3 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN" "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
5 This file is part of systemd.
7 Copyright 2010 Brandon Philips
9 systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
10 under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
11 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
12 (at your option) any later version.
14 systemd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
15 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
16 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
17 Lesser General Public License for more details.
19 You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
20 along with systemd; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
22 <refentry id="tmpfiles.d">
25 <title>tmpfiles.d</title>
26 <productname>systemd</productname>
30 <contrib>Documentation</contrib>
31 <firstname>Brandon</firstname>
32 <surname>Philips</surname>
33 <email>brandon@ifup.org</email>
39 <refentrytitle>tmpfiles.d</refentrytitle>
40 <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
44 <refname>tmpfiles.d</refname>
45 <refpurpose>Configuration for creation, deletion and
46 cleaning of volatile and temporary files</refpurpose>
50 <para><filename>/etc/tmpfiles.d/*.conf</filename></para>
51 <para><filename>/run/tmpfiles.d/*.conf</filename></para>
52 <para><filename>/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/*.conf</filename></para>
56 <title>Description</title>
58 <para><command>systemd-tmpfiles</command> uses the
59 configuration files from the above directories to describe the
60 creation, cleaning and removal of volatile and
61 temporary files and directories which usually reside
62 in directories such as <filename>/run</filename>
63 or <filename>/tmp</filename>.</para>
65 <para>Volatile and temporary files and directories are
66 those located in <filename>/run</filename> (and its
67 alias <filename>/var/run</filename>),
68 <filename>/tmp</filename>,
69 <filename>/var/tmp</filename>, the API file systems
70 such as <filename>/sys</filename> or
71 <filename>/proc</filename>, as well as some other
72 directories below <filename>/var</filename>.</para>
74 <para>System daemons frequently require private
75 runtime directories below <filename>/run</filename> to
76 place communication sockets and similar in. For these,
77 consider declaring them in their unit files using
78 <varname>RuntimeDirectory=</varname>
79 (see <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details),
80 if this is feasible.</para>
84 <title>Configuration Format</title>
86 <para>Each configuration file shall be named in the
88 <filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>.conf</filename>
90 <filename><replaceable>package</replaceable>-<replaceable>part</replaceable>.conf</filename>.
91 The second variant should be used when it is desirable
92 to make it easy to override just this part of
95 <para>Files in <filename>/etc/tmpfiles.d</filename>
96 override files with the same name in
97 <filename>/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d</filename> and
98 <filename>/run/tmpfiles.d</filename>. Files in
99 <filename>/run/tmpfiles.d</filename> override files
100 with the same name in
101 <filename>/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d</filename>. Packages
102 should install their configuration files in
103 <filename>/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d</filename>. Files in
104 <filename>/etc/tmpfiles.d</filename> are reserved for
105 the local administrator, who may use this logic to
106 override the configuration files installed by vendor
107 packages. All configuration files are sorted by their
108 filename in lexicographic order, regardless of which
109 of the directories they reside in. If multiple files
110 specify the same path, the entry in the file with the
111 lexicographically earliest name will be applied, all
112 all other conflicting entries will be logged as
113 errors. When two lines are prefix and suffix of each
114 other, then the prefix is always processed first, the
115 suffix later. Otherwise the files/directories are
116 processed in the order they are listed.</para>
118 <para>If the administrator wants to disable a
119 configuration file supplied by the vendor, the
120 recommended way is to place a symlink to
121 <filename>/dev/null</filename> in
122 <filename>/etc/tmpfiles.d/</filename> bearing the
123 same filename.</para>
125 <para>The configuration format is one line per path
126 containing type, path, mode, ownership, age, and argument
129 <programlisting>#Type Path Mode UID GID Age Argument
130 d /run/user 0755 root root 10d -
131 L /tmp/foobar - - - - /dev/null</programlisting>
136 <para>The type consists of a single letter and
137 optionally an exclamation mark.</para>
139 <para>The following line types are understood:</para>
143 <term><varname>f</varname></term>
144 <listitem><para>Create a file if it does not exist yet. If the argument parameter is given, it will be written to the file.</para></listitem>
148 <term><varname>F</varname></term>
149 <listitem><para>Create or truncate a file. If the argument parameter is given, it will be written to the file.</para></listitem>
153 <term><varname>w</varname></term>
154 <listitem><para>Write the argument parameter to a file, if the file exists.
