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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 * `$SYSTEMD_VERITY_SHARING=0` — if set, sharing dm-verity devices by
130 using a stable `<ROOTHASH>-verity` device mapper name will be disabled.
131
132 `systemctl`:
133
134 * `$SYSTEMCTL_FORCE_BUS=1` — if set, do not connect to PID 1's private D-Bus
135 listener, and instead always connect through the dbus-daemon D-bus broker.
136
137 * `$SYSTEMCTL_INSTALL_CLIENT_SIDE=1` — if set, enable or disable unit files on
138 the client side, instead of asking PID 1 to do this.
139
140 * `$SYSTEMCTL_SKIP_SYSV=1` — if set, do not call SysV compatibility hooks.
141
142 * `$SYSTEMCTL_SKIP_AUTO_KEXEC=1` — if set, do not automatically kexec instead of
143 reboot when a new kernel has been loaded.
144
145 * `$SYSTEMCTL_SKIP_AUTO_SOFT_REBOOT=1` — if set, do not automatically soft-reboot
146 instead of reboot when a new root file system has been loaded in
147 `/run/nextroot/`.
148
149 `systemd-nspawn`:
150
151 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_UNIFIED_HIERARCHY=1` — if set, force `systemd-nspawn` into
152 unified cgroup hierarchy mode.
153
154 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_API_VFS_WRITABLE=1` — if set, make `/sys/`, `/proc/sys/`,
155 and friends writable in the container. If set to "network", leave only
156 `/proc/sys/net/` writable.
157
158 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_CONTAINER_SERVICE=…` — override the "service" name nspawn
159 uses to register with machined. If unset defaults to "nspawn", but with this
160 variable may be set to any other value.
161
162 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_USE_CGNS=0` — if set, do not use cgroup namespacing, even if
163 it is available.
164
165 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_LOCK=0` — if set, do not lock container images when running.
166
167 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_TMPFS_TMP=0` — if set, do not overmount `/tmp/` in the
168 container with a tmpfs, but leave the directory from the image in place.
169
170 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_CHECK_OS_RELEASE=0` — if set, do not fail when trying to
171 boot an OS tree without an os-release file (useful when trying to boot a
172 container with empty `/etc/` and bind-mounted `/usr/`)
173
174 * `$SYSTEMD_SUPPRESS_SYNC=1` — if set, all disk synchronization syscalls are
175 blocked to the container payload (e.g. `sync()`, `fsync()`, `syncfs()`, …)
176 and the `O_SYNC`/`O_DSYNC` flags are made unavailable to `open()` and
177 friends. This is equivalent to passing `--suppress-sync=yes` on the
178 `systemd-nspawn` command line.
179
180 * `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_NETWORK_MAC=...` — if set, allows users to set a specific MAC
181 address for a container, ensuring that it uses the provided value instead of
182 generating a random one. It is effective when used with `--network-veth`. The
183 expected format is six groups of two hexadecimal digits separated by colons,
184 e.g. `SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_NETWORK_MAC=12:34:56:78:90:AB`
185
186 `systemd-logind`:
187
188 * `$SYSTEMD_BYPASS_HIBERNATION_MEMORY_CHECK=1` — if set, report that
189 hibernation is available even if the swap devices do not provide enough room
190 for it.
191
192 * `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_FIRMWARE_SETUP` — if set, overrides `systemd-logind`'s
193 built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot into the firmware. Takes a boolean.
194 If set to false, the functionality is turned off entirely. If set to true,
195 instead of requesting a reboot into the firmware setup UI through EFI a file,
196 `/run/systemd/reboot-to-firmware-setup` is created whenever this is
197 requested. This file may be checked for by services run during system
198 shutdown in order to request the appropriate operation from the firmware in
199 an alternative fashion.
