]> git.ipfire.org Git - thirdparty/systemd.git/blob - docs/ENVIRONMENT.md
Merge pull request #31271 from fbuihuu/test-69-debugging-improvements
[thirdparty/systemd.git] / docs / ENVIRONMENT.md
1 ---
2 title: Known Environment Variables
3 category: Interfaces
4 layout: default
5 SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later
6 ---
7
8 # Known Environment Variables
9
10 A number of systemd components take additional runtime parameters via
11 environment variables. Many of these environment variables are not supported at
12 the same level as command line switches and other interfaces are: we don't
13 document them in the man pages and we make no stability guarantees for
14 them. While they generally are unlikely to be dropped any time soon again, we
15 do not want to guarantee that they stay around for good either.
16
17 Below is an (incomprehensive) list of the environment variables understood by
18 the various tools. Note that this list only covers environment variables not
19 documented in the proper man pages.
20
21 All tools:
22
23 * `$SYSTEMD_OFFLINE=[0|1]` — if set to `1`, then `systemctl` will refrain from
24 talking to PID 1; this has the same effect as the historical detection of
25 `chroot()`. Setting this variable to `0` instead has a similar effect as
26 `$SYSTEMD_IGNORE_CHROOT=1`; i.e. tools will try to communicate with PID 1
27 even if a `chroot()` environment is detected. You almost certainly want to
28 set this to `1` if you maintain a package build system or similar and are
29 trying to use a modern container system and not plain `chroot()`.
30
31 * `$SYSTEMD_IGNORE_CHROOT=1` — if set, don't check whether being invoked in a
32 `chroot()` environment. This is particularly relevant for systemctl, as it
33 will not alter its behaviour for `chroot()` environments if set. Normally it
34 refrains from talking to PID 1 in such a case; turning most operations such
35 as `start` into no-ops. If that's what's explicitly desired, you might
36 consider setting `$SYSTEMD_OFFLINE=1`.
37
38 * `$SYSTEMD_FIRST_BOOT=0|1` — if set, assume "first boot" condition to be false
39 or true, instead of checking the flag file created by PID 1.
40
41 * `$SD_EVENT_PROFILE_DELAYS=1` — if set, the sd-event event loop implementation
42 will print latency information at runtime.
43
44 * `$SYSTEMD_PROC_CMDLINE` — if set, the contents are used as the kernel command
45 line instead of the actual one in `/proc/cmdline`. This is useful for
46 debugging, in order to test generators and other code against specific kernel
47 command lines.
48
49 * `$SYSTEMD_OS_RELEASE` — if set, use this path instead of `/etc/os-release` or
50 `/usr/lib/os-release`. When operating under some root (e.g. `systemctl
51 --root=…`), the path is prefixed with the root. Only useful for debugging.
52
53 * `$SYSTEMD_FSTAB` — if set, use this path instead of `/etc/fstab`. Only useful
54 for debugging.
55
56 * `$SYSTEMD_SYSROOT_FSTAB` — if set, use this path instead of
57 `/sysroot/etc/fstab`. Only useful for debugging `systemd-fstab-generator`.
58
59 * `$SYSTEMD_SYSFS_CHECK` — takes a boolean. If set, overrides sysfs container
60 detection that ignores `/dev/` entries in fstab. Only useful for debugging
61 `systemd-fstab-generator`.
62
63 * `$SYSTEMD_CRYPTTAB` — if set, use this path instead of `/etc/crypttab`. Only
64 useful for debugging. Currently only supported by
65 `systemd-cryptsetup-generator`.
66
67 * `$SYSTEMD_INTEGRITYTAB` — if set, use this path instead of
68 `/etc/integritytab`. Only useful for debugging. Currently only supported by
69 `systemd-integritysetup-generator`.
70
71 * `$SYSTEMD_VERITYTAB` — if set, use this path instead of
72 `/etc/veritytab`. Only useful for debugging. Currently only supported by
73 `systemd-veritysetup-generator`.
74
75 * `$SYSTEMD_EFI_OPTIONS` — if set, used instead of the string in the
76 `SystemdOptions` EFI variable. Analogous to `$SYSTEMD_PROC_CMDLINE`.
77
78 * `$SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_HOSTNAME` — override the compiled-in fallback hostname
79 (relevant in particular for the system manager and `systemd-hostnamed`).
