<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
- <para><command>systemd-tmpfiles</command> creates, deletes, and
- cleans up volatile and temporary files and directories, based on
- the configuration file format and location specified in
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
- </para>
-
- <para>If invoked with no arguments, it applies all directives from all configuration
- files. When invoked with <option>--replace=<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option>,
- arguments specified on the command line are used instead of the configuration file
- <replaceable>PATH</replaceable>. Otherwise, if one or more absolute filenames are
- passed on the command line, only the directives in these files are applied. If
- <literal>-</literal> is specified instead of a filename, directives are read from
- standard input. If only the basename of a configuration file is specified, all
- configuration directories as specified in
- <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
- are searched for a matching file and the file found that has the highest priority is
- executed.</para>
+ <para><command>systemd-tmpfiles</command> creates, deletes, and cleans up volatile and temporary files
+ and directories, using the configuration file format and location specified in
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. It must
+ be invoked with one or more options <option>--create</option>, <option>--remove</option>, and
+ <option>--clean</option>, to select the respective subset of operations.</para>
+
+ <para>By default, directives from all configuration files are applied. When invoked with
+ <option>--replace=<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option>, arguments specified on the command line are
+ used instead of the configuration file <replaceable>PATH</replaceable>. Otherwise, if one or more
+ absolute filenames are passed on the command line, only the directives in these files are applied. If
+ <literal>-</literal> is specified instead of a filename, directives are read from standard input. If only
+ the basename of a configuration file is specified, all configuration directories as specified in
+ <citerefentry><refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> are
+ searched for a matching file and the file found that has the highest priority is executed.</para>
<para>System services (<filename>systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service</filename>,
<filename>systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service</filename>,
affect files created by the user instance if they are placed in <filename>/tmp/</filename>, even if the
user instance's time-based cleanup is turned off.</para>
- <para>To debug <command>systemd-tmpfiles</command>, it may be useful to invoke it directly from the
- command line with increased log level (see <varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL</varname> below).</para>
+ <para>To re-apply settings after configuration has been modified, simply restart
+ <filename>systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service</filename>, which will apply any settings which can be safely
+ executed at runtime. To debug <command>systemd-tmpfiles</command>, it may be useful to invoke it
+ directly from the command line with increased log level (see <varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL</varname>
+ below).</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>