200
201 * `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_BOOT_LOADER_MENU` — similar to the above, allows
202 overriding of `systemd-logind`'s built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot
203 into the boot loader menu. Takes a boolean. If set to false, the
204 functionality is turned off entirely. If set to true, instead of requesting a
205 reboot into the boot loader menu through EFI, the file
206 `/run/systemd/reboot-to-boot-loader-menu` is created whenever this is
207 requested. The file contains the requested boot loader menu timeout in µs,
208 formatted in ASCII decimals, or zero in case no timeout is requested. This
209 file may be checked for by services run during system shutdown in order to
210 request the appropriate operation from the boot loader in an alternative
211 fashion.
212
213 * `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_BOOT_LOADER_ENTRY` — similar to the above, allows
214 overriding of `systemd-logind`'s built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot
215 into a specific boot loader entry. Takes a boolean. If set to false, the
216 functionality is turned off entirely. If set to true, instead of requesting a
217 reboot into a specific boot loader entry through EFI, the file
218 `/run/systemd/reboot-to-boot-loader-entry` is created whenever this is
219 requested. The file contains the requested boot loader entry identifier. This
220 file may be checked for by services run during system shutdown in order to
221 request the appropriate operation from the boot loader in an alternative
222 fashion. Note that by default only boot loader entries which follow the
223 [Boot Loader Specification](https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/boot_loader_specification)
224 and are placed in the ESP or the Extended Boot Loader partition may be
225 selected this way. However, if a directory `/run/boot-loader-entries/`
226 exists, the entries are loaded from there instead. The directory should
227 contain the usual directory hierarchy mandated by the Boot Loader
228 Specification, i.e. the entry drop-ins should be placed in
229 `/run/boot-loader-entries/loader/entries/*.conf`, and the files referenced by
230 the drop-ins (including the kernels and initrds) somewhere else below
231 `/run/boot-loader-entries/`. Note that all these files may be (and are
232 supposed to be) symlinks. `systemd-logind` will load these files on-demand,
233 these files can hence be updated (ideally atomically) whenever the boot
234 loader configuration changes. A foreign boot loader installer script should
235 hence synthesize drop-in snippets and symlinks for all boot entries at boot
236 or whenever they change if it wants to integrate with `systemd-logind`'s
237 APIs.
238
239 `systemd-udevd` and sd-device library:
240
241 * `$NET_NAMING_SCHEME=` — if set, takes a network naming scheme (i.e. one of
242 "v238", "v239", "v240"…, or the special value "latest") as parameter. If
243 specified udev's `net_id` builtin will follow the specified naming scheme
244 when determining stable network interface names. This may be used to revert
245 to naming schemes of older udev versions, in order to provide more stable
246 naming across updates. This environment variable takes precedence over the
247 kernel command line option `net.naming_scheme=`, except if the value is
248 prefixed with `:` in which case the kernel command line option takes
249 precedence, if it is specified as well.
250
251 * `$SYSTEMD_DEVICE_VERIFY_SYSFS` — if set to "0", disables verification that
252 devices sysfs path are actually backed by sysfs. Relaxing this verification
253 is useful for testing purposes.
254
255 * `$SYSTEMD_UDEV_EXTRA_TIMEOUT_SEC=` — Specifies an extra timespan that the
256 udev manager process waits for a worker process kills slow programs specified
257 by IMPORT{program}=, PROGRAM=, or RUN=, and finalizes the processing event.
258 If the worker process cannot finalize the event within the specified timespan,
259 the worker process is killed by the manager process. Defaults to 10 seconds,
260 maximum allowed is 5 hours.
261
262 `udevadm` and `systemd-hwdb`:
263
264 * `SYSTEMD_HWDB_UPDATE_BYPASS=` — If set to "1", execution of hwdb updates is skipped
265 when `udevadm hwdb --update` or `systemd-hwdb update` are invoked. This can
266 be useful if either of these tools are invoked unconditionally as a child
267 process by another tool, such as package managers running either of these
268 tools in a postinstall script.