80 Must be a valid hostname (either a single label or a FQDN).
81
82 * `$SYSTEMD_IN_INITRD` — takes a boolean. If set, overrides initrd detection.
83 This is useful for debugging and testing initrd-only programs in the main
84 system.
85
86 * `$SYSTEMD_BUS_TIMEOUT=SECS` — specifies the maximum time to wait for method call
87 completion. If no time unit is specified, assumes seconds. The usual other units
88 are understood, too (us, ms, s, min, h, d, w, month, y). If it is not set or set
89 to 0, then the built-in default is used.
90
91 * `$SYSTEMD_MEMPOOL=0` — if set, the internal memory caching logic employed by
92 hash tables is turned off, and libc `malloc()` is used for all allocations.
93
94 * `$SYSTEMD_UTF8=` — takes a boolean value, and overrides whether to generate
95 non-ASCII special glyphs at various places (i.e. "→" instead of
96 "->"). Usually this is determined automatically, based on `$LC_CTYPE`, but in
97 scenarios where locale definitions are not installed it might make sense to
98 override this check explicitly.
99
100 * `$SYSTEMD_EMOJI=0` — if set, tools such as `systemd-analyze security` will
101 not output graphical smiley emojis, but ASCII alternatives instead. Note that
102 this only controls use of Unicode emoji glyphs, and has no effect on other
103 Unicode glyphs.
104
105 * `$RUNTIME_DIRECTORY` — various tools use this variable to locate the
106 appropriate path under `/run/`. This variable is also set by the manager when
107 `RuntimeDirectory=` is used, see systemd.exec(5).
108
109 * `$SYSTEMD_CRYPT_PREFIX` — if set configures the hash method prefix to use for
110 UNIX `crypt()` when generating passwords. By default the system's "preferred
111 method" is used, but this can be overridden with this environment variable.
112 Takes a prefix such as `$6$` or `$y$`. (Note that this is only honoured on
113 systems built with libxcrypt and is ignored on systems using glibc's
114 original, internal `crypt()` implementation.)
115
116 * `$SYSTEMD_SECCOMP=0` — if set, seccomp filters will not be enforced, even if
117 support for it is compiled in and available in the kernel.
118
119 * `$SYSTEMD_LOG_SECCOMP=1` — if set, system calls blocked by seccomp filtering,
120 for example in `systemd-nspawn`, will be logged to the audit log, if the
121 kernel supports this.
122
123 * `$SYSTEMD_ENABLE_LOG_CONTEXT` — if set, extra fields will always be logged to
124 the journal instead of only when logging in debug mode.
125
126 * `$SYSTEMD_NETLINK_DEFAULT_TIMEOUT` — specifies the default timeout of waiting
127 replies for netlink messages from the kernel. Defaults to 25 seconds.
128
129 * `$SYSTEMD_VERITY_SHARING=0` — if set, sharing dm-verity devices by
130 using a stable `<ROOTHASH>-verity` device mapper name will be disabled.
131
132 * `$SYSTEMD_OPENSSL_KEY_LOADER`— when using OpenSSL to load a key via an engine
133 or a provider, can be used to force the usage of one or the other interface.
134 Set to 'engine' to force the usage of the old engine API, and to 'provider'
135 force the usage of the new provider API. If unset, the provider will be tried
136 first and the engine as a fallback if that fails. Providers are the new OpenSSL
137 3 API, but there are very few if any in a production-ready state, so engines
138 are still needed.
139
140 `systemctl`:
141
142 * `$SYSTEMCTL_FORCE_BUS=1` — if set, do not connect to PID 1's private D-Bus
143 listener, and instead always connect through the dbus-daemon D-bus broker.
144
145 * `$SYSTEMCTL_INSTALL_CLIENT_SIDE=1` — if set, enable or disable unit files on
146 the client side, instead of asking PID 1 to do this.
147
148 * `$SYSTEMCTL_SKIP_SYSV=1` — if set, do not call SysV compatibility hooks.
149
150 * `$SYSTEMCTL_SKIP_AUTO_KEXEC=1` — if set, do not automatically kexec instead of
151 reboot when a new kernel has been loaded.
