1MACHINECTL(1) machinectl MACHINECTL(1)
2
6 machinectl - Control the systemd machine manager
7
9 machinectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND} [NAME...]
10
12 machinectl may be used to introspect and control the state of the
13 systemd(1) virtual machine and container registration manager systemd-
14 machined.service(8).
15 machinectl may be used to execute operations on machines and images.
17 Machines in this sense are considered running instances of:
18 • Virtual Machines (VMs) that virtualize hardware to run full
20 operating system (OS) instances (including their kernels) in a
21 virtualized environment on top of the host OS.
22 • Containers that share the hardware and OS kernel with the host OS,
24 in order to run OS userspace instances on top the host OS.
25 • The host system itself.
27 Machines are identified by names that follow the same rules as UNIX and
29 DNS hostnames. For details, see below.
30 Machines are instantiated from disk or file system images that
32 frequently — but not necessarily — carry the same name as machines
33 running from them. Images in this sense may be:
34 • Directory trees containing an OS, including the top-level
36 directories /usr/, /etc/, and so on.
37 • btrfs subvolumes containing OS trees, similar to regular directory
39 trees.
40 • Binary "raw" disk image files containing MBR or GPT partition
42 tables and Linux file systems.
43 • Similarly, block devices containing MBR or GPT partition tables and
45 file systems.
46 • The file system tree of the host OS itself.
48
50 The following commands are understood:
51 Machine Commands
53 list
54 List currently running (online) virtual machines and containers. To
55 enumerate machine images that can be started, use list-images (see
56 below). Note that this command hides the special ".host" machine by
57 default. Use the --all switch to show it.
58 status NAME...
60 Show runtime status information about one or more virtual machines
61 and containers, followed by the most recent log data from the
62 journal. This function is intended to generate human-readable
63 output. If you are looking for computer-parsable output, use show
64 instead. Note that the log data shown is reported by the virtual
65 machine or container manager, and frequently contains console
66 output of the machine, but not necessarily journal contents of the
67 machine itself.
68 show [NAME...]
70 Show properties of one or more registered virtual machines or
71 containers or the manager itself. If no argument is specified,
72 properties of the manager will be shown. If a NAME is specified,
73 properties of this virtual machine or container are shown. By
74 default, empty properties are suppressed. Use --all to show those
75 too. To select specific properties to show, use --property=. This
76 command is intended to be used whenever computer-parsable output is
77 required, and does not print the control group tree or journal
78 entries. Use status if you are looking for formatted human-readable
79 output.
80 start NAME...
82 Start a container as a system service, using systemd-nspawn(1).
83 This starts systemd-nspawn@.service, instantiated for the specified
84 machine name, similar to the effect of systemctl start on the
85 service name. systemd-nspawn looks for a container image by the
86 specified name in /var/lib/machines/ (and other search paths, see
87 below) and runs it. Use list-images (see below) for listing
88 available container images to start.
89 Note that systemd-machined.service(8) also interfaces with a
91 variety of other container and VM managers, systemd-nspawn is just
92 one implementation of it. Most of the commands available in
93 machinectl may be used on containers or VMs controlled by other
94 managers, not just systemd-nspawn. Starting VMs and container
95 images on those managers requires manager-specific tools.
96 To interactively start a container on the command line with full
98 access to the container's console, please invoke systemd-nspawn
99 directly. To stop a running container use machinectl poweroff.
100 login [NAME]
102 Open an interactive terminal login session in a container or on the
103 local host. If an argument is supplied, it refers to the container
104 machine to connect to. If none is specified, or the container name
105 is specified as the empty string, or the special machine name
106 ".host" (see below) is specified, the connection is made to the
107 local host instead. This will create a TTY connection to a specific
108 container or the local host and asks for the execution of a getty
109 on it. Note that this is only supported for containers running
110 systemd(1) as init system.
111 This command will open a full login prompt on the container or the
113 local host, which then asks for username and password. Use shell
114 (see below) or systemd-run(1) with the --machine= switch to
115 directly invoke a single command, either interactively or in the
116 background.
117 shell [[NAME@]NAME [PATH [ARGUMENTS...]]]