269
270 `nss-systemd`:
271
272 * `$SYSTEMD_NSS_BYPASS_SYNTHETIC=1` — if set, `nss-systemd` won't synthesize
273 user/group records for the `root` and `nobody` users if they are missing from
274 `/etc/passwd`.
275
276 * `$SYSTEMD_NSS_DYNAMIC_BYPASS=1` — if set, `nss-systemd` won't return
277 user/group records for dynamically registered service users (i.e. users
278 registered through `DynamicUser=1`).
279
280 `systemd-timedated`:
281
282 * `$SYSTEMD_TIMEDATED_NTP_SERVICES=…` — colon-separated list of unit names of
283 NTP client services. If set, `timedatectl set-ntp on` enables and starts the
284 first existing unit listed in the environment variable, and
285 `timedatectl set-ntp off` disables and stops all listed units.
286
287 `systemd-sulogin-shell`:
288
289 * `$SYSTEMD_SULOGIN_FORCE=1` — This skips asking for the root password if the
290 root password is not available (such as when the root account is locked).
291 See `sulogin(8)` for more details.
292
293 `bootctl` and other tools that access the EFI System Partition (ESP):
294
295 * `$SYSTEMD_RELAX_ESP_CHECKS=1` — if set, the ESP validation checks are
296 relaxed. Specifically, validation checks that ensure the specified ESP path
297 is a FAT file system are turned off, as are checks that the path is located
298 on a GPT partition with the correct type UUID.
299
300 * `$SYSTEMD_ESP_PATH=…` — override the path to the EFI System Partition. This
301 may be used to override ESP path auto detection, and redirect any accesses to
302 the ESP to the specified directory. Note that unlike with `bootctl`'s
303 `--path=` switch only very superficial validation of the specified path is
304 done when this environment variable is used.
305
306 * `$KERNEL_INSTALL_CONF_ROOT=…` — override the built in default configuration
307 directory /etc/kernel/ to read files like entry-token and install.conf from.
308
309 `systemd` itself:
310
311 * `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_UNIT` — set for all NSS and PAM module invocations that
312 are done by the service manager on behalf of a specific unit, in child
313 processes that are later (after execve()) going to become unit
314 processes. Contains the full unit name (e.g. "foobar.service"). NSS and PAM
315 modules can use this information to determine in which context and on whose
316 behalf they are being called, which may be useful to avoid deadlocks, for
317 example to bypass IPC calls to the very service that is about to be
318 started. Note that NSS and PAM modules should be careful to only rely on this
319 data when invoked privileged, or possibly only when getppid() returns 1, as
320 setting environment variables is of course possible in any even unprivileged
321 contexts.
322
323 * `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_SCOPE` — closely related to `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_UNIT`,
324 it is either set to `system` or `user` depending on whether the NSS/PAM
325 module is called by systemd in `--system` or `--user` mode.
326
327 * `$SYSTEMD_SUPPORT_DEVICE`, `$SYSTEMD_SUPPORT_MOUNT`, `$SYSTEMD_SUPPORT_SWAP` -
328 can be set to `0` to mark respective unit type as unsupported. Generally,
329 having less units saves system resources so these options might be useful
330 for cases where we don't need to track given unit type, e.g. `--user` manager
331 often doesn't need to deal with device or swap units because they are
332 handled by the `--system` manager (PID 1). Note that setting certain unit
333 type as unsupported may not prevent loading some units of that type if they
334 are referenced by other units of another supported type.
335
336 * `$SYSTEMD_DEFAULT_MOUNT_RATE_LIMIT_BURST` — can be set to override the mount
337 units burst rate limit for parsing `/proc/self/mountinfo`. On a system with
338 few resources but many mounts the rate limit may be hit, which will cause the
339 processing of mount units to stall. The burst limit may be adjusted when the
340 default is not appropriate for a given system. Defaults to `5`, accepts
341 positive integers.
