1SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8) systemd-tmpfiles SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)
2
6 systemd-tmpfiles, systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, systemd-tmpfiles-
7 setup-dev.service, systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service, systemd-tmpfiles-
8 clean.timer - Creates, deletes and cleans up volatile and temporary
9 files and directories
10
12 systemd-tmpfiles [OPTIONS...] [CONFIGFILE...]
13 System units:
15 systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
17 systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
18 systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
19 systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
20 User units:
22 systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
24 systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
25 systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
26
28 systemd-tmpfiles creates, deletes, and cleans up volatile and temporary
29 files and directories, based on the configuration file format and
30 location specified in tmpfiles.d(5).
31 If invoked with no arguments, it applies all directives from all
33 configuration files. When invoked with --replace=PATH, arguments
34 specified on the command line are used instead of the configuration
35 file PATH. Otherwise, if one or more absolute filenames are passed on
36 the command line, only the directives in these files are applied. If
37 "-" is specified instead of a filename, directives are read from
38 standard input. If only the basename of a configuration file is
39 specified, all configuration directories as specified in tmpfiles.d(5)
40 are searched for a matching file and the file found that has the
41 highest priority is executed.
42
44 The following options are understood:
45 --create
47 If this option is passed, all files and directories marked with f,
48 F, w, d, D, v, p, L, c, b, m in the configuration files are created
49 or written to. Files and directories marked with z, Z, t, T, a, and
50 A have their ownership, access mode and security labels set.
51 --clean
53 If this option is passed, all files and directories with an age
54 parameter configured will be cleaned up.
55 --remove
57 If this option is passed, the contents of directories marked with D
58 or R, and files or directories themselves marked with r or R are
59 removed.
60 --user
62 Execute "user" configuration, i.e. tmpfiles.d files in user
63 configuration directories.
64 --boot
66 Also execute lines with an exclamation mark.
67 --prefix=path
69 Only apply rules with paths that start with the specified prefix.
70 This option can be specified multiple times.
71 --exclude-prefix=path
73 Ignore rules with paths that start with the specified prefix. This
74 option can be specified multiple times.
75 --root=root
77 Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed
78 with the given alternate root path, including config search paths.
79 Note that this option does not alter how the users and groups
81 specified in the configuration files are resolved. With or without
82 this option, users and groups are always resolved according to the
83 host's user and group databases, any such databases stored under
84 the specified root directories are not consulted.
85 --replace=PATH
87 When this option is given, one ore more positional arguments must
88 be specified. All configuration files found in the directories
89 listed in tmpfiles.d(5) will be read, and the configuration given
90 on the command line will be handled instead of and with the same
91 priority as the configuration file PATH.
92 This option is intended to be used when package installation
94 scripts are running and files belonging to that package are not yet
95 available on disk, so their contents must be given on the command
96 line, but the admin configuration might already exist and should be
97 given higher priority.
98 --cat-config
100 Copy the contents of config files to standard output. Before each
101 file, the filename is printed as a comment.
102 --no-pager
104 Do not pipe output into a pager.
105 -h, --help
107 Print a short help text and exit.
108 --version
110 Print a short version string and exit.
111 It is possible to combine --create, --clean, and --remove in one
113 invocation (in which case removal and clean-up are executed before
114 creation of new files). For example, during boot the following command
115 line is executed to ensure that all temporary and volatile directories
116 are removed and created according to the configuration file:
117 systemd-tmpfiles --remove --create
119
121 systemd-tmpfiles tries to avoid changing the access and modification
122 times on the directories it accesses, which requires CAP_FOWNER
123 privileges. When running as non-root, directories which are checked for
124 files to clean up will have their access time bumped, which might
125 prevent their cleanup.
126
128 On success, 0 is returned. If the configuration was syntactically
129 invalid (syntax errors, missing arguments, ...), so some lines had to
130 be ignored, but no other errors occurred, 65 is returned (EX_DATAERR
131 from /usr/include/sysexits.h). If the configuration was syntactically
132 valid, but could not be executed (lack of permissions, creation of
133 files in missing directories, invalid contents when writing to /sys/
134 values, ...), 73 is returned (EX_CANTCREAT from
135 /usr/include/sysexits.h). Otherwise, 1 is returned (EXIT_FAILURE from
136 /usr/include/stdlib.h).
137
139 systemd(1), tmpfiles.d(5)
140systemd 241 SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)