1HOMECTL(1)                          homectl                         HOMECTL(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       homectl - Create, remove, change or inspect home directories
7

SYNOPSIS

9       homectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND} [NAME...]
10

DESCRIPTION

12       homectl may be used to create, remove, change or inspect a user's home
13       directory. It's primarily a command interfacing with systemd-
14       homed.service(8) which manages home directories of users.
15
16       Home directories managed by systemd-homed.service are self-contained,
17       and thus include the user's full metadata record in the home's data
18       storage itself, making them easy to migrate between machines. In
19       particular, a home directory describes a matching user record, and
20       every user record managed by systemd-homed.service also implies
21       existence and encapsulation of a home directory. The user account and
22       home directory become the same concept.
23
24       The following backing storage mechanisms are supported:
25
26       •   An individual LUKS2 encrypted loopback file for a user, stored in
27           /home/*.home. At login the file system contained in this files is
28           mounted, after the LUKS2 encrypted volume has been attached. The
29           user's password is identical to the encryption passphrase of the
30           LUKS2 volume. Access to data without preceding user authentication
31           is thus not possible, even for the system administrator. This
32           storage mechanism provides the strongest data security and is thus
33           recommended.
34
35       •   Similar, but the LUKS2 encrypted file system is located on regular
36           block device, such as an USB storage stick. In this mode home
37           directories and all data they include are nicely migratable between
38           machines, simply by plugging the USB stick into different systems
39           at different times.
40
41       •   An encrypted directory using "fscrypt" on file systems that support
42           it (at the moment this is primarily "ext4"), located in
43           /home/*.homedir. This mechanism also provides encryption, but
44           substantially weaker than LUKS2, as most file system metadata is
45           unprotected. Moreover it currently does not support changing user
46           passwords once the home directory has been created.
47
48       •   A "btrfs" subvolume for each user, also located in /home/*.homedir.
49           This provides no encryption, but good quota support.
50
51       •   A regular directory for each user, also located in /home/*.homedir.
52           This provides no encryption, but is a suitable fallback available
53           on all machines, even where LUKS2, "fscrypt" or "btrfs" support is
54           not available.
55
56       •   An individual Windows file share (CIFS) for each user.
57
58       Note that systemd-homed.service and homectl will not manage "classic"
59       UNIX user accounts as created with useradd(8) or similar tools. In
60       particular, this functionality is not suitable for managing system
61       users (i.e. users with a UID below 1000) but is exclusive to regular
62       ("human") users.
63
64       Note that users/home directories managed via systemd-homed.service do
65       not show up in /etc/passwd and similar files, they are synthesized via
66       glibc NSS during runtime. They are thus resolvable and may be
67       enumerated via the getent(1) tool.
68
69       This tool interfaces directly with systemd-homed.service, and may
70       execute specific commands on the home directories it manages. Since
71       every home directory managed that way also defines a JSON user and
72       group record these home directories may also be inspected and
73       enumerated via userdbctl(1).
74
75       Home directories managed by systemd-homed.service are usually in one of
76       two states, or in a transition state between them: when "active" they
77       are unlocked and mounted, and thus accessible to the system and its
78       programs; when "inactive" they are not mounted and thus not accessible.
79       Activation happens automatically at login of the user and usually can
80       only complete after a password (or other authentication token) has been
81       supplied. Deactivation happens after the user fully logged out. A home
82       directory remains active as long as the user is logged in at least
83       once, i.e. has at least one login session. When the user logs in a
84       second time simultaneously the home directory remains active. It is
85       deactivated only after the last of the user's sessions ends.
86

