SYSTEMD-HOMED.SERVICE(8)     systemd-homed.service    SYSTEMD-HOMED.SERVICE(8)

NAME
       systemd-homed.service, systemd-homed - Home Area/User Account Manager

SYNOPSIS
       systemd-homed.service

       /usr/lib/systemd/systemd-homed

DESCRIPTION
       systemd-homed is a system service that may be used to create, remove,
       change or inspect home areas (directories and network mounts and real
       or loopback block devices with a filesystem, optionally encrypted).

       Most of systemd-homed's functionality is accessible through the
       homectl(1) command.

       See the Home Directories[1] documentation for details about the format
       and design of home areas managed by systemd-homed.service.

       Each home directory managed by systemd-homed.service synthesizes a
       local user and group. These are made available to the system using the
       User/Group Record Lookup API via Varlink[2], and thus may be browsed
       with userdbctl(1).

       systemd-homed.service also manages blob directories for each home
       directory it manages. See User Record Blob Directories[3] for more
       details.

KEY MANAGEMENT
       User records are cryptographically signed with a public/private key
       pair (the signature is part of the JSON record itself). For a user to
       be permitted to log in locally the public key matching the signature of
       their user record must be installed. For a user record to be modified
       locally the private key matching the signature must be installed
       locally, too. The keys are stored in the /var/lib/systemd/home/
       directory:

       /var/lib/systemd/home/local.private
	   The private key of the public/private key pair used for local
	   records. Currently, only a single such key may be installed.

	   Added in version 246.

       /var/lib/systemd/home/local.public
	   The public key of the public/private key pair used for local
	   records. Currently, only a single such key may be installed.

	   Added in version 246.

       /var/lib/systemd/home/*.public
	   Additional public keys. Any users whose user records are signed
	   with any of these keys are permitted to log in locally. An
	   arbitrary number of keys may be installed this way.

	   Added in version 246.

       All key files listed above are in PEM format.

       In order to migrate a home directory from a host "foobar" to another
       host "quux" it is hence sufficient to copy
       /var/lib/systemd/home/local.public from the host "foobar" to "quux",
       maybe calling the file on the destination
       /var/lib/systemd/home/foobar.public, reflecting the origin of the key.
       If the user record should be modifiable on "quux" the pair
       /var/lib/systemd/home/local.public and
       /var/lib/systemd/home/local.private need to be copied from "foobar" to
       "quux", and placed under the identical paths there, as currently only a
       single private key is supported per host. Note of course that the
       latter means that user records generated/signed before the key pair is
       copied in, lose their validity.

SIGNALS
       SIGUSR1
	   Upon reception of the SIGUSR1 process signal systemd-homed will
	   reestablish its file watches on /home/ and rescan the directory for
	   home directories.

	   Added in version 258.

SEE ALSO
       systemd(1), homed.conf(5), homectl(1), pam_systemd_home(8),
       userdbctl(1), org.freedesktop.home1(5)

NOTES
	1. Home Directories
	   https://systemd.io/HOME_DIRECTORY

	2. User/Group Record Lookup API via Varlink
	   https://systemd.io/USER_GROUP_API

	3. User Record Blob Directories
	   https://systemd.io/USER_RECORD_BLOB_DIRS

systemd 258					      SYSTEMD-HOMED.SERVICE(8)