155 Lines of this type accept shell-style globs in place of normal path
156 names. The argument parameter will be written without a trailing
157 newline. C-style backslash escapes are interpreted.</para></listitem>
161 <term><varname>d</varname></term>
162 <listitem><para>Create a directory if it does not exist yet.</para></listitem>
166 <term><varname>D</varname></term>
167 <listitem><para>Create or empty a directory.</para></listitem>
171 <term><varname>p</varname></term>
172 <term><varname>p+</varname></term>
173 <listitem><para>Create a named
174 pipe (FIFO) if it does not
175 exist yet. If suffixed with
176 <varname>+</varname> and a
177 file already exists where the
178 pipe is to be created it will
179 be removed and be replaced by
180 the pipe.</para></listitem>
184 <term><varname>L</varname></term>
185 <term><varname>L+</varname></term>
186 <listitem><para>Create a
187 symlink if it does not exist
188 yet. If suffixed with
189 <varname>+</varname> and a
190 file already exists where the
191 symlink is to be created it
192 will be removed and be
194 symlink.</para></listitem>
198 <term><varname>c</varname></term>
199 <term><varname>c+</varname></term>
200 <listitem><para>Create a
201 character device node if it
202 does not exist yet. If
204 <varname>+</varname> and a
205 file already exists where the
206 device node is to be created
207 it will be removed and be
208 replaced by the device
209 node.</para></listitem>
213 <term><varname>b</varname></term>
214 <term><varname>b+</varname></term>
215 <listitem><para>Create a block
216 device node if it does not
217 exist yet. If suffixed with
218 <varname>+</varname> and a
219 file already exists where the
220 device node is to be created
221 it will be removed and be
222 replaced by the device
223 node.</para></listitem>
227 <term><varname>C</varname></term>
228 <listitem><para>Recursively copy a file or directory, if the destination files or directories don't exist yet.</para></listitem>
232 <term><varname>x</varname></term>
233 <listitem><para>Ignore a path
234 during cleaning. Use this type
235 to exclude paths from clean-up
236 as controlled with the Age
237 parameter. Note that lines of
238 this type do not influence the
239 effect of <varname>r</varname>
240 or <varname>R</varname> lines.
241 Lines of this type accept
242 shell-style globs in place of
248 <term><varname>X</varname></term>
249 <listitem><para>Ignore a path
250 during cleaning. Use this type
251 to exclude paths from clean-up
252 as controlled with the Age
254 <varname>x</varname>, this
255 parameter will not exclude the
257 directory, but only directory
258 itself. Note that lines of
259 this type do not influence the
260 effect of <varname>r</varname>
261 or <varname>R</varname> lines.
262 Lines of this type accept
263 shell-style globs in place of
269 <term><varname>r</varname></term>
270 <listitem><para>Remove a file
271 or directory if it exists.
272 This may not be used to remove
273 non-empty directories, use
274 <varname>R</varname> for that.
275 Lines of this type accept
276 shell-style globs in place of
278 names.</para></listitem>
282 <term><varname>R</varname></term>
283 <listitem><para>Recursively
284 remove a path and all its
285 subdirectories (if it is a
286 directory). Lines of this type
287 accept shell-style globs in
289 names.</para></listitem>
293 <term><varname>z</varname></term>
294 <listitem><para>Adjust the
295 access mode, group and user,
296 and restore the SELinux security
297 context of a file or directory,
298 if it exists. Lines of this
299 type accept shell-style globs
300 in place of normal path names.
305 <term><varname>Z</varname></term>
306 <listitem><para>Recursively
307 set the access mode, group and
308 user, and restore the SELinux
309 security context of a file or
310 directory if it exists, as
311 well as of its subdirectories
312 and the files contained
313 therein (if applicable). Lines
315 shell-style globs in place of
317 names.</para></listitem>
321 <para>If the exclamation mark is used, this
322 line is only safe of execute during boot, and
323 can break a running system. Lines without the
324 exclamation mark are presumed to be safe to
325 execute at any time, e.g. on package upgrades.
326 <command>systemd-tmpfiles</command> will
327 execute line with an exclamation mark only if
328 option <option>--boot</option> is given.
332 <programlisting># Make sure these are created by default so that nobody else can
333 d /tmp/.X11-unix 1777 root root 10d
335 # Unlink the X11 lock files
336 r! /tmp/.X[0-9]*-lock</programlisting>
337 The second line in contrast to the first one
338 would break a running system, and will only be
339 executed with <option>--boot</option>.</para>
345 <para>The file system path specification supports simple specifier
346 expansion. The following expansions are
350 <title>Specifiers available</title>
351 <tgroup cols='3' align='left' colsep='1' rowsep='1'>
352 <colspec colname="spec" />
353 <colspec colname="mean" />
354 <colspec colname="detail" />
357 <entry>Specifier</entry>
358 <entry>Meaning</entry>
359 <entry>Details</entry>
364 <entry><literal>%m</literal></entry>
365 <entry>Machine ID</entry>
366 <entry>The machine ID of the running system, formatted as string. See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for more information.</entry>
369 <entry><literal>%b</literal></entry>
370 <entry>Boot ID</entry>
371 <entry>The boot ID of the running system, formatted as string. See <citerefentry><refentrytitle>random</refentrytitle><manvolnum>4</manvolnum></citerefentry> for more information.</entry>
374 <entry><literal>%H</literal></entry>
375 <entry>Host name</entry>
376 <entry>The hostname of the running system.</entry>
379 <entry><literal>%v</literal></entry>
380 <entry>Kernel release</entry>
381 <entry>Identical to <command>uname -r</command> output.</entry>
384 <entry><literal>%%</literal></entry>
385 <entry>Escaped %</entry>
386 <entry>Single percent sign.</entry>
396 <para>The file access mode to use when
397 creating this file or directory. If omitted or
398 when set to -, the default is used: 0755 for
399 directories, 0644 for all other file objects.
