systemd-tmpfiles

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)