342
343 `systemd-remount-fs`:
344
345 * `$SYSTEMD_REMOUNT_ROOT_RW=1` — if set and no entry for the root directory
346 exists in `/etc/fstab` (this file always takes precedence), then the root
347 directory is remounted writable. This is primarily used by
348 `systemd-gpt-auto-generator` to ensure the root partition is mounted writable
349 in accordance to the GPT partition flags.
350
351 `systemd-firstboot` and `localectl`:
352
353 * `$SYSTEMD_LIST_NON_UTF8_LOCALES=1` — if set, non-UTF-8 locales are listed among
354 the installed ones. By default non-UTF-8 locales are suppressed from the
355 selection, since we are living in the 21st century.
356
357 `systemd-resolved`:
358
359 * `$SYSTEMD_RESOLVED_SYNTHESIZE_HOSTNAME` — if set to "0", `systemd-resolved`
360 won't synthesize A/AAAA/PTR RRs for the system hostname on either regular nor
361 reverse lookups.
362
363 `systemd-sysext`:
364
365 * `$SYSTEMD_SYSEXT_HIERARCHIES` — this variable may be used to override which
366 hierarchies are managed by `systemd-sysext`. By default only `/usr/` and
367 `/opt/` are managed, and directories may be added or removed to that list by
368 setting this environment variable to a colon-separated list of absolute
369 paths. Only "real" file systems and directories that only contain "real" file
370 systems as submounts should be used. Do not specify API file systems such as
371 `/proc/` or `/sys/` here, or hierarchies that have them as submounts. In
372 particular, do not specify the root directory `/` here. Similarly,
373 `$SYSTEMD_CONFEXT_HIERARCHIES` works for confext images and supports the
374 systemd-confext multi-call functionality of sysext.
375
376 `systemd-tmpfiles`:
377
378 * `$SYSTEMD_TMPFILES_FORCE_SUBVOL` — if unset, `v`/`q`/`Q` lines will create
379 subvolumes only if the OS itself is installed into a subvolume. If set to `1`
380 (or another value interpreted as true), these lines will always create
381 subvolumes if the backing filesystem supports them. If set to `0`, these
382 lines will always create directories.
383
384 `systemd-sysusers`
385
386 * `$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH` — if unset, the field of the date of last password change
387 in `/etc/shadow` will be the number of days from Jan 1, 1970 00:00 UTC until
388 today. If `$SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH` is set to a valid UNIX epoch value in seconds,
389 then the field will be the number of days until that time instead. This is to
390 support creating bit-by-bit reproducible system images by choosing a
391 reproducible value for the field of the date of last password change in
392 `/etc/shadow`. See: https://reproducible-builds.org/specs/source-date-epoch/
393
394 `systemd-sysv-generator`:
395
396 * `$SYSTEMD_SYSVINIT_PATH` — Controls where `systemd-sysv-generator` looks for
397 SysV init scripts.
398
399 * `$SYSTEMD_SYSVRCND_PATH` — Controls where `systemd-sysv-generator` looks for
400 SysV init script runlevel link farms.
401
402 systemd tests:
403
404 * `$SYSTEMD_TEST_DATA` — override the location of test data. This is useful if
405 a test executable is moved to an arbitrary location.
406
407 * `$SYSTEMD_TEST_NSS_BUFSIZE` — size of scratch buffers for "reentrant"
408 functions exported by the nss modules.
409
410 * `$TESTFUNCS` – takes a colon separated list of test functions to invoke,
411 causes all non-matching test functions to be skipped. Only applies to tests
412 using our regular test boilerplate.
413
414 fuzzers:
415
416 * `$SYSTEMD_FUZZ_OUTPUT` — A boolean that specifies whether to write output to
417 stdout. Setting to true is useful in manual invocations, since all output is
418 suppressed by default.
419
420 * `$SYSTEMD_FUZZ_RUNS` — The number of times execution should be repeated in
421 manual invocations.
422
423 Note that it may be also useful to set `$SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL`, since all logging
424 is suppressed by default.