119 Open an interactive shell session in a container or on the local
120 host. The first argument refers to the container machine to connect
121 to. If none is specified, or the machine name is specified as the
122 empty string, or the special machine name ".host" (see below) is
123 specified, the connection is made to the local host instead. This
124 works similar to login but immediately invokes a user process. This
125 command runs the specified executable with the specified arguments,
126 or the default shell for the user if none is specified, or /bin/sh
127 if no default shell is found. By default, --uid=, or by prefixing
128 the machine name with a username and an "@" character, a different
129 user may be selected. Use --setenv= to set environment variables
130 for the executed process.
131 Note that machinectl shell does not propagate the exit code/status
133 of the invoked shell process. Use systemd-run instead if that
134 information is required (see below).
135 When using the shell command without arguments, (thus invoking the
137 executed shell or command on the local host), it is in many ways
138 similar to a su(1) session, but, unlike su, completely isolates the
139 new session from the originating session, so that it shares no
140 process or session properties, and is in a clean and well-defined
141 state. It will be tracked in a new utmp, login, audit, security and
142 keyring session, and will not inherit any environment variables or
143 resource limits, among other properties.
144 Note that systemd-run(1) with its --machine= switch may be used in
146 place of the machinectl shell command, and allows non-interactive
147 operation, more detailed and low-level configuration of the invoked
148 unit, as well as access to runtime and exit code/status information
149 of the invoked shell process. In particular, use systemd-run's
150 --wait switch to propagate exit status information of the invoked
151 process. Use systemd-run's --pty switch for acquiring an
152 interactive shell, similar to machinectl shell. In general,
153 systemd-run is preferable for scripting purposes. However, note
154 that systemd-run might require higher privileges than machinectl
155 shell.
156 enable NAME..., disable NAME...
158 Enable or disable a container as a system service to start at
159 system boot, using systemd-nspawn(1). This enables or disables
160 systemd-nspawn@.service, instantiated for the specified machine
161 name, similar to the effect of systemctl enable or systemctl
162 disable on the service name.
163 poweroff NAME...
165 Power off one or more containers. This will trigger a reboot by
166 sending SIGRTMIN+4 to the container's init process, which causes
167 systemd-compatible init systems to shut down cleanly. Use stop as
168 alias for poweroff. This operation does not work on containers that
169 do not run a systemd(1)-compatible init system, such as sysvinit.
170 Use terminate (see below) to immediately terminate a container or
171 VM, without cleanly shutting it down.
172 reboot NAME...
174 Reboot one or more containers. This will trigger a reboot by
175 sending SIGINT to the container's init process, which is roughly
176 equivalent to pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on a non-containerized system,
177 and is compatible with containers running any system manager.
178 terminate NAME...
180 Immediately terminates a virtual machine or container, without
181 cleanly shutting it down. This kills all processes of the virtual
182 machine or container and deallocates all resources attached to that
183 instance. Use poweroff to issue a clean shutdown request.
184 kill NAME...
186 Send a signal to one or more processes of the virtual machine or
187 container. This means processes as seen by the host, not the
188 processes inside the virtual machine or container. Use --kill-who=
189 to select which process to kill. Use --signal= to select the signal
190 to send.
191 bind NAME PATH [PATH]
193 Bind mounts a file or directory from the host into the specified
194 container. The first path argument is the source file or directory
195 on the host, the second path argument is the destination file or
196 directory in the container. When the latter is omitted, the
197 destination path in the container is the same as the source path on
198 the host. When combined with the --read-only switch, a ready-only
199 bind mount is created. When combined with the --mkdir switch, the
200 destination path is first created before the mount is applied. Note
201 that this option is currently only supported for systemd-nspawn(1)
202 containers, and only if user namespacing (--private-users) is not
203 used. This command supports bind mounting directories, regular
204 files, device nodes, AF_UNIX socket nodes, as well as FIFOs.
205 copy-to NAME PATH [PATH]
207 Copies files or directories from the host system into a running
208 container. Takes a container name, followed by the source path on
209 the host and the destination path in the container. If the
210 destination path is omitted, the same as the source path is used.