152
153 * `$SYSTEMCTL_SKIP_AUTO_SOFT_REBOOT=1` — if set, do not automatically soft-reboot
154 instead of reboot when a new root file system has been loaded in
155 `/run/nextroot/`.
156
157 `systemd-nspawn`:
158
159 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_UNIFIED_HIERARCHY=1` — if set, force `systemd-nspawn` into
160 unified cgroup hierarchy mode.
161
162 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_API_VFS_WRITABLE=1` — if set, make `/sys/`, `/proc/sys/`,
163 and friends writable in the container. If set to "network", leave only
164 `/proc/sys/net/` writable.
165
166 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_CONTAINER_SERVICE=…` — override the "service" name nspawn
167 uses to register with machined. If unset defaults to "nspawn", but with this
168 variable may be set to any other value.
169
170 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_USE_CGNS=0` — if set, do not use cgroup namespacing, even if
171 it is available.
172
173 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_LOCK=0` — if set, do not lock container images when running.
174
175 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_TMPFS_TMP=0` — if set, do not overmount `/tmp/` in the
176 container with a tmpfs, but leave the directory from the image in place.
177
178 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_CHECK_OS_RELEASE=0` — if set, do not fail when trying to
179 boot an OS tree without an os-release file (useful when trying to boot a
180 container with empty `/etc/` and bind-mounted `/usr/`)
181
182 * `$SYSTEMD_SUPPRESS_SYNC=1` — if set, all disk synchronization syscalls are
183 blocked to the container payload (e.g. `sync()`, `fsync()`, `syncfs()`, …)
184 and the `O_SYNC`/`O_DSYNC` flags are made unavailable to `open()` and
185 friends. This is equivalent to passing `--suppress-sync=yes` on the
186 `systemd-nspawn` command line.
187
188 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_NETWORK_MAC=...` — if set, allows users to set a specific MAC
189 address for a container, ensuring that it uses the provided value instead of
190 generating a random one. It is effective when used with `--network-veth`. The
191 expected format is six groups of two hexadecimal digits separated by colons,
192 e.g. `SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_NETWORK_MAC=12:34:56:78:90:AB`
193
194 `systemd-logind`:
195
196 * `$SYSTEMD_BYPASS_HIBERNATION_MEMORY_CHECK=1` — if set, report that
197 hibernation is available even if the swap devices do not provide enough room
198 for it.
199
200 * `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_FIRMWARE_SETUP` — if set, overrides `systemd-logind`'s
201 built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot into the firmware. Takes a boolean.
202 If set to false, the functionality is turned off entirely. If set to true,
203 instead of requesting a reboot into the firmware setup UI through EFI a file,
204 `/run/systemd/reboot-to-firmware-setup` is created whenever this is
205 requested. This file may be checked for by services run during system
206 shutdown in order to request the appropriate operation from the firmware in
207 an alternative fashion.
208
209 * `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_BOOT_LOADER_MENU` — similar to the above, allows
210 overriding of `systemd-logind`'s built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot
211 into the boot loader menu. Takes a boolean. If set to false, the
212 functionality is turned off entirely. If set to true, instead of requesting a
213 reboot into the boot loader menu through EFI, the file
214 `/run/systemd/reboot-to-boot-loader-menu` is created whenever this is
215 requested. The file contains the requested boot loader menu timeout in µs,
216 formatted in ASCII decimals, or zero in case no timeout is requested. This
217 file may be checked for by services run during system shutdown in order to
218 request the appropriate operation from the boot loader in an alternative
219 fashion.