425
426 `systemd-importd`:
427
428 * `$SYSTEMD_IMPORT_BTRFS_SUBVOL` — takes a boolean, which controls whether to
429 prefer creating btrfs subvolumes over plain directories for machine
430 images. Has no effect on non-btrfs file systems where subvolumes are not
431 available anyway. If not set, defaults to true.
432
433 * `$SYSTEMD_IMPORT_BTRFS_QUOTA` — takes a boolean, which controls whether to set
434 up quota automatically for created btrfs subvolumes for machine images. If
435 not set, defaults to true. Has no effect if machines are placed in regular
436 directories, because btrfs subvolumes are not supported or disabled. If
437 enabled, the quota group of the subvolume is automatically added to a
438 combined quota group for all such machine subvolumes.
439
440 * `$SYSTEMD_IMPORT_SYNC` — takes a boolean, which controls whether to
441 synchronize images to disk after installing them, before completing the
442 operation. If not set, defaults to true. If disabled installation of images
443 will be quicker, but not as safe.
444
445 `systemd-dissect`, `systemd-nspawn` and all other tools that may operate on
446 disk images with `--image=` or similar:
447
448 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_VERITY_SIDECAR` — takes a boolean, which controls whether to
449 load "sidecar" Verity metadata files. If enabled (which is the default),
450 whenever a disk image is used, a set of files with the `.roothash`,
451 `.usrhash`, `.roothash.p7s`, `.usrhash.p7s`, `.verity` suffixes are searched
452 adjacent to disk image file, containing the Verity root hashes, their
453 signatures or the Verity data itself. If disabled this automatic discovery of
454 Verity metadata files is turned off.
455
456 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_VERITY_EMBEDDED` — takes a boolean, which controls whether
457 to load the embedded Verity signature data. If enabled (which is the
458 default), Verity root hash information and a suitable signature is
459 automatically acquired from a signature partition, following the
460 [Discoverable Partitions Specification](https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification).
461 If disabled any such partition is ignored. Note that this only disables
462 discovery of the root hash and its signature, the Verity data partition
463 itself is still searched in the GPT image.
464
465 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_VERITY_SIGNATURE` — takes a boolean, which controls whether
466 to validate the signature of the Verity root hash if available. If enabled
467 (which is the default), the signature of suitable disk images is validated
468 against any of the certificates in `/etc/verity.d/*.crt` (and similar
469 directories in `/usr/lib/`, `/run`, …) or passed to the kernel for validation
470 against its built-in certificates.
471
472 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_VERITY_TIMEOUT_SEC=sec` — takes a timespan, which controls
473 the timeout waiting for the image to be configured. Defaults to 100 msec.
474
475 * `$SYSTEMD_DISSECT_FILE_SYSTEMS=` — takes a colon-separated list of file
476 systems that may be mounted for automatically dissected disk images. If not
477 specified defaults to something like: `ext4:btrfs:xfs:vfat:erofs:squashfs`
478
479 * `$SYSTEMD_LOOP_DIRECT_IO` – takes a boolean, which controls whether to enable
480 `LO_FLAGS_DIRECT_IO` (i.e. direct IO + asynchronous IO) on loopback block
481 devices when opening them. Defaults to on, set this to "0" to disable this
482 feature.
483
484 * `$SYSTEMD_ALLOW_USERSPACE_VERITY` — takes a boolean, which controls whether
485 to consider the userspace Verity public key store in `/etc/verity.d/` (and
486 related directories) to authenticate signatures on Verity hashes of disk
487 images. Defaults to true, i.e. userspace signature validation is allowed. If
488 false, authentication can be done only via the kernel's internal keyring.
489
490 `systemd-cryptsetup`:
491
492 * `$SYSTEMD_CRYPTSETUP_USE_TOKEN_MODULE` – takes a boolean, which controls
493 whether to use the libcryptsetup "token" plugin module logic even when
494 activating via FIDO2, PKCS#11, TPM2, i.e. mechanisms natively supported by
495 `systemd-cryptsetup`. Defaults to enabled.