211 If host and container share the same user and group namespace, file
213 ownership by numeric user ID and group ID is preserved for the
214 copy, otherwise all files and directories in the copy will be owned
215 by the root user and group (UID/GID 0).
216 copy-from NAME PATH [PATH]
218 Copies files or directories from a container into the host system.
219 Takes a container name, followed by the source path in the
220 container and the destination path on the host. If the destination
221 path is omitted, the same as the source path is used.
222 If host and container share the same user and group namespace, file
224 ownership by numeric user ID and group ID is preserved for the
225 copy, otherwise all files and directories in the copy will be owned
226 by the root user and group (UID/GID 0).
227 Image Commands
229 list-images
230 Show a list of locally installed container and VM images. This
231 enumerates all raw disk images and container directories and
232 subvolumes in /var/lib/machines/ (and other search paths, see
233 below). Use start (see above) to run a container off one of the
234 listed images. Note that, by default, containers whose name begins
235 with a dot (".") are not shown. To show these too, specify --all.
236 Note that a special image ".host" always implicitly exists and
237 refers to the image the host itself is booted from.
238 image-status [NAME...]
240 Show terse status information about one or more container or VM
241 images. This function is intended to generate human-readable
242 output. Use show-image (see below) to generate computer-parsable
243 output instead.
244 show-image [NAME...]
246 Show properties of one or more registered virtual machine or
247 container images, or the manager itself. If no argument is
248 specified, properties of the manager will be shown. If a NAME is
249 specified, properties of this virtual machine or container image
250 are shown. By default, empty properties are suppressed. Use --all
251 to show those too. To select specific properties to show, use
252 --property=. This command is intended to be used whenever
253 computer-parsable output is required. Use image-status if you are
254 looking for formatted human-readable output.
255 clone NAME NAME
257 Clones a container or VM image. The arguments specify the name of
258 the image to clone and the name of the newly cloned image. Note
259 that plain directory container images are cloned into btrfs
260 subvolume images with this command, if the underlying file system
261 supports this. Note that cloning a container or VM image is
262 optimized for file systems that support copy-on-write, and might
263 not be efficient on others, due to file system limitations.
264 Note that this command leaves hostname, machine ID and all other
266 settings that could identify the instance unmodified. The original
267 image and the cloned copy will hence share these credentials, and
268 it might be necessary to manually change them in the copy.
269 If combined with the --read-only switch a read-only cloned image is
271 created.
272 rename NAME NAME
274 Renames a container or VM image. The arguments specify the name of
275 the image to rename and the new name of the image.
276 read-only NAME [BOOL]
278 Marks or (unmarks) a container or VM image read-only. Takes a VM or
279 container image name, followed by a boolean as arguments. If the
280 boolean is omitted, positive is implied, i.e. the image is marked
281 read-only.
282 remove NAME...
284 Removes one or more container or VM images. The special image
285 ".host", which refers to the host's own directory tree, may not be
286 removed.
287 set-limit [NAME] BYTES
289 Sets the maximum size in bytes that a specific container or VM
290 image, or all images, may grow up to on disk (disk quota). Takes
291 either one or two parameters. The first, optional parameter refers
292 to a container or VM image name. If specified, the size limit of
293 the specified image is changed. If omitted, the overall size limit
294 of the sum of all images stored locally is changed. The final
295 argument specifies the size limit in bytes, possibly suffixed by
296 the usual K, M, G, T units. If the size limit shall be disabled,
297 specify "-" as size.
298 Note that per-container size limits are only supported on btrfs
300 file systems.
301 clean
303 Remove hidden VM or container images (or all). This command removes
304 all hidden machine images from /var/lib/machines/, i.e. those whose
305 name begins with a dot. Use machinectl list-images --all to see a
306 list of all machine images, including the hidden ones.
307 When combined with the --all switch removes all images, not just
309 hidden ones. This command effectively empties /var/lib/machines/.
310 Note that commands such as machinectl pull-tar or machinectl
312 pull-raw usually create hidden, read-only, unmodified machine
313 images from the downloaded image first, before cloning a writable
314 working copy of it, in order to avoid duplicate downloads in case
315 of images that are reused multiple times. Use machinectl clean to
316 remove old, hidden images created this way.