220
221 * `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_BOOT_LOADER_ENTRY` — similar to the above, allows
222 overriding of `systemd-logind`'s built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot
223 into a specific boot loader entry. Takes a boolean. If set to false, the
224 functionality is turned off entirely. If set to true, instead of requesting a
225 reboot into a specific boot loader entry through EFI, the file
226 `/run/systemd/reboot-to-boot-loader-entry` is created whenever this is
227 requested. The file contains the requested boot loader entry identifier. This
228 file may be checked for by services run during system shutdown in order to
229 request the appropriate operation from the boot loader in an alternative
230 fashion. Note that by default only boot loader entries which follow the
231 [Boot Loader Specification](https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_specification)
232 and are placed in the ESP or the Extended Boot Loader partition may be
233 selected this way. However, if a directory `/run/boot-loader-entries/`
234 exists, the entries are loaded from there instead. The directory should
235 contain the usual directory hierarchy mandated by the Boot Loader
236 Specification, i.e. the entry drop-ins should be placed in
237 `/run/boot-loader-entries/loader/entries/*.conf`, and the files referenced by
238 the drop-ins (including the kernels and initrds) somewhere else below
239 `/run/boot-loader-entries/`. Note that all these files may be (and are
240 supposed to be) symlinks. `systemd-logind` will load these files on-demand,
241 these files can hence be updated (ideally atomically) whenever the boot
242 loader configuration changes. A foreign boot loader installer script should
243 hence synthesize drop-in snippets and symlinks for all boot entries at boot
244 or whenever they change if it wants to integrate with `systemd-logind`'s
245 APIs.
246
247 `systemd-udevd` and sd-device library:
248
249 * `$NET_NAMING_SCHEME=` — if set, takes a network naming scheme (i.e. one of
250 "v238", "v239", "v240"…, or the special value "latest") as parameter. If
251 specified udev's `net_id` builtin will follow the specified naming scheme
252 when determining stable network interface names. This may be used to revert
253 to naming schemes of older udev versions, in order to provide more stable
254 naming across updates. This environment variable takes precedence over the
255 kernel command line option `net.naming-scheme=`, except if the value is
256 prefixed with `:` in which case the kernel command line option takes
257 precedence, if it is specified as well.
258
259 * `$SYSTEMD_DEVICE_VERIFY_SYSFS` — if set to "0", disables verification that
260 devices sysfs path are actually backed by sysfs. Relaxing this verification
261 is useful for testing purposes.
262
263 * `$SYSTEMD_UDEV_EXTRA_TIMEOUT_SEC=` — Specifies an extra timespan that the
264 udev manager process waits for a worker process kills slow programs specified
265 by IMPORT{program}=, PROGRAM=, or RUN=, and finalizes the processing event.
266 If the worker process cannot finalize the event within the specified timespan,
267 the worker process is killed by the manager process. Defaults to 10 seconds,
268 maximum allowed is 5 hours.
269
270 `udevadm` and `systemd-hwdb`:
271
272 * `SYSTEMD_HWDB_UPDATE_BYPASS=` — If set to "1", execution of hwdb updates is skipped
273 when `udevadm hwdb --update` or `systemd-hwdb update` are invoked. This can
274 be useful if either of these tools are invoked unconditionally as a child
275 process by another tool, such as package managers running either of these
276 tools in a postinstall script.
277
278 `nss-systemd`:
279
280 * `$SYSTEMD_NSS_BYPASS_SYNTHETIC=1` — if set, `nss-systemd` won't synthesize
281 user/group records for the `root` and `nobody` users if they are missing from
282 `/etc/passwd`.
283
284 * `$SYSTEMD_NSS_DYNAMIC_BYPASS=1` — if set, `nss-systemd` won't return
285 user/group records for dynamically registered service users (i.e. users
286 registered through `DynamicUser=1`).
287
288 `systemd-timedated`:
289
290 * `$SYSTEMD_TIMEDATED_NTP_SERVICES=…` — colon-separated list of unit names of
291 NTP client services. If set, `timedatectl set-ntp on` enables and starts the
292 first existing unit listed in the environment variable, and
293 `timedatectl set-ntp off` disables and stops all listed units.
294
295 `systemd-sulogin-shell`:
296
297 * `$SYSTEMD_SULOGIN_FORCE=1` — This skips asking for the root password if the
298 root password is not available (such as when the root account is locked).
299 See `sulogin(8)` for more details.
300
301 `bootctl` and other tools that access the EFI System Partition (ESP):
302
303 * `$SYSTEMD_RELAX_ESP_CHECKS=1` — if set, the ESP validation checks are
304 relaxed. Specifically, validation checks that ensure the specified ESP path
305 is a FAT file system are turned off, as are checks that the path is located
306 on a GPT partition with the correct type UUID.
307
308 * `$SYSTEMD_ESP_PATH=…` — override the path to the EFI System Partition. This
309 may be used to override ESP path auto detection, and redirect any accesses to
310 the ESP to the specified directory. Note that unlike with `bootctl`'s
311 `--path=` switch only very superficial validation of the specified path is
312 done when this environment variable is used.