496
497 * `$SYSTEMD_CRYPTSETUP_TOKEN_PATH` – takes a path to a directory in the file
498 system. If specified overrides where libcryptsetup will look for token
499 modules (.so). This is useful for debugging token modules: set this
500 environment variable to the build directory and you are set. This variable
501 is only supported when systemd is compiled in developer mode.
502
503 Various tools that read passwords from the TTY, such as `systemd-cryptenroll`
504 and `homectl`:
505
506 * `$PASSWORD` — takes a string: the literal password to use. If this
507 environment variable is set it is used as password instead of prompting the
508 user interactively. This exists primarily for debugging and testing
509 purposes. Do not use this for production code paths, since environment
510 variables are typically inherited down the process tree without restrictions
511 and should thus not be used for secrets.
512
513 * `$NEWPASSWORD` — similar to `$PASSWORD` above, but is used when both a
514 current and a future password are required, for example if the password is to
515 be changed. In that case `$PASSWORD` shall carry the current (i.e. old)
516 password and `$NEWPASSWORD` the new.
517
518 `systemd-homed`:
519
520 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_ROOT` – defines an absolute path where to look for home
521 directories/images. When unspecified defaults to `/home/`. This is useful for
522 debugging purposes in order to run a secondary `systemd-homed` instance that
523 operates on a different directory where home directories/images are placed.
524
525 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_RECORD_DIR` – defines an absolute path where to look for
526 fixated home records kept on the host. When unspecified defaults to
527 `/var/lib/systemd/home/`. Similar to `$SYSTEMD_HOME_ROOT` this is useful for
528 debugging purposes, in order to run a secondary `systemd-homed` instance that
529 operates on a record database entirely separate from the host's.
530
531 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_DEBUG_SUFFIX` – takes a short string that is suffixed to
532 `systemd-homed`'s D-Bus and Varlink service names/sockets. This is also
533 understood by `homectl`. This too is useful for running an additional copy of
534 `systemd-homed` that doesn't interfere with the host's main one.
535
536 * `$SYSTEMD_HOMEWORK_PATH` – configures the path to the `systemd-homework`
537 binary to invoke. If not specified defaults to
538 `/usr/lib/systemd/systemd-homework`.
539
540 Combining these four environment variables is pretty useful when
541 debugging/developing `systemd-homed`:
542 ```sh
543 SYSTEMD_HOME_DEBUG_SUFFIX=foo \
544 SYSTEMD_HOMEWORK_PATH=/home/lennart/projects/systemd/build/systemd-homework \
545 SYSTEMD_HOME_ROOT=/home.foo/ \
546 SYSTEMD_HOME_RECORD_DIR=/var/lib/systemd/home.foo/ \
547 /home/lennart/projects/systemd/build/systemd-homed
548 ```
549
550 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MOUNT_OPTIONS_BTRFS`, `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MOUNT_OPTIONS_EXT4`,
551 `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MOUNT_OPTIONS_XFS` – configure the default mount options to
552 use for LUKS home directories, overriding the built-in default mount
553 options. There's one variable for each of the supported file systems for the
554 LUKS home directory backend.
555
556 * `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MKFS_OPTIONS_BTRFS`, `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MKFS_OPTIONS_EXT4`,
557 `$SYSTEMD_HOME_MKFS_OPTIONS_XFS` – configure additional arguments to use for
558 `mkfs` when formatting LUKS home directories. There's one variable for each
559 of the supported file systems for the LUKS home directory backend.
560
561 `kernel-install`:
562
563 * `$KERNEL_INSTALL_BYPASS` – If set to "1", execution of kernel-install is skipped
564 when kernel-install is invoked. This can be useful if kernel-install is invoked
565 unconditionally as a child process by another tool, such as package managers
566 running kernel-install in a postinstall script.
567
568 `systemd-journald`, `journalctl`:
569
570 * `$SYSTEMD_JOURNAL_COMPACT` – Takes a boolean. If enabled, journal files are written
571 in a more compact format that reduces the amount of disk space required by the
572 journal. Note that journal files in compact mode are limited to 4G to allow use of
573 32-bit offsets. Enabled by default.