317 Image Transfer Commands
319 pull-tar URL [NAME]
320 Downloads a .tar container image from the specified URL, and makes
321 it available under the specified local machine name. The URL must
322 be of type "http://" or "https://", and must refer to a .tar,
323 .tar.gz, .tar.xz or .tar.bz2 archive file. If the local machine
324 name is omitted, it is automatically derived from the last
325 component of the URL, with its suffix removed.
326 The image is verified before it is made available, unless
328 --verify=no is specified. Verification is done either via an inline
329 signed file with the name of the image and the suffix .sha256 or
330 via separate SHA256SUMS and SHA256SUMS.gpg files. The signature
331 files need to be made available on the same web server, under the
332 same URL as the .tar file. With --verify=checksum, only the SHA256
333 checksum for the file is verified, based on the .sha256 suffixed
334 file or the SHA256SUMS file. With --verify=signature, the sha
335 checksum file is first verified with the inline signature in the
336 .sha256 file or the detached GPG signature file SHA256SUMS.gpg. The
337 public key for this verification step needs to be available in
338 /usr/lib/systemd/import-pubring.gpg or
339 /etc/systemd/import-pubring.gpg.
340 The container image will be downloaded and stored in a read-only
342 subvolume in /var/lib/machines/ that is named after the specified
343 URL and its HTTP etag. A writable snapshot is then taken from this
344 subvolume, and named after the specified local name. This behavior
345 ensures that creating multiple container instances of the same URL
346 is efficient, as multiple downloads are not necessary. In order to
347 create only the read-only image, and avoid creating its writable
348 snapshot, specify "-" as local machine name.
349 Note that the read-only subvolume is prefixed with .tar-, and is
351 thus not shown by list-images, unless --all is passed.
352 Note that pressing C-c during execution of this command will not
354 abort the download. Use cancel-transfer, described below.
355 pull-raw URL [NAME]
357 Downloads a .raw container or VM disk image from the specified URL,
358 and makes it available under the specified local machine name. The
359 URL must be of type "http://" or "https://". The container image
360 must either be a .qcow2 or raw disk image, optionally compressed as
361 .gz, .xz, or .bz2. If the local machine name is omitted, it is
362 automatically derived from the last component of the URL, with its
363 suffix removed.
364 Image verification is identical for raw and tar images (see above).
366 If the downloaded image is in .qcow2 format it is converted into a
368 raw image file before it is made available.
369 Downloaded images of this type will be placed as read-only .raw
371 file in /var/lib/machines/. A local, writable (reflinked) copy is
372 then made under the specified local machine name. To omit creation
373 of the local, writable copy pass "-" as local machine name.
374 Similar to the behavior of pull-tar, the read-only image is
376 prefixed with .raw-, and thus not shown by list-images, unless
377 --all is passed.
378 Note that pressing C-c during execution of this command will not
380 abort the download. Use cancel-transfer, described below.
381 import-tar FILE [NAME], import-raw FILE [NAME]
383 Imports a TAR or RAW container or VM image, and places it under the
384 specified name in /var/lib/machines/. When import-tar is used, the
385 file specified as the first argument should be a tar archive,
386 possibly compressed with xz, gzip or bzip2. It will then be
387 unpacked into its own subvolume in /var/lib/machines/. When
388 import-raw is used, the file should be a qcow2 or raw disk image,
389 possibly compressed with xz, gzip or bzip2. If the second argument
390 (the resulting image name) is not specified, it is automatically
391 derived from the file name. If the filename is passed as "-", the
392 image is read from standard input, in which case the second
393 argument is mandatory.
394 Optionally, the --read-only switch may be used to create a
396 read-only container or VM image. No cryptographic validation is
397 done when importing the images.
398 Much like image downloads, ongoing imports may be listed with
400 list-transfers and aborted with cancel-transfer.
401 import-fs DIRECTORY [NAME]
403 Imports a container image stored in a local directory into
404 /var/lib/machines/, operates similar to import-tar or import-raw,
405 but the first argument is the source directory. If supported, this
406 command will create btrfs snapshot or subvolume for the new image.
