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.
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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>
67 <title>Configuration Format</title>
69 <para>Each configuration file shall be named in the
70 style of <filename><program>.conf</filename>.
71 Files in <filename>/etc/</filename> override files
72 with the same name in <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>
73 and <filename>/run/</filename>. Files in
74 <filename>/run/</filename> override files with the same
75 name in <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>. Packages
76 should install their configuration files in
77 <filename>/usr/lib/</filename>. Files in
78 <filename>/etc/</filename> are reserved for the local
79 administrator, who may use this logic to override the
80 configuration files installed by vendor packages. All
81 configuration files are sorted by their filename in
82 lexicographic order, regardless in which of the
83 directories they reside. If multiple files specify the
84 same path, the entry in the file with the lexicographically
85 earliest name will be applied, all all other conflicting
86 entries logged as errors.</para>
88 <para>If the administrator wants to disable a
89 configuration file supplied by the vendor, the
90 recommended way is to place a symlink to
91 <filename>/dev/null</filename> in
92 <filename>/etc/tmpfiles.d/</filename> bearing the
95 <para>The configuration format is one line per path
96 containing action, path, mode, ownership, age and argument
99 <programlisting>Type Path Mode UID GID Age Argument
100 d /run/user 0755 root root 10d -
101 L /tmp/foobar - - - - /dev/null</programlisting>
107 <term><varname>f</varname></term>
108 <listitem><para>Create a file if it does not exist yet (optionally writing a short string into it, if the argument parameter is passed)</para></listitem>
112 <term><varname>F</varname></term>
113 <listitem><para>Create or truncate a file (optionally writing a short string into it, if the argument parameter is passed)</para></listitem>
117 <term><varname>w</varname></term>
118 <listitem><para>Write the argument parameter to a file, if the file exists.
119 Lines of this type accept shell-style globs in place of normal path
120 names. The argument parameter will be written without a trailing
121 newline. C-style backslash escapes are interpreted.</para></listitem>
125 <term><varname>d</varname></term>
126 <listitem><para>Create a directory if it does not exist yet</para></listitem>
130 <term><varname>D</varname></term>
131 <listitem><para>Create or empty a directory</para></listitem>
135 <term><varname>p</varname></term>
136 <listitem><para>Create a named pipe (FIFO) if it does not exist yet</para></listitem>
140 <term><varname>L</varname></term>
141 <listitem><para>Create a symlink if it does not exist yet</para></listitem>
145 <term><varname>c</varname></term>
146 <listitem><para>Create a character device node if it does not exist yet</para></listitem>
150 <term><varname>b</varname></term>
151 <listitem><para>Create a block device node if it does not exist yet</para></listitem>
155 <term><varname>x</varname></term>
156 <listitem><para>Ignore a path
157 during cleaning. Use this type
158 to exclude paths from clean-up
159 as controlled with the Age
160 parameter. Note that lines of
161 this type do not influence the
162 effect of r or R lines. Lines
164 shell-style globs in place of
166 names.</para></listitem>
170 <term><varname>X</varname></term>
171 <listitem><para>Ignore a path
172 during cleanup. Use this type
173 to prevent path removal as
174 controlled with the Age parameter.
175 Note that if path is a directory,
176 content of a directory is not
177 excluded from clean-up, only
178 directory itself. Lines of this
179 type accept shell-style globs
180 in place of normal path
181 names.</para></listitem>
185 <term><varname>r</varname></term>
186 <listitem><para>Remove a file
188 exists. This may not be used
190 directories, use R for
191 that. Lines of this type
192 accept shell-style globs in
194 names.</para></listitem>
198 <term><varname>R</varname></term>
199 <listitem><para>Recursively
200 remove a path and all its
201 subdirectories (if it is a
202 directory). Lines of this type
203 accept shell-style globs in
205 names.</para></listitem>
209 <term><varname>z</varname></term>
210 <listitem><para>Restore
211 SELinux security context label
212 and set ownership and access
213 mode of a file or directory if
214 it exists. Lines of this type
215 accept shell-style globs in
216 place of normal path names.
221 <term><varname>Z</varname></term>
222 <listitem><para>Recursively
223 restore SELinux security
224 context label and set
225 ownership and access mode of a
227 subdirectories (if it is a
228 directory). Lines of this type
229 accept shell-style globs in
231 names.</para></listitem>
239 <para>The file access mode to use when
240 creating this file or directory. If omitted or
241 when set to -, the default is used: 0755 for
242 directories, 0644 for all other file
243 objects. For z, Z lines, if omitted or when set
244 to -, the file access mode will not be
245 modified. This parameter is ignored for x, r,
250 <title>UID, GID</title>
252 <para>The user and group to use for this file
253 or directory. This may either be a numeric
254 user/group ID or a user or group name. If
255 omitted or when set to -, the default 0 (root)
256 is used. For z, Z lines, when omitted or when set to -,
257 the file ownership will not be modified.
258 These parameters are ignored for x, r, R, L lines.</para>
263 <para>The date field, when set, is used to
264 decide what files to delete when cleaning. If
265 a file or directory is older than the current
266 time minus the age field, it is deleted. The
267 field format is a series of integers each
268 followed by one of the following
269 postfixes for the respective time units:</para>
273 <term><varname>s</varname></term>
274 <term><varname>min</varname></term>
275 <term><varname>h</varname></term>
276 <term><varname>d</varname></term>
277 <term><varname>w</varname></term>
278 <term><varname>ms</varname></term>
279 <term><varname>m</varname></term>
280 <term><varname>us</varname></term></varlistentry>
283 <para>If multiple integers and units are specified, the time
284 values are summed up. If an integer is given without a unit,
288 <para>When the age is set to zero, the files are cleaned
289 unconditionally.</para>
291 <para>The age field only applies to lines starting with
292 d, D and x. If omitted or set to -, no automatic clean-up
295 <para>If the age field starts with a tilde
296 character (~), the clean-up is only applied to
297 files and directories one level inside the
298 directory specified, but not the files and
299 directories immediately inside it.</para>
303 <title>Argument</title>
305 <para>For L lines determines the destination
306 path of the symlink. For c, b determines the
307 major/minor of the device node, with major and
308 minor formatted as integers, separated by :,
309 e.g. "1:3". For f, F, w may be used to specify
310 a short string that is written to the file,
311 suffixed by a newline. Ignored for all other
318 <title>Example</title>
320 <title>/etc/tmpfiles.d/screen.conf example</title>
321 <para><command>screen</command> needs two directories created at boot with specific modes and ownership.</para>
323 <programlisting>d /var/run/screens 1777 root root 10d
324 d /var/run/uscreens 0755 root root 10d12h</programlisting>
327 <title>/etc/tmpfiles.d/abrt.conf example</title>
328 <para><command>abrt</command> needs a directory created at boot with specific mode and ownership and its content should be preserved.</para>
330 <programlisting>d /var/tmp/abrt 0755 abrt abrt
331 x /var/tmp/abrt/*</programlisting>
336 <title>See Also</title>
338 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
339 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-tmpfiles</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
340 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-delta</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>