SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)	       systemd-tmpfiles		   SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)

NAME
       systemd-tmpfiles, systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, systemd-tmpfiles-
       setup-dev-early.service, systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service, systemd-
       tmpfiles-clean.service, systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer - Create, delete,
       and clean up files and directories

SYNOPSIS
       systemd-tmpfiles [OPTIONS...] [CONFIGFILE...]

       System units:
	   systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
	   systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev-early.service
	   systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
	   systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
	   systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer

       User units:
	   systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
	   systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
	   systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer

DESCRIPTION
       systemd-tmpfiles creates, deletes, and cleans up files and directories,
       using the configuration file format and location specified in
       tmpfiles.d(5). Historically, it was designed to manage volatile and
       temporary files, as the name suggests, but it provides generic file
       management functionality and can be used to manage any kind of files.
       It must be invoked with one or more commands --create, --remove, and
       --clean, to select the respective subset of operations.

       If invoked with no arguments, directives from the configuration files
       found in the directories specified by tmpfiles.d(5) are executed. When
       invoked with positional arguments, if option --replace=PATH is
       specified, arguments specified on the command line are used instead of
       the configuration file PATH. Otherwise, just the configuration
       specified by the command line arguments is executed. If the string "-"
       is specified instead of a filename, the configuration is read from
       standard input. If the argument is a file name (without any slashes),
       all configuration directories are searched for a matching file and the
       file found that has the highest priority is executed. If the argument
       is a path, that file is used directly without searching the
       configuration directories for any other matching file.

       System services (systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service,
       systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev-early.service,
       systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service, systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service)
       invoke systemd-tmpfiles to create system files and to perform system
       wide cleanup. Those services read administrator-controlled
       configuration files in tmpfiles.d/ directories. User services
       (systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service) also
       invoke systemd-tmpfiles, but it reads a separate set of files, which
       includes user-controlled files under ~/.config/user-tmpfiles.d/ and
       ~/.local/share/user-tmpfiles.d/, and administrator-controlled files
       under /usr/share/user-tmpfiles.d/. Users may use this to create and
       clean up files under their control, but the system instance performs
       global cleanup and is not influenced by user configuration. Note that
       this means a time-based cleanup configured in the system instance, such
       as the one typically configured for /tmp/, will thus also affect files
       created by the user instance if they are placed in /tmp/, even if the
       user instance's time-based cleanup is turned off.

       To re-apply settings after configuration has been modified, simply
       restart systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service, which will apply any settings
       which can be safely executed at runtime. To debug systemd-tmpfiles, it
       may be useful to invoke it directly from the command line with
       increased log level (see $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL below).

COMMANDS AND OPTIONS
       The following commands are understood:

       --create
	   If this command is passed, all files and directories marked with f,
	   F, w, d, D, v, p, L, c, b, m in the configuration files are created
	   or written to. Files and directories marked with z, Z, t, T, a, and
	   A have their ownership, access mode and security labels set.

       --clean
	   If this command is passed, all files and directories with an age
	   parameter configured will be cleaned up.

       --remove
	   If this command is passed, the contents of directories marked with
	   D or R, and files or directories themselves marked with r or R are
	   removed unless an exclusive or shared BSD lock is taken on them
	   (see flock(2)).

       --purge
	   If this option is passed, all files and directories declared for
	   creation and marked with the "$" character by the tmpfiles.d/ files
	   specified on the command line will be deleted. Specifically, this
	   acts on all files and directories marked with f, F, d, D, v, q, Q,
	   p, L, c, b, C, w, e. If this switch is used at least one
	   tmpfiles.d/ file (or - for standard input) must be specified on the
	   command line or the invocation will be refused, for safety reasons
	   (as otherwise much of the installed system files might be removed).

	   The primary usecase for this option is to automatically remove
	   files and directories that originally have been created on behalf
	   of an installed package at package removal time.

	   It is recommended to first run this command in combination with
	   --dry-run (see below) to verify which files and directories will be
	   deleted.

	   Warning! This is usually not the command you want! In most cases
	   --remove is what you are looking for.

	   Added in version 256.

       --user
	   Execute "user" configuration, i.e.  tmpfiles.d/ files in user
	   configuration directories.

	   Added in version 236.

       --boot
	   Also execute lines with an exclamation mark. Lines that are not
	   safe to be executed on a running system may be marked in this way.
	   systemd-tmpfiles is executed in early boot with --boot specified
	   and will execute those lines. When invoked again later, it should
	   be called without --boot.

	   Added in version 209.

       --graceful
	   Ignore configuration lines pertaining to unknown users or groups.
	   This option is intended to be used in early boot before all users
	   or groups have been created.

	   Added in version 254.

       --dry-run
	   Process the configuration and print what operations would be
	   performed, but do not actually change anything in the file system.

	   Added in version 256.

       --prefix=path
	   Only apply rules with paths that start with the specified prefix.
	   This option can be specified multiple times.

	   Added in version 212.

       --exclude-prefix=path
	   Ignore rules with paths that start with the specified prefix. This
	   option can be specified multiple times.