313
314 * `$KERNEL_INSTALL_CONF_ROOT=…` — override the built in default configuration
315 directory /etc/kernel/ to read files like entry-token and install.conf from.
316
317 `systemd` itself:
318
319 * `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_UNIT` — set for all NSS and PAM module invocations that
320 are done by the service manager on behalf of a specific unit, in child
321 processes that are later (after execve()) going to become unit
322 processes. Contains the full unit name (e.g. "foobar.service"). NSS and PAM
323 modules can use this information to determine in which context and on whose
324 behalf they are being called, which may be useful to avoid deadlocks, for
325 example to bypass IPC calls to the very service that is about to be
326 started. Note that NSS and PAM modules should be careful to only rely on this
327 data when invoked privileged, or possibly only when getppid() returns 1, as
328 setting environment variables is of course possible in any even unprivileged
329 contexts.
330
331 * `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_SCOPE` — closely related to `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_UNIT`,
332 it is either set to `system` or `user` depending on whether the NSS/PAM
333 module is called by systemd in `--system` or `--user` mode.
334
335 * `$SYSTEMD_SUPPORT_DEVICE`, `$SYSTEMD_SUPPORT_MOUNT`, `$SYSTEMD_SUPPORT_SWAP` -
336 can be set to `0` to mark respective unit type as unsupported. Generally,
337 having less units saves system resources so these options might be useful
338 for cases where we don't need to track given unit type, e.g. `--user` manager
339 often doesn't need to deal with device or swap units because they are
340 handled by the `--system` manager (PID 1). Note that setting certain unit
341 type as unsupported may not prevent loading some units of that type if they
342 are referenced by other units of another supported type.
343
344 * `$SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_MOUNT_RATE_LIMIT_BURST` — can be set to override the mount
345 units burst rate limit for parsing `/proc/self/mountinfo`. On a system with
346 few resources but many mounts the rate limit may be hit, which will cause the
347 processing of mount units to stall. The burst limit may be adjusted when the
348 default is not appropriate for a given system. Defaults to `5`, accepts
349 positive integers.
350
351 `systemd-remount-fs`:
352
353 * `$SYSTEMD_REMOUNT_ROOT_RW=1` — if set and no entry for the root directory
354 exists in `/etc/fstab` (this file always takes precedence), then the root
355 directory is remounted writable. This is primarily used by
356 `systemd-gpt-auto-generator` to ensure the root partition is mounted writable
357 in accordance to the GPT partition flags.
358
359 `systemd-firstboot` and `localectl`:
360
361 * `$SYSTEMD_LIST_NON_UTF8_LOCALES=1` — if set, non-UTF-8 locales are listed among
362 the installed ones. By default non-UTF-8 locales are suppressed from the
363 selection, since we are living in the 21st century.
364
365 `systemd-resolved`:
366
367 * `$SYSTEMD_RESOLVED_SYNTHESIZE_HOSTNAME` — if set to "0", `systemd-resolved`
368 won't synthesize system hostname on both regular and reverse lookups.
369
370 `systemd-sysext`:
371
372 * `$SYSTEMD_SYSEXT_HIERARCHIES` — this variable may be used to override which
373 hierarchies are managed by `systemd-sysext`. By default only `/usr/` and
374 `/opt/` are managed, and directories may be added or removed to that list by
375 setting this environment variable to a colon-separated list of absolute
376 paths. Only "real" file systems and directories that only contain "real" file
377 systems as submounts should be used. Do not specify API file systems such as
378 `/proc/` or `/sys/` here, or hierarchies that have them as submounts. In
379 particular, do not specify the root directory `/` here. Similarly,
380 `$SYSTEMD_CONFEXT_HIERARCHIES` works for confext images and supports the
381 systemd-confext multi-call functionality of sysext.
382
383 `systemd-tmpfiles`:
384
385 * `$SYSTEMD_TMPFILES_FORCE_SUBVOL` — if unset, `v`/`q`/`Q` lines will create
386 subvolumes only if the OS itself is installed into a subvolume. If set to `1`
387 (or another value interpreted as true), these lines will always create
388 subvolumes if the backing filesystem supports them. If set to `0`, these
389 lines will always create directories.