407 export-tar NAME [FILE], export-raw NAME [FILE]
409 Exports a TAR or RAW container or VM image and stores it in the
410 specified file. The first parameter should be a VM or container
411 image name. The second parameter should be a file path the TAR or
412 RAW image is written to. If the path ends in ".gz", the file is
413 compressed with gzip, if it ends in ".xz", with xz, and if it ends
414 in ".bz2", with bzip2. If the path ends in neither, the file is
415 left uncompressed. If the second argument is missing, the image is
416 written to standard output. The compression may also be explicitly
417 selected with the --format= switch. This is in particular useful if
418 the second parameter is left unspecified.
419 Much like image downloads and imports, ongoing exports may be
421 listed with list-transfers and aborted with cancel-transfer.
422 Note that, currently, only directory and subvolume images may be
424 exported as TAR images, and only raw disk images as RAW images.
425 list-transfers
427 Shows a list of container or VM image downloads, imports and
428 exports that are currently in progress.
429 cancel-transfer ID...
431 Aborts a download, import or export of the container or VM image
432 with the specified ID. To list ongoing transfers and their IDs, use
433 list-transfers.
434
436 The following options are understood:
437 -p, --property=
439 When showing machine or image properties, limit the output to
440 certain properties as specified by the argument. If not specified,
441 all set properties are shown. The argument should be a property
442 name, such as "Name". If specified more than once, all properties
443 with the specified names are shown.
444 -a, --all
446 When showing machine or image properties, show all properties
447 regardless of whether they are set or not.
448 When listing VM or container images, do not suppress images
450 beginning in a dot character (".").
451 When cleaning VM or container images, remove all images, not just
453 hidden ones.
454 --value
456 When printing properties with show, only print the value, and skip
457 the property name and "=".
458 -l, --full
460 Do not ellipsize process tree entries or table. This implies
461 --max-addresses=full.
462 --kill-who=
464 When used with kill, choose which processes to kill. Must be one of
465 leader, or all to select whether to kill only the leader process of
466 the machine or all processes of the machine. If omitted, defaults
467 to all.
468 -s, --signal=
470 When used with kill, choose which signal to send to selected
471 processes. Must be one of the well-known signal specifiers such as
472 SIGTERM, SIGINT or SIGSTOP. If omitted, defaults to SIGTERM.
473 The special value "help" will list the known values and the program
475 will exit immediately, and the special value "list" will list known
476 values along with the numerical signal numbers and the program will
477 exit immediately.
478 --uid=
480 When used with the shell command, chooses the user ID to open the
481 interactive shell session as. If the argument to the shell command
482 also specifies a user name, this option is ignored. If the name is
483 not specified in either way, "root" will be used by default. Note
484 that this switch is not supported for the login command (see
485 below).
486 -E NAME[=VALUE], --setenv=NAME[=VALUE]
488 When used with the shell command, sets an environment variable for
489 the executed shell. This option may be used more than once to set
490 multiple variables. When "=" and VALUE are omitted, the value of
491 the variable with the same name in the program environment will be
492 used.
493 Note that this option is not supported for the login command.
495 --mkdir
497 When used with bind, creates the destination file or directory
498 before applying the bind mount. Note that even though the name of
499 this option suggests that it is suitable only for directories, this
500 option also creates the destination file node to mount over if the
501 object to mount is not a directory, but a regular file, device
502 node, socket or FIFO.
503 --read-only
505 When used with bind, creates a read-only bind mount.
506 When used with clone, import-raw or import-tar a read-only
508 container or VM image is created.
509 -n, --lines=
511 When used with status, controls the number of journal lines to
512 show, counting from the most recent ones. Takes a positive integer
513 argument. Defaults to 10.
514 -o, --output=
516 When used with status, controls the formatting of the journal
517 entries that are shown. For the available choices, see
518 journalctl(1). Defaults to "short".
519 --verify=
521 When downloading a container or VM image, specify whether the image
522 shall be verified before it is made available. Takes one of "no",
523 "checksum" and "signature". If "no", no verification is done. If
524 "checksum" is specified, the download is checked for integrity
525 after the transfer is complete, but no signatures are verified. If
526 "signature" is specified, the checksum is verified and the image's
527 signature is checked against a local keyring of trustable vendors.