574
575 * `$SYSTEMD_JOURNAL_COMPRESS` – Takes a boolean, or one of the compression
576 algorithms "XZ", "LZ4", and "ZSTD". If enabled, the default compression
577 algorithm set at compile time will be used when opening a new journal file.
578 If disabled, the journal file compression will be disabled. Note that the
579 compression mode of existing journal files are not changed. To make the
580 specified algorithm takes an effect immediately, you need to explicitly run
581 `journalctl --rotate`.
582
583 * `$SYSTEMD_CATALOG` – path to the compiled catalog database file to use for
584 `journalctl -x`, `journalctl --update-catalog`, `journalctl --list-catalog`
585 and related calls.
586
587 * `$SYSTEMD_CATALOG_SOURCES` – path to the catalog database input source
588 directory to use for `journalctl --update-catalog`.
589
590 `systemd-pcrextend`, `systemd-cryptsetup`:
591
592 * `$SYSTEMD_FORCE_MEASURE=1` — If set, force measuring of resources (which are
593 marked for measurement) even if not booted on a kernel equipped with
594 systemd-stub. Normally, requested measurement of resources is conditionalized
595 on kernels that have booted with `systemd-stub`. With this environment
596 variable the test for that my be bypassed, for testing purposes.
597
598 `systemd-repart`:
599
600 * `$SYSTEMD_REPART_MKFS_OPTIONS_<FSTYPE>` – configure additional arguments to use for
601 `mkfs` when formatting partition file systems. There's one variable for each
602 of the supported file systems.
603
604 * `$SYSTEMD_REPART_OVERRIDE_FSTYPE` – if set the value will override the file
605 system type specified in Format= lines in partition definition files.
606
607 `systemd-nspawn`, `systemd-networkd`:
608
609 * `$SYSTEMD_FIREWALL_BACKEND` – takes a string, either `iptables` or
610 `nftables`. Selects the firewall backend to use. If not specified tries to
611 use `nftables` and falls back to `iptables` if that's not available.
612
613 `systemd-storagetm`:
614
615 * `$SYSTEMD_NVME_MODEL`, `$SYSTEMD_NVME_FIRMWARE`, `$SYSTEMD_NVME_SERIAL`,
616 `$SYSTEMD_NVME_UUID` – these take a model string, firmware version string,
617 serial number string, and UUID formatted as string. If specified these
618 override the defaults exposed on the NVME subsystem and namespace, which are
619 derived from the underlying block device and system identity. Do not set the
620 latter two via the environment variable unless `systemd-storagetm` is invoked
621 to expose a single device only, since those identifiers better should be kept
622 unique.
623
624 `systemd-pcrlock`, `systemd-pcrextend`:
625
626 * `$SYSTEMD_MEASURE_LOG_USERSPACE` – the path to the `tpm2-measure.log` file
627 (containing userspace measurement data) to read. This allows overriding the
628 default of `/run/log/systemd/tpm2-measure.log`.
629
630 * `$SYSTEMD_MEASURE_LOG_FIRMWARE` – the path to the `binary_bios_measurements`
631 file (containing firmware measurement data) to read. This allows overriding
632 the default of `/sys/kernel/security/tpm0/binary_bios_measurements`.
633
634 Tools using the Varlink protocol (such as `varlinkctl`) or sd-bus (such as
635 `busctl`):
636
637 * `$SYSTEMD_SSH` – the ssh binary to invoke when the `ssh:` transport is
638 used. May be a filename (which is searched for in `$PATH`) or absolute path.
639
640 * `$SYSTEMD_VARLINK_LISTEN` – interpreted by some tools that provide a Varlink
641 service. Takes a file system path: if specified the tool will listen on an
642 `AF_UNIX` stream socket on the specified path in addition to whatever else it
643 would listen on.