390
391 `systemd-sysusers`
392
393 * `$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH` — if unset, the field of the date of last password change
394 in `/etc/shadow` will be the number of days from Jan 1, 1970 00:00 UTC until
395 today. If `$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH` is set to a valid UNIX epoch value in seconds,
396 then the field will be the number of days until that time instead. This is to
397 support creating bit-by-bit reproducible system images by choosing a
398 reproducible value for the field of the date of last password change in
399 `/etc/shadow`. See: https://reproducible-builds.org/specs/source-date-epoch/
400
401 `systemd-sysv-generator`:
402
403 * `$SYSTEMD_SYSVINIT_PATH` — Controls where `systemd-sysv-generator` looks for
404 SysV init scripts.
405
406 * `$SYSTEMD_SYSVRCND_PATH` — Controls where `systemd-sysv-generator` looks for
407 SysV init script runlevel link farms.
408
409 systemd tests:
410
411 * `$SYSTEMD_TEST_DATA` — override the location of test data. This is useful if
412 a test executable is moved to an arbitrary location.
413
414 * `$SYSTEMD_TEST_NSS_BUFSIZE` — size of scratch buffers for "reentrant"
415 functions exported by the nss modules.
416
417 * `$TESTFUNCS` – takes a colon separated list of test functions to invoke,
418 causes all non-matching test functions to be skipped. Only applies to tests
419 using our regular test boilerplate.
420
421 fuzzers:
422
423 * `$SYSTEMD_FUZZ_OUTPUT` — A boolean that specifies whether to write output to
424 stdout. Setting to true is useful in manual invocations, since all output is
425 suppressed by default.
426
427 * `$SYSTEMD_FUZZ_RUNS` — The number of times execution should be repeated in
428 manual invocations.
429
430 Note that it may be also useful to set `$SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL`, since all logging
431 is suppressed by default.
432
433 `systemd-importd`:
434
435 * `$SYSTEMD_IMPORT_BTRFS_SUBVOL` — takes a boolean, which controls whether to
436 prefer creating btrfs subvolumes over plain directories for machine
437 images. Has no effect on non-btrfs file systems where subvolumes are not
438 available anyway. If not set, defaults to true.
439
440 * `$SYSTEMD_IMPORT_BTRFS_QUOTA` — takes a boolean, which controls whether to set
441 up quota automatically for created btrfs subvolumes for machine images. If
442 not set, defaults to true. Has no effect if machines are placed in regular
443 directories, because btrfs subvolumes are not supported or disabled. If
444 enabled, the quota group of the subvolume is automatically added to a
445 combined quota group for all such machine subvolumes.
446
447 * `$SYSTEMD_IMPORT_SYNC` — takes a boolean, which controls whether to
448 synchronize images to disk after installing them, before completing the
449 operation. If not set, defaults to true. If disabled installation of images
450 will be quicker, but not as safe.
451
452 `systemd-dissect`, `systemd-nspawn` and all other tools that may operate on
453 disk images with `--image=` or similar:
454
455 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_VERITY_SIDECAR` — takes a boolean, which controls whether to
456 load "sidecar" Verity metadata files. If enabled (which is the default),
457 whenever a disk image is used, a set of files with the `.roothash`,
458 `.usrhash`, `.roothash.p7s`, `.usrhash.p7s`, `.verity` suffixes are searched
459 adjacent to disk image file, containing the Verity root hashes, their
460 signatures or the Verity data itself. If disabled this automatic discovery of
461 Verity metadata files is turned off.
462
463 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_VERITY_EMBEDDED` — takes a boolean, which controls whether
464 to load the embedded Verity signature data. If enabled (which is the
465 default), Verity root hash information and a suitable signature is
466 automatically acquired from a signature partition, following the
467 [Discoverable Partitions Specification](https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification).
468 If disabled any such partition is ignored. Note that this only disables
469 discovery of the root hash and its signature, the Verity data partition
470 itself is still searched in the GPT image.
471
472 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_VERITY_SIGNATURE` — takes a boolean, which controls whether
473 to validate the signature of the Verity root hash if available. If enabled
474 (which is the default), the signature of suitable disk images is validated
475 against any of the certificates in `/etc/verity.d/*.crt` (and similar
476 directories in `/usr/lib/`, `/run`, …) or passed to the kernel for validation
477 against its built-in certificates.