528 It is strongly recommended to set this option to "signature" if the
529 server and protocol support this. Defaults to "signature".
530 --force
532 When downloading a container or VM image, and a local copy by the
533 specified local machine name already exists, delete it first and
534 replace it by the newly downloaded image.
535 --format=
537 When used with the export-tar or export-raw commands, specifies the
538 compression format to use for the resulting file. Takes one of
539 "uncompressed", "xz", "gzip", "bzip2". By default, the format is
540 determined automatically from the image file name passed.
541 --max-addresses=
543 When used with the list-machines command, limits the number of ip
544 addresses output for every machine. Defaults to 1. All addresses
545 can be requested with "all" as argument to --max-addresses=. If the
546 argument to --max-addresses= is less than the actual number of
547 addresses, "..."follows the last address.
548 -q, --quiet
550 Suppresses additional informational output while running.
551 -H, --host=
553 Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username
554 and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
555 optionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, separated by
556 ":", and then a container name, separated by "/", which connects
557 directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will
558 use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container
559 names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses
560 in brackets.
561 -M, --machine=
563 Connect to systemd-machined.service(8) running in a local
564 container, to perform the specified operation within the container.
565 --no-pager
567 Do not pipe output into a pager.
568 --no-legend
570 Do not print the legend, i.e. column headers and the footer with
571 hints.
572 --no-ask-password
574 Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
575 -h, --help
577 Print a short help text and exit.
578 --version
580 Print a short version string and exit.
581
583 The machinectl tool operates on machines and images whose names must be
584 chosen following strict rules. Machine names must be suitable for use
585 as hostnames following a conservative subset of DNS and UNIX/Linux
586 semantics. Specifically, they must consist of one or more non-empty
587 label strings, separated by dots. No leading or trailing dots are
588 allowed. No sequences of multiple dots are allowed. The label strings
589 may only consist of alphanumeric characters as well as the dash and
590 underscore. The maximum length of a machine name is 64 characters.
591 A special machine with the name ".host" refers to the running host
593 system itself. This is useful for execution operations or inspecting
594 the host system as well. Note that machinectl list will not show this
595 special machine unless the --all switch is specified.
596 Requirements on image names are less strict, however, they must be
598 valid UTF-8, must be suitable as file names (hence not be the single or
599 double dot, and not include a slash), and may not contain control
600 characters. Since many operations search for an image by the name of a
601 requested machine, it is recommended to name images in the same strict
602 fashion as machines.
603 A special image with the name ".host" refers to the image of the
605 running host system. It hence conceptually maps to the special ".host"
606 machine name described above. Note that machinectl list-images will not
607 show this special image either, unless --all is specified.
608
610 Machine images are preferably stored in /var/lib/machines/, but are
611 also searched for in /usr/local/lib/machines/ and /usr/lib/machines/.
612 For compatibility reasons, the directory /var/lib/container/ is
613 searched, too. Note that images stored below /usr/ are always
614 considered read-only. It is possible to symlink machines images from
615 other directories into /var/lib/machines/ to make them available for
616 control with machinectl.
617 Note that some image operations are only supported, efficient or atomic
619 on btrfs file systems.
620 Disk images are understood by systemd-nspawn(1) and machinectl in three
622 formats:
623 • A simple directory tree, containing the files and directories of
625 the container to boot.
626 • Subvolumes (on btrfs file systems), which are similar to the simple
628 directories, described above. However, they have additional
629 benefits, such as efficient cloning and quota reporting.
630 • "Raw" disk images, i.e. binary images of disks with a GPT or MBR
632 partition table. Images of this type are regular files with the
633 suffix ".raw".
634 See systemd-nspawn(1) for more information on image formats, in
636 particular its --directory= and --image= options.
637
639 Example 1. Download an Ubuntu image and open a shell in it
640 # machinectl pull-tar https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/trusty/current/trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-root.tar.gz
642 # systemd-nspawn -M trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-root
643 This downloads and verifies the specified .tar image, and then uses
645 systemd-nspawn(1) to open a shell in it.