OPTIONS

88       The following general options are understood (further options that
89       control the various properties of user records managed by
90       systemd-homed.service are documented further down):
91
92       --identity=FILE
93           Read the user's JSON record from the specified file. If passed as
94           "-" read the user record from standard input. The supplied JSON
95           object must follow the structure documented in JSON User
96           Records[1]. This option may be used in conjunction with the create
97           and update commands (see below), where it allows configuring the
98           user record in JSON as-is, instead of setting the individual user
99           record properties (see below).
100
101       --json=FORMAT, -j
102           Controls whether to output the user record in JSON format, if the
103           inspect command (see below) is used. Takes one of "pretty", "short"
104           or "off". If "pretty" human-friendly whitespace and newlines are
105           inserted in the output to make the JSON data more readable. If
106           "short" all superfluous whitespace is suppressed. If "off" (the
107           default) the user information is not shown in JSON format but in a
108           friendly human readable formatting instead. The -j option picks
109           "pretty" when run interactively and "short" otherwise.
110
111       --export-format=FORMAT, -E, -EE
112           When used with the inspect verb in JSON mode (see above) may be
113           used to suppress certain aspects of the JSON user record on output.
114           Specifically, if "stripped" format is used the binding and runtime
115           fields of the record are removed. If "minimal" format is used the
116           cryptographic signature is removed too. If "full" format is used
117           the full JSON record is shown (this is the default). This option is
118           useful for copying an existing user record to a different system in
119           order to create a similar user there with the same settings.
120           Specifically: homectl inspect -EE | ssh root@othersystem homectl
121           create -i- may be used as simple command line for replicating a
122           user on another host.  -E is equivalent to -j
123           --export-format=stripped, -EE to -j --export-format=minimal. Note
124           that when replicating user accounts user records acquired in
125           "stripped" mode will retain the original cryptographic signatures
126           and thus may only be modified when the private key to update them
127           is available on the destination machine. When replicating users in
128           "minimal" mode, the signature is removed during the replication and
129           thus the record will be implicitly signed with the key of the
130           destination machine and may be updated there without any private
131           key replication.
132
133       -H, --host=
134           Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username
135           and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
136           optionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, separated by
137           ":", and then a container name, separated by "/", which connects
138           directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will
139           use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container
140           names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses
141           in brackets.
142
143       -M, --machine=
144           Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to
145           connect to, optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a
146           separating "@" character. If the special string ".host" is used in
147           place of the container name, a connection to the local system is
148           made (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus:
149           "--user --machine=lennart@.host"). If the "@" syntax is not used,
150           the connection is made as root user. If the "@" syntax is used
151           either the left hand side or the right hand side may be omitted
152           (but not both) in which case the local user name and ".host" are
153           implied.
154
155       --no-pager
156           Do not pipe output into a pager.
157
158       --no-legend
159           Do not print the legend, i.e. column headers and the footer with
160           hints.
161
162       --no-ask-password
163           Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
164
165       -h, --help
166           Print a short help text and exit.
167
168       --version
169           Print a short version string and exit.
170

