SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8) systemd-tmpfiles SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)
NAME
systemd-tmpfiles, systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, systemd-tmpfiles-
setup-dev.service, systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service, systemd-tmpfiles-
clean.timer - Creates, deletes and cleans up volatile and temporary
files and directories
SYNOPSIS
systemd-tmpfiles [OPTIONS...] [CONFIGFILE...]
System units:
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.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 volatile and temporary
files and directories, based on the configuration file format and
location specified in tmpfiles.d(5).
If invoked with no arguments, it applies all directives from all
configuration files. When invoked with --replace=PATH, arguments
specified on the command line are used instead of the configuration
file PATH. Otherwise, if one or more absolute filenames are passed on
the command line, only the directives in these files are applied. If
"-" 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 tmpfiles.d(5)
are searched for a matching file and the file found that has the
highest priority is executed.
System services (systemd-tmpfiles-setup.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-controller 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.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--create
If this option 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 option is passed, all files and directories with an age
parameter configured will be cleaned up.
--remove
If this option is passed, the contents of directories marked with D
or R, and files or directories themselves marked with r or R are
removed.
--user
Execute "user" configuration, i.e. tmpfiles.d files in user
configuration directories.
--boot
Also execute lines with an exclamation mark.
--prefix=path
Only apply rules with paths that start with the specified prefix.
This option can be specified multiple times.
--exclude-prefix=path
Ignore rules with paths that start with the specified prefix. This
option can be specified multiple times.
--root=root
Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed
with the given alternate root path, including config search paths.
Note that this option does not alter how the users and groups
specified in the configuration files are resolved. With or without
this option, users and groups are always resolved according to the
host's user and group databases, any such databases stored under
the specified root directories are not consulted.
--replace=PATH
When this option is given, one ore 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.
--cat-config
Copy the contents of config files to standard output. 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
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).
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), tmpfiles.d(5)
systemd 245 SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)