478
479 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_VERITY_TIMEOUT_SEC=sec` — takes a timespan, which controls
480 the timeout waiting for the image to be configured. Defaults to 100 msec.
481
482 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_FILE_SYSTEMS=` — takes a colon-separated list of file
483 systems that may be mounted for automatically dissected disk images. If not
484 specified defaults to something like: `ext4:btrfs:xfs:vfat:erofs:squashfs`
485
486 * `$SYSTEMD_LOOP_DIRECT_IO` – takes a boolean, which controls whether to enable
487 `LO_FLAGS_DIRECT_IO` (i.e. direct IO + asynchronous IO) on loopback block
488 devices when opening them. Defaults to on, set this to "0" to disable this
489 feature.
490
491 `systemd-cryptsetup`:
492
493 * `$SYSTEMD_CRYPTSETUP_USE_TOKEN_MODULE` – takes a boolean, which controls
494 whether to use the libcryptsetup "token" plugin module logic even when
495 activating via FIDO2, PKCS#11, TPM2, i.e. mechanisms natively supported by
496 `systemd-cryptsetup`. Defaults to enabled.
497
498 * `$SYSTEMD_CRYPTSETUP_TOKEN_PATH` – takes a path to a directory in the file
499 system. If specified overrides where libcryptsetup will look for token
500 modules (.so). This is useful for debugging token modules: set this
501 environment variable to the build directory and you are set. This variable
502 is only supported when systemd is compiled in developer mode.
503
504 Various tools that read passwords from the TTY, such as `systemd-cryptenroll`
505 and `homectl`:
506
507 * `$PASSWORD` — takes a string: the literal password to use. If this
508 environment variable is set it is used as password instead of prompting the
509 user interactively. This exists primarily for debugging and testing
510 purposes. Do not use this for production code paths, since environment
511 variables are typically inherited down the process tree without restrictions
512 and should thus not be used for secrets.
513
514 * `$NEWPASSWORD` — similar to `$PASSWORD` above, but is used when both a
515 current and a future password are required, for example if the password is to
516 be changed. In that case `$PASSWORD` shall carry the current (i.e. old)
517 password and `$NEWPASSWORD` the new.
518
519 `systemd-homed`:
520
521 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_ROOT` – defines an absolute path where to look for home
522 directories/images. When unspecified defaults to `/home/`. This is useful for
523 debugging purposes in order to run a secondary `systemd-homed` instance that
524 operates on a different directory where home directories/images are placed.
525
526 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_RECORD_DIR` – defines an absolute path where to look for
527 fixated home records kept on the host. When unspecified defaults to
528 `/var/lib/systemd/home/`. Similar to `$SYSTEMD_HOME_ROOT` this is useful for
529 debugging purposes, in order to run a secondary `systemd-homed` instance that
530 operates on a record database entirely separate from the host's.
531
532 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_DEBUG_SUFFIX` – takes a short string that is suffixed to
533 `systemd-homed`'s D-Bus and Varlink service names/sockets. This is also
534 understood by `homectl`. This too is useful for running an additional copy of
535 `systemd-homed` that doesn't interfere with the host's main one.
536
537 * `$SYSTEMD_HOMEWORK_PATH` – configures the path to the `systemd-homework`
538 binary to invoke. If not specified defaults to
539 `/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-homework`.
540
541 Combining these four environment variables is pretty useful when
542 debugging/developing `systemd-homed`:
543 ```sh
544 SYSTEMD_HOME_DEBUG_SUFFIX=foo \
545 SYSTEMD_HOMEWORK_PATH=/home/lennart/projects/systemd/build/systemd-homework \
546 SYSTEMD_HOME_ROOT=/home.foo/ \
547 SYSTEMD_HOME_RECORD_DIR=/var/lib/systemd/home.foo/ \
548 /home/lennart/projects/systemd/build/systemd-homed
549 ```
550
551 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MOUNT_OPTIONS_BTRFS`, `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MOUNT_OPTIONS_EXT4`,
552 `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MOUNT_OPTIONS_XFS` – configure the default mount options to
553 use for LUKS home directories, overriding the built-in default mount
554 options. There's one variable for each of the supported file systems for the
555 LUKS home directory backend.
556
557 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MKFS_OPTIONS_BTRFS`, `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MKFS_OPTIONS_EXT4`,
558 `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MKFS_OPTIONS_XFS` – configure additional arguments to use for
559 `mkfs` when formatting LUKS home directories. There's one variable for each
560 of the supported file systems for the LUKS home directory backend.
