system.d).
2cc86f09 186 dracut (optional)
d35f51ea 187 polkit (optional)
3ede835a 188
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189 To build in directory build/:
190 meson build/ && ninja -C build
191
5238e957 192 Any configuration options can be specified as -Darg=value... arguments
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193 to meson. After the build directory is initially configured, meson will
194 refuse to run again, and options must be changed with:
195 mesonconf -Darg=value...
196 mesonconf without any arguments will print out available options and
197 their current values.
198
199 Useful commands:
200 ninja -v some/target
201 ninja test
202 sudo ninja install
203 DESTDIR=... ninja install
204
72cdb3e7 205 A tarball can be created with:
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206 git archive --format=tar --prefix=systemd-222/ v222 | xz > systemd-222.tar.xz
207
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208 When systemd-hostnamed is used, it is strongly recommended to
209 install nss-myhostname to ensure that, in a world of
210 dynamically changing hostnames, the hostname stays resolvable
fff2e5b5 211 under all circumstances. In fact, systemd-hostnamed will warn
bf9e477c 212 if nss-myhostname is not installed.
fff2e5b5 213
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214 nss-systemd must be enabled on systemd systems, as that's required for
215 DynamicUser= to work. Note that we ship services out-of-the-box that
216 make use of DynamicUser= now, hence enabling nss-systemd is not
217 optional.
218
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219 Note that the build prefix for systemd must be /usr. (Moreover,
220 packages systemd relies on — such as D-Bus — really should use the same
221 prefix, otherwise you are on your own.) -Dsplit-usr=false (which is the
222 default and does not need to be specified) is the recommended setting,
223 and -Dsplit-usr=true should be used on systems which have /usr on a
224 separate partition.
01c8938e 225
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226 Additional packages are necessary to run some tests:
227 - busybox (used by test/TEST-13-NSPAWN-SMOKE)
228 - nc (used by test/TEST-12-ISSUE-3171)
229 - python3-pyparsing
230 - python3-evdev (used by hwdb parsing tests)
231 - strace (used by test/test-functions)
e94681ad 232 - capsh (optional, used by test-execute)
a2fc3d87 233
a24c64f0 234USERS AND GROUPS:
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235 Default udev rules use the following standard system group
236 names, which need to be resolvable by getgrnam() at any time,
237 even in the very early boot stages, where no other databases
238 and network are available:
239
2422bd21 240 audio, cdrom, dialout, disk, input, kmem, kvm, lp, render, tape, tty, video
37c0e8f3 241
19aadacf 242 During runtime, the journal daemon requires the
1a9ce3f7 243 "systemd-journal" system group to exist. New journal files will
19aadacf 244 be readable by this group (but not writable), which may be used
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245 to grant specific users read access. In addition, system
246 groups "wheel" and "adm" will be given read-only access to
247 journal files using systemd-tmpfiles.service.
a24c64f0 248
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249 The journal remote daemon requires the
250 "systemd-journal-remote" system user and group to
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251 exist. During execution this network facing service will drop
252 privileges and assume this uid/gid for security reasons.
253
8d0e0ddd 254 Similarly, the network management daemon requires the
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255 "systemd-network" system user and group to exist.
256
8d0e0ddd 257 Similarly, the name resolution daemon requires the
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258 "systemd-resolve" system user and group to exist.
259
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260 Similarly, the coredump support requires the
261 "systemd-coredump" system user and group to exist.
262
a4a79605 263NSS:
409093fe 264 systemd ships with four glibc NSS modules:
a4a79605 265
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266 nss-myhostname resolves the local hostname to locally configured IP
267 addresses, as well as "localhost" to 127.0.0.1/::1.
a4a79605 268
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269 nss-resolve enables DNS resolution via the systemd-resolved DNS/LLMNR
270 caching stub resolver "systemd-resolved".
a4a79605 271
409093fe 272 nss-mymachines enables resolution of all local containers registered
38ccb557 273 with machined to their respective IP addresses.
a4a79605 274
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275 nss-systemd enables resolution of users/group registered via the
276 User/Group Record Lookup API (https://systemd.io/USER_GROUP_API/),
277 including all dynamically allocated service users. (See the
278 DynamicUser= setting in unit files.)
a4a79605 279
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280 To make use of these NSS modules, please add them to the "hosts:",
281 "passwd:" and "group:" lines in /etc/nsswitch.conf. The "resolve"
282 module should replace the glibc "dns" module in this file (and don't
283 worry, it chain-loads the "dns" module if it can't talk to resolved).
a4a79605 284
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285 The four modules should be used in the following order:
286
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287 passwd: compat systemd
288 group: compat systemd
a42d4f57 289 hosts: files mymachines resolve [!UNAVAIL=return] dns myhostname
a4a79605 290
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291SYSV INIT.D SCRIPTS:
292 When calling "systemctl enable/disable/is-enabled" on a unit which is a
293 SysV init.d script, it calls /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install;
294 this needs to translate the action into the distribution specific
295 mechanism such as chkconfig or update-rc.d. Packagers need to provide
296 this script if you need this functionality (you don't if you disabled
297 SysV init support).
298
299 Please see src/systemctl/systemd-sysv-install.SKELETON for how this
300 needs to look like, and provide an implementation at the marked places.
301
21bc923a 302WARNINGS:
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303 systemd will warn during early boot if /usr is not already mounted at
304 this point (that means: either located on the same file system as / or
305 already mounted in the initrd). While in systemd itself very little
306 will break if /usr is on a separate, late-mounted partition, many of
307 its dependencies very likely will break sooner or later in one form or
308 another. For example, udev rules tend to refer to binaries in /usr,
309 binaries that link to libraries in /usr or binaries that refer to data
310 files in /usr. Since these breakages are not always directly visible,
311 systemd will warn about this, since this kind of file system setup is
312 not really supported anymore by the basic set of Linux OS components.
fc7a744c 313
47bc23c1 314 systemd requires that the /run mount point exists. systemd also
8f42ccd2 315 requires that /var/run is a symlink to /run.
47bc23c1 316
aa167132 317 For more information on this issue consult
c6749ba5 318 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/separate-usr-is-broken
aa167132 319
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320 To run systemd under valgrind, compile with meson option
321 -Dvalgrind=true and have valgrind development headers installed
322 (i.e. valgrind-devel or equivalent). Otherwise, false positives will be
323 triggered by code which violates some rules but is actually safe. Note
324 that valgrind generates nice output only on exit(), hence on shutdown
325 we don't execve() systemd-shutdown.
2b671e95 326
ba9e3fc4 327STABLE BRANCHES AND BACKPORTS:
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328 Stable branches with backported patches are available in the
329 systemd-stable repo at https://github.com/systemd/systemd-stable.
330
331 Stable branches are started for certain releases of systemd and named
332 after them, e.g. v238-stable. Stable branches are managed by
333 distribution maintainers on an as needed basis. See
334 https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Backports/ for some
335 more information and examples.
94ac201a 336
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337ENGINEERING AND CONSULTING SERVICES:
338 Kinvolk (https://kinvolk.io) offers professional engineering
339 and consulting services for systemd. Please contact Chris Kühl
340 <chris@kinvolk.io> for more information.