400 For <varname>z</varname>, <varname>Z</varname>
401 lines, if omitted or when set to
402 <literal>-</literal>, the file access mode
403 will not be modified. This parameter is
404 ignored for <varname>x</varname>,
405 <varname>r</varname>, <varname>R</varname>,
406 <varname>L</varname> lines.</para>
408 <para>Optionally, if prefixed with
409 <literal>~</literal> the access mode is masked
410 based on the already set access bits for
411 existing file or directories: if the existing
412 file has all executable bits unset then all
413 executable bits are removed from the new
414 access mode, too. Similar, if all read bits
415 are removed from the old access mode they will
416 be removed from the new access mode too, and
417 if all write bits are removed, they will be
418 removed from the new access mode too. In
419 addition the sticky/suid/gid bit is removed unless
420 applied to a directory. This
421 functionality is particularly useful in
422 conjunction with <varname>Z</varname>.</para>
426 <title>UID, GID</title>
428 <para>The user and group to use for this file
429 or directory. This may either be a numeric
430 user/group ID or a user or group name. If
431 omitted or when set to <literal>-</literal>,
432 the default 0 (root) is used. For
433 <varname>z</varname>, <varname>Z</varname>
434 lines, when omitted or when set to -, the file
435 ownership will not be modified. These
436 parameters are ignored for
437 <varname>x</varname>, <varname>r</varname>,
438 <varname>R</varname>, <varname>L</varname>
444 <para>The date field, when set, is used to
445 decide what files to delete when cleaning. If
446 a file or directory is older than the current
447 time minus the age field, it is deleted. The
448 field format is a series of integers each
449 followed by one of the following
450 postfixes for the respective time units:</para>
454 <term><varname>s</varname></term>
455 <term><varname>min</varname></term>
456 <term><varname>h</varname></term>
457 <term><varname>d</varname></term>
458 <term><varname>w</varname></term>
459 <term><varname>ms</varname></term>
460 <term><varname>m</varname></term>
461 <term><varname>us</varname></term></varlistentry>
464 <para>If multiple integers and units are specified, the time
465 values are summed up. If an integer is given without a unit,
469 <para>When the age is set to zero, the files are cleaned
470 unconditionally.</para>
472 <para>The age field only applies to lines
473 starting with <varname>d</varname>,
474 <varname>D</varname>, and
475 <varname>x</varname>. If omitted or set to
476 <literal>-</literal>, no automatic clean-up is
479 <para>If the age field starts with a tilde
480 character <literal>~</literal>, the clean-up
481 is only applied to files and directories one
482 level inside the directory specified, but not
483 the files and directories immediately inside
488 <title>Argument</title>
490 <para>For <varname>L</varname> lines
491 determines the destination path of the
492 symlink. For <varname>c</varname>,
493 <varname>b</varname> determines the
494 major/minor of the device node, with major and
495 minor formatted as integers, separated by
496 <literal>:</literal>, e.g.
497 <literal>1:3</literal>. For
498 <varname>f</varname>, <varname>F</varname>,
499 and <varname>w</varname> may be used to
500 specify a short string that is written to the
501 file, suffixed by a newline. For
502 <varname>C</varname> specifies the source file
503 or directory. Ignored for all other
510 <title>Example</title>
512 <title>/etc/tmpfiles.d/screen.conf example</title>
513 <para><command>screen</command> needs two directories created at boot with specific modes and ownership.</para>
515 <programlisting>d /run/screens 1777 root root 10d
516 d /run/uscreens 0755 root root 10d12h</programlisting>
519 <title>/etc/tmpfiles.d/abrt.conf example</title>
520 <para><command>abrt</command> needs a directory created at boot with specific mode and ownership and its content should be preserved.</para>
522 <programlisting>d /var/tmp/abrt 0755 abrt abrt
523 x /var/tmp/abrt/*</programlisting>
528 <title>See Also</title>
530 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
531 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-tmpfiles</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
532 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-delta</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
533 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>