	   Added in version 207.

       -E
	   A shortcut for "--exclude-prefix=/dev --exclude-prefix=/proc
	   --exclude-prefix=/run --exclude-prefix=/sys", i.e. exclude the
	   hierarchies typically backed by virtual or memory file systems.
	   This is useful in combination with --root=, if the specified
	   directory tree contains an OS tree without these virtual/memory
	   file systems mounted in, as it is typically not desirable to create
	   any files and directories below these subdirectories if they are
	   supposed to be overmounted during runtime.

	   Added in version 247.

       --root=root
	   Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed
	   with the given alternate root path, including config search paths.

	   When this option is used, the libc Name Service Switch (NSS) is
	   bypassed for resolving users and groups. Instead the files
	   /etc/passwd and /etc/group inside the alternate root are read
	   directly. This means that users/groups not listed in these files
	   will not be resolved, i.e. LDAP NIS and other complex databases are
	   not considered.

	   Consider combining this with -E to ensure the invocation does not
	   create files or directories below mount points in the OS image
	   operated on that are typically overmounted during runtime.

	   Added in version 212.

       --image=image
	   Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If
	   specified all operations are applied to file system in the
	   indicated disk image. This is similar to --root= but operates on
	   file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The disk image
	   should either contain just a file system or a set of file systems
	   within a GPT partition table, following the Discoverable Partitions
	   Specification[1]. For further information on supported disk images,
	   see systemd-nspawn(1)'s switch of the same name.

	   Implies -E.

	   Added in version 247.

       --image-policy=policy
	   Takes an image policy string as argument, as per systemd.image-
	   policy(7). The policy is enforced when operating on the disk image
	   specified via --image=, see above. If not specified, defaults to
	   the "*" policy, i.e. all recognized file systems in the image are
	   used.

       --replace=PATH
	   When this option is given, one or more positional arguments must be
	   specified. All configuration files found in the directories listed
	   in tmpfiles.d(5) will be read, and the configuration given on the
	   command line will be handled instead of and with the same priority
	   as the configuration file PATH.

	   This option is intended to be used when package installation
	   scripts are running and files belonging to that package are not yet
	   available on disk, so their contents must be given on the command
	   line, but the admin configuration might already exist and should be
	   given higher priority.

	   Added in version 238.

       --cat-config
	   Copy the contents of config files to standard output. Before each
	   file, the filename is printed as a comment.

       --tldr
	   Copy the contents of config files to standard output. Only the
	   "interesting" parts of the configuration files are printed,
	   comments and empty lines are skipped. Before each file, the
	   filename is printed as a comment.

       --no-pager
	   Do not pipe output into a pager.

       -h, --help
	   Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
	   Print a short version string and exit.

       It is possible to combine --create, --clean, and --remove in one
       invocation (in which case removal and cleanup are executed before
       creation of new files). For example, during boot the following command
       line is executed to ensure that all temporary and volatile directories
       are removed and created according to the configuration file:

	   systemd-tmpfiles --remove --create

CREDENTIALS
       systemd-tmpfiles supports the service credentials logic as implemented
       by ImportCredential=/LoadCredential=/SetCredential= (see
       systemd.exec(5) for details). The following credentials are used when
       passed in:

       tmpfiles.extra
	   The contents of this credential may contain additional lines to
	   operate on. The credential contents should follow the same format
	   as any other tmpfiles.d/ drop-in configuration file. If this
	   credential is passed it is processed after all of the drop-in files
	   read from the file system. The lines in the credential can hence
	   augment existing lines of the OS, but not override them.

	   Added in version 252.

       Note that by default the systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service unit file (and
       related unit files) is set up to inherit the "tmpfiles.extra"
       credential from the service manager.

ENVIRONMENT
       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
	   The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher
	   log level, i.e. less important ones, will be suppressed). Takes a
	   comma-separated list of values. A value may be either one of (in
	   order of decreasing importance) emerg, alert, crit, err, warning,
	   notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range 0...7. See
	   syslog(3) for more information. Each value may optionally be
	   prefixed with one of console, syslog, kmsg or journal followed by a
	   colon to set the maximum log level for that specific log target
	   (e.g.  SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL=debug,console:info specifies to log at
	   debug level except when logging to the console which should be at
	   info level). Note that the global maximum log level takes priority
	   over any per target maximum log levels.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
	   A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored
	   according to priority.

	   This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
	   the terminal, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display
	   logs will color messages based on the log level on their own.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
	   A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a
	   timestamp.

	   This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
	   the terminal or a file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that
	   display logs will attach timestamps based on the entry metadata on
	   their own.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
	   A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and
	   line number in the source code where the message originates.

	   Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal
	   entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
	   nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
	   The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the
	   attached tty), console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with
	   prefixes encoding the log level and "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg
	   (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log to the
	   journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to
	   kmsg otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target
	   automatically, the default), null (disable log output).