USER RECORD PROPERTIES

172       The following options control various properties of the user
173       records/home directories that systemd-homed.service manages. These
174       switches may be used in conjunction with the create and update commands
175       for configuring various aspects of the home directory and the user
176       account:
177
178       --real-name=NAME, -c NAME
179           The real name for the user. This corresponds with the GECOS field
180           on classic UNIX NSS records.
181
182       --realm=REALM
183           The realm for the user. The realm associates a user with a specific
184           organization or installation, and allows distinguishing users of
185           the same name defined in different contexts. The realm can be any
186           string that also qualifies as valid DNS domain name, and it is
187           recommended to use the organization's or installation's domain name
188           for this purpose, but this is not enforced nor required. On each
189           system only a single user of the same name may exist, and if a user
190           with the same name and realm is seen it is assumed to refer to the
191           same user while a user with the same name but different realm is
192           considered a different user. Note that this means that two users
193           sharing the same name but with distinct realms are not allowed on
194           the same system. Assigning a realm to a user is optional.
195
196       --email-address=EMAIL
197           Takes an electronic mail address to associate with the user. On
198           log-in the $EMAIL environment variable is initialized from this
199           value.
200
201       --location=TEXT
202           Takes location specification for this user. This is free-form text,
203           which might or might not be usable by geo-location applications.
204           Example: --location="Berlin, Germany" or --location="Basement, Room
205           3a"
206
207       --icon-name=ICON
208           Takes an icon name to associate with the user, following the scheme
209           defined by the Icon Naming Specification[2].
210
211       --home-dir=PATH, -dPATH
212           Takes a path to use as home directory for the user. Note that this
213           is the directory the user's home directory is mounted to while the
214           user is logged in. This is not where the user's data is actually
215           stored, see --image-path= for that. If not specified defaults to
216           /home/$USER.
217
218       --uid=UID
219           Takes a preferred numeric UNIX UID to assign this user. If a user
220           is to be created with the specified UID and it is already taken by
221           a different user on the local system then creation of the home
222           directory is refused. Note though, if after creating the home
223           directory it is used on a different system and the configured UID
224           is taken by another user there, then systemd-homed may assign the
225           user a different UID on that system. The specified UID must be
226           outside of the system user range. It is recommended to use the
227           60001...60513 UID range for this purpose. If not specified, the UID
228           is automatically picked. If the home directory is found to be owned
229           by a different UID when logging in, the home directory and
230           everything underneath it will have its ownership changed
231           automatically before login completes.
232
233           Note that users managed by systemd-homed always have a matching
234           group associated with the same name as well as a GID matching the
235           UID of the user. Thus, configuring the GID separately is not
236           permitted.
237
238       --member-of=GROUP, -G GROUP
239           Takes a comma-separated list of auxiliary UNIX groups this user
240           shall belong to. Example: --member-of=wheel to provide the user
241           with administrator privileges. Note that systemd-homed does not
242           manage any groups besides a group matching the user in name and
243           numeric UID/GID. Thus any groups listed here must be registered
244           independently, for example with groupadd(8). Any non-existent
245           groups are ignored. This option may be used more than once, in
246           which case all specified group lists are combined. If the user is
247           currently a member of a group which is not listed, the user will be
248           removed from the group.
249
250       --skel=PATH
251           Takes a file system path to a directory. Specifies the skeleton
252           directory to initialize the home directory with. All files and
253           directories in the specified path are copied into any newly create
254           home directory. If not specified defaults to /etc/skel/.
255
256       --shell=SHELL
257           Takes a file system path. Specifies the shell binary to execute on
258           terminal logins. If not specified defaults to /bin/bash.
259
260       --setenv=VARIABLE[=VALUE]
261           Takes an environment variable assignment to set for all user
262           processes. May be used multiple times to set multiple environment
263           variables. When "=" and VALUE are omitted, the value of the
264           variable with the same name in the program environment will be
265           used.
266
267           Note that a number of other settings also result in environment
268           variables to be set for the user, including --email=, --timezone=
269           and --language=.
270
271       --timezone=TIMEZONE
272           Takes a time zone location name that sets the timezone for the
273           specified user. When the user logs in the $TZ environment variable
274           is initialized from this setting. Example:
275           --timezone=Europe/Amsterdam will result in the environment variable
276           "TZ=:Europe/Amsterdam". (":" is used intentionally as part of the
277           timezone specification, see tzset(3).)
278
279       --language=LANG
280           Takes a specifier indicating the preferred language of the user.
281           The $LANG environment variable is initialized from this value on
282           login, and thus a value suitable for this environment variable is
283           accepted here, for example --language=de_DE.UTF8.
284
285       --ssh-authorized-keys=KEYS
286           Either takes a SSH authorized key line to associate with the user
287           record or a "@" character followed by a path to a file to read one
288           or more such lines from. SSH keys configured this way are made
289           available to SSH to permit access to this home directory and user
290           record. This option may be used more than once to configure
291           multiple SSH keys.
292
293       --pkcs11-token-uri=URI
294           Takes an RFC 7512 PKCS#11 URI referencing a security token (e.g.
295           YubiKey or PIV smartcard) that shall be able to unlock the user
296           account. The security token URI should reference a security token
297           with exactly one pair of X.509 certificate and private key. A
298           random secret key is then generated, encrypted with the public key
299           of the X.509 certificate, and stored as part of the user record. At
300           login time it is decrypted with the PKCS#11 module and then used to
301           unlock the account and associated resources. See below for an
302           example how to set up authentication with a security token.
303
304           Instead of a valid PKCS#11 URI, the special strings "list" and
305           "auto" may be specified. If "list" is passed, a brief table of
306           suitable, currently plugged in PKCS#11 hardware tokens is shown,
307           along with their URIs. If "auto" is passed, a suitable PKCS#11