561
562 `kernel-install`:
563
564 * `$KERNEL_INSTALL_BYPASS` – If set to "1", execution of kernel-install is skipped
565 when kernel-install is invoked. This can be useful if kernel-install is invoked
566 unconditionally as a child process by another tool, such as package managers
567 running kernel-install in a postinstall script.
568
569 `systemd-journald`, `journalctl`:
570
571 * `$SYSTEMD_JOURNAL_COMPACT` – Takes a boolean. If enabled, journal files are written
572 in a more compact format that reduces the amount of disk space required by the
573 journal. Note that journal files in compact mode are limited to 4G to allow use of
574 32-bit offsets. Enabled by default.
575
576 * `$SYSTEMD_JOURNAL_COMPRESS` – Takes a boolean, or one of the compression
577 algorithms "XZ", "LZ4", and "ZSTD". If enabled, the default compression
578 algorithm set at compile time will be used when opening a new journal file.
579 If disabled, the journal file compression will be disabled. Note that the
580 compression mode of existing journal files are not changed. To make the
581 specified algorithm takes an effect immediately, you need to explicitly run
582 `journalctl --rotate`.
583
584 * `$SYSTEMD_CATALOG` – path to the compiled catalog database file to use for
585 `journalctl -x`, `journalctl --update-catalog`, `journalctl --list-catalog`
586 and related calls.
587
588 * `$SYSTEMD_CATALOG_SOURCES` – path to the catalog database input source
589 directory to use for `journalctl --update-catalog`.
590
591 `systemd-pcrextend`, `systemd-cryptsetup`:
592
593 * `$SYSTEMD_FORCE_MEASURE=1` — If set, force measuring of resources (which are
594 marked for measurement) even if not booted on a kernel equipped with
595 systemd-stub. Normally, requested measurement of resources is conditionalized
596 on kernels that have booted with `systemd-stub`. With this environment
597 variable the test for that my be bypassed, for testing purposes.
598
599 `systemd-repart`:
600
601 * `$SYSTEMD_REPART_MKFS_OPTIONS_<FSTYPE>` – configure additional arguments to use for
602 `mkfs` when formatting partition file systems. There's one variable for each
603 of the supported file systems.
604
605 * `$SYSTEMD_REPART_OVERRIDE_FSTYPE` – if set the value will override the file
606 system type specified in Format= lines in partition definition files.
607
608 `systemd-nspawn`, `systemd-networkd`:
609
610 * `$SYSTEMD_FIREWALL_BACKEND` – takes a string, either `iptables` or
611 `nftables`. Selects the firewall backend to use. If not specified tries to
612 use `nftables` and falls back to `iptables` if that's not available.
613
614 `systemd-storagetm`:
615
616 * `$SYSTEMD_NVME_MODEL`, `$SYSTEMD_NVME_FIRMWARE`, `$SYSTEMD_NVME_SERIAL`,
617 `$SYSTEMD_NVME_UUID` – these take a model string, firmware version string,
618 serial number string, and UUID formatted as string. If specified these
619 override the defaults exposed on the NVME subsystem and namespace, which are
620 derived from the underlying block device and system identity. Do not set the
621 latter two via the environment variable unless `systemd-storagetm` is invoked
622 to expose a single device only, since those identifiers better should be kept
623 unique.
624
625 Tools using the Varlink protocol (such as `varlinkctl`) or sd-bus (such as
626 `busctl`):
627
628 * `$SYSTEMD_SSH` – the ssh binary to invoke when the `ssh:` transport is
629 used. May be a filename (which is searched for in `$PATH`) or absolute path.
630
631 * `$SYSTEMD_VARLINK_LISTEN` – interpreted by some tools that provide a Varlink
632 service. Takes a file system path: if specified the tool will listen on an
633 `AF_UNIX` stream socket on the specified path in addition to whatever else it
634 would listen on.