       $SYSTEMD_PAGER, $PAGER
	   Pager to use when --no-pager is not given.  $SYSTEMD_PAGER is used
	   if set; otherwise $PAGER is used. If neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor
	   $PAGER are set, a set of well-known pager implementations is tried
	   in turn, including less(1) and more(1), until one is found. If no
	   pager implementation is discovered, no pager is invoked. Setting
	   those environment variables to an empty string or the value "cat"
	   is equivalent to passing --no-pager.

	   Note: if $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, $SYSTEMD_PAGER and $PAGER
	   can only be used to disable the pager (with "cat" or ""), and are
	   otherwise ignored.

       $SYSTEMD_LESS
	   Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").

	   Users might want to change two options in particular:

	   K
	       This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C
	       is pressed. To allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch
	       back to the pager command prompt, unset this option.

	       If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the
	       pager that is invoked is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the
	       executable, and needs to be handled by the pager.

	   X
	       This option instructs the pager to not send termcap
	       initialization and deinitialization strings to the terminal. It
	       is set by default to allow command output to remain visible in
	       the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless, this
	       prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular
	       paged output cannot be scrolled with the mouse.

	   Note that setting the regular $LESS environment variable has no
	   effect for less invocations by systemd tools.

	   See less(1) for more discussion.

       $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
	   Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the
	   invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).

	   Note that setting the regular $LESSCHARSET environment variable has
	   no effect for less invocations by systemd tools.

       $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
	   Common pager commands like less(1), in addition to "paging", i.e.
	   scrolling through the output, support opening of or writing to
	   other files and running arbitrary shell commands. When commands are
	   invoked with elevated privileges, for example under sudo(8) or
	   pkexec(1), the pager becomes a security boundary. Care must be
	   taken that only programs with strictly limited functionality are
	   used as pagers, and unintended interactive features like opening or
	   creation of new files or starting of subprocesses are not allowed.
	   "Secure mode" for the pager may be enabled as described below, if
	   the pager supports that (most pagers are not written in a way that
	   takes this into consideration). It is recommended to either
	   explicitly enable "secure mode" or to completely disable the pager
	   using --no-pager or PAGER=cat when allowing untrusted users to
	   execute commands with elevated privileges.

	   This option takes a boolean argument. When set to true, the "secure
	   mode" of the pager is enabled. In "secure mode", LESSSECURE=1 will
	   be set when invoking the pager, which instructs the pager to
	   disable commands that open or create new files or start new
	   subprocesses. Currently only less(1) is known to understand this
	   variable and implement "secure mode".

	   When set to false, no limitation is placed on the pager. Setting
	   SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited
	   environment may allow the user to invoke arbitrary commands.

	   When $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, systemd tools attempt to
	   automatically figure out if "secure mode" should be enabled and
	   whether the pager supports it. "Secure mode" is enabled if the
	   effective UID is not the same as the owner of the login session,
	   see geteuid(2) and sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3), or when running under
	   sudo(8) or similar tools ($SUDO_UID is set [2]). In those cases,
	   SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=1 will be set and pagers which are not known to
	   implement "secure mode" will not be used at all. Note that this
	   autodetection only covers the most common mechanisms to elevate
	   privileges and is intended as convenience. It is recommended to
	   explicitly set $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE or disable the pager.

	   Note that if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be
	   honoured, other than to disable the pager, $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
	   must be set too.

       $SYSTEMD_COLORS
	   Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities
	   will use colors in their output, otherwise the output will be
	   monochrome. Additionally, the variable can take one of the
	   following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors
	   to the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be
	   specified to override the automatic decision based on $TERM and
	   what the console is connected to.

       $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
	   The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links
	   should be generated in the output for terminal emulators supporting
	   this. This can be specified to override the decision that systemd
	   makes based on $TERM and other conditions.

UNPRIVILEGED --CLEANUP OPERATION
       systemd-tmpfiles tries to avoid changing the access and modification
       times on the directories it accesses, which requires CAP_FOWNER
       privileges. When running as non-root, directories which are checked for
       files to clean up will have their access time bumped, which might
       prevent their cleanup.

EXIT STATUS
       On success, 0 is returned. If the configuration was syntactically
       invalid (syntax errors, missing arguments, ...), so some lines had to
       be ignored, but no other errors occurred, 65 is returned (EX_DATAERR
       from /usr/include/sysexits.h). If the configuration was syntactically
       valid, but could not be executed (lack of permissions, creation of
       files in missing directories, invalid contents when writing to /sys/
       values, ...), 73 is returned (EX_CANTCREAT from
       /usr/include/sysexits.h). Otherwise, 1 is returned (EXIT_FAILURE from
       /usr/include/stdlib.h).

       Note: when creating items, if the target already exists, but is of the
       wrong type or otherwise does not match the requested state, and forced
       operation has not been requested with "+", a message is emitted, but
       the failure is otherwise ignored.

SEE ALSO
       systemd(1), tmpfiles.d(5)

NOTES
	1. Discoverable Partitions Specification
	   https://uapi-
	   group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification

	2. It is recommended for other tools to set and check $SUDO_UID as
	   appropriate, treating it is a common interface.


systemd 258						   SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)