646 Example 2. Download a Fedora image, set a root password in it, start it
648 as a service
649 # machinectl pull-raw --verify=no \
651 https://download.fedoraproject.org/pub/fedora/linux/releases/36/Cloud/x86_64/images/Fedora-Cloud-Base-36-1.5.x86_64.raw.xz \
652 Fedora-Cloud-Base-36-1.5.x86-64
653 # systemd-nspawn -M Fedora-Cloud-Base-36-1.5.x86-64
654 # passwd
655 # exit
656 # machinectl start Fedora-Cloud-Base-36-1.5.x86-64
657 # machinectl login Fedora-Cloud-Base-36-1.5.x86-64
658 This downloads the specified .raw image with verification disabled.
660 Then, a shell is opened in it and a root password is set. Afterwards
661 the shell is left, and the machine started as system service. With the
662 last command a login prompt into the container is requested.
663 Example 3. Exports a container image as tar file
665 # machinectl export-tar fedora myfedora.tar.xz
667 Exports the container "fedora" as an xz-compressed tar file
669 myfedora.tar.xz into the current directory.
670 Example 4. Create a new shell session
672 # machinectl shell --uid=lennart
674 This creates a new shell session on the local host for the user ID
676 "lennart", in a su(1)-like fashion.
677
679 On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
680
682 $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
683 The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher
684 log level, i.e. less important ones, will be suppressed). Either
685 one of (in order of decreasing importance) emerg, alert, crit, err,
686 warning, notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range 0...7. See
687 syslog(3) for more information.
688 $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
690 A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored
691 according to priority.
692 This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
694 the terminal, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display
695 logs will color messages based on the log level on their own.
696 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
698 A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a
699 timestamp.
700 This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
702 the terminal or a file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that
703 display logs will attach timestamps based on the entry metadata on
704 their own.
705 $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
707 A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and
708 line number in the source code where the message originates.
709 Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal
711 entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
712 nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
713 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
715 A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current
716 numerical thread ID (TID).
717 Note that the this information is attached as metadata to journal
719 entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
720 nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
721 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
723 The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the
724 attached tty), console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with
725 prefixes encoding the log level and "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg
726 (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log to the
727 journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to
728 kmsg otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target
729 automatically, the default), null (disable log output).
730 $SYSTEMD_PAGER
732 Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If
733 neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known
734 pager implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and
735 more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
736 discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable
737 to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing
738 --no-pager.
739 $SYSTEMD_LESS
741 Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
742 Users might want to change two options in particular:
744 K
746 This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C
747 is pressed. To allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch
748 back to the pager command prompt, unset this option.
749 If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the
751 pager that is invoked is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the
752 executable, and needs to be handled by the pager.
753 X
755 This option instructs the pager to not send termcap
756 initialization and deinitialization strings to the terminal. It
757 is set by default to allow command output to remain visible in
758 the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless, this
759 prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular
760 paged output cannot be scrolled with the mouse.
761 See less(1) for more discussion.
763 $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
765 Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the
766 invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).
767 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
769 Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager
770 is enabled; if false, disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set
771 at all, secure mode is enabled if the effective UID is not the same
772 as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2) and
773 sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set
774 when invoking the pager, and the pager shall disable commands that
775 open or create new files or start new subprocesses. When
776 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not known
777 to implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1)
778 implements secure mode.)
779 Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for
781 example under sudo(8) or pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure
782 that unintended interactive features are not enabled. "Secure" mode
783 for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
784 Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited
785 environment allows the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that
786 if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be honoured,
787 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be reasonable to
788 completely disable the pager using --no-pager instead.
789 $SYSTEMD_COLORS
791 Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities
792 will use colors in their output, otherwise the output will be
793 monochrome. Additionally, the variable can take one of the
794 following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors
795 to the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be
796 specified to override the automatic decision based on $TERM and
797 what the console is connected to.
798 $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
800 The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links
801 should be generated in the output for terminal emulators supporting
802 this. This can be specified to override the decision that systemd
803 makes based on $TERM and other conditions.
804
806 systemd(1), systemd-machined.service(8), systemd-nspawn(1),
807 systemd.special(7), tar(1), xz(1), gzip(1), bzip2(1)
808systemd 250 MACHINECTL(1)