308           hardware token is automatically selected (this operation will fail
309           if there isn't exactly one suitable token discovered). The latter
310           is a useful shortcut for the most common case where a single
311           PKCS#11 hardware token is plugged in.
312
313           Note that many hardware security tokens implement both PKCS#11/PIV
314           and FIDO2 with the "hmac-secret" extension (for example: the
315           YubiKey 5 series), as supported with the --fido2-device= option
316           below. Both mechanisms are similarly powerful, though FIDO2 is the
317           more modern technology. PKCS#11/PIV tokens have the benefit of
318           being recognizable before authentication and hence can be used for
319           implying the user identity to use for logging in, which FIDO2 does
320           not allow. PKCS#11/PIV devices generally require initialization
321           (i.e. storing a private/public key pair on them, see example below)
322           before they can be used; FIDO2 security tokens generally do not
323           required that, and work out of the box.
324
325       --fido2-credential-algorithm=STRING
326           Specify COSE algorithm used in credential generation. The default
327           value is "es256". Supported values are "es256", "rs256" and
328           "eddsa".
329
330           "es256" denotes ECDSA over NIST P-256 with SHA-256.  "rs256"
331           denotes 2048-bit RSA with PKCS#1.5 padding and SHA-256.  "eddsa"
332           denotes EDDSA over Curve25519 with SHA-512.
333
334           Note that your authenticator may not support some algorithms.
335
336       --fido2-device=PATH
337           Takes a path to a Linux "hidraw" device (e.g.  /dev/hidraw1),
338           referring to a FIDO2 security token implementing the "hmac-secret"
339           extension that shall be able to unlock the user account. A random
340           salt value is generated on the host and passed to the FIDO2 device,
341           which calculates a HMAC hash of the salt using an internal secret
342           key. The result is then used as the key to unlock the user account.
343           The random salt is included in the user record, so that whenever
344           authentication is needed it can be passed to the FIDO2 token again.
345
346           Instead of a valid path to a FIDO2 "hidraw" device the special
347           strings "list" and "auto" may be specified. If "list" is passed, a
348           brief table of suitable discovered FIDO2 devices is shown. If
349           "auto" is passed, a suitable FIDO2 token is automatically selected,
350           if exactly one is discovered. The latter is a useful shortcut for
351           the most common case where a single FIDO2 hardware token is plugged
352           in.
353
354           Note that FIDO2 devices suitable for this option must implement the
355           "hmac-secret" extension. Most current devices (such as the YubiKey
356           5 series) do. If the extension is not implemented the device cannot
357           be used for unlocking home directories.
358
359           The FIDO2 device may be subsequently removed by setting the device
360           path to an empty string (e.g.  homectl update $USER
361           --fido2-device="").
362
363           Note that many hardware security tokens implement both FIDO2 and
364           PKCS#11/PIV (and thus may be used with either --fido2-device= or
365           --pkcs11-token-uri=), for a discussion see above.
366
367       --fido2-with-client-pin=BOOL
368           When enrolling a FIDO2 security token, controls whether to require
369           the user to enter a PIN when unlocking the account (the FIDO2
370           "clientPin" feature). Defaults to "yes". (Note: this setting is
371           without effect if the security token does not support the
372           "clientPin" feature at all, or does not allow enabling or disabling
373           it.)
374
375       --fido2-with-user-presence=BOOL
376           When enrolling a FIDO2 security token, controls whether to require
377           the user to verify presence (tap the token, the FIDO2 "up" feature)
378           when unlocking the account. Defaults to "yes". (Note: this setting
379           is without effect if the security token does not support the "up"
380           feature at all, or does not allow enabling or disabling it.)
381
382       --fido2-with-user-verification=BOOL
383           When enrolling a FIDO2 security token, controls whether to require
384           user verification when unlocking the account (the FIDO2 "uv"
385           feature). Defaults to "no". (Note: this setting is without effect
386           if the security token does not support the "uv" feature at all, or
387           does not allow enabling or disabling it.)
388
389       --recovery-key=BOOL
390           Accepts a boolean argument. If enabled a recovery key is configured
391           for the account. A recovery key is a computer generated access key
392           that may be used to regain access to an account if the password has
393           been forgotten or the authentication token lost. The key is
394           generated and shown on screen, and should be printed or otherwise
395           transferred to a secure location. A recovery key may be entered
396           instead of a regular password to unlock the account.
397
398       --locked=BOOLEAN
399           Takes a boolean argument. Specifies whether this user account shall
400           be locked. If true logins into this account are prohibited, if
401           false (the default) they are permitted (of course, only if
402           authorization otherwise succeeds).
403
404       --not-before=TIMESTAMP, --not-after=TIMESTAMP
405           These options take a timestamp string, in the format documented in
406           systemd.time(7) and configures points in time before and after
407           logins into this account are not permitted.
408
409       --rate-limit-interval=SECS, --rate-limit-burst=NUMBER
410           Configures a rate limit on authentication attempts for this user.
411           If the user attempts to authenticate more often than the specified
412           number, on a specific system, within the specified time interval
413           authentication is refused until the time interval passes. Defaults
414           to 10 times per 1min.
415
416       --password-hint=TEXT
417           Takes a password hint to store alongside the user record. This
418           string is stored accessible only to privileged users and the user
419           itself and may not be queried by other users. Example:
420           --password-hint="My first pet's name".
421
422       --enforce-password-policy=BOOL, -P
423           Takes a boolean argument. Configures whether to enforce the
424           system's password policy for this user, regarding quality and
425           strength of selected passwords. Defaults to on.  -P is short for
426           ---enforce-password-policy=no.
427
428       --password-change-now=BOOL
429           Takes a boolean argument. If true the user is asked to change their
430           password on next login.
431
432       --password-change-min=TIME, --password-change-max=TIME,
433       --password-change-warn=TIME, --password-change-inactive=TIME
434           Each of these options takes a time span specification as argument
435           (in the syntax documented in systemd.time(7)) and configures
436           various aspects of the user's password expiration policy.
437           Specifically, --password-change-min= configures how much time has
438           to pass after changing the password of the user until the password
439           may be changed again. If the user tries to change their password
440           before this time passes the attempt is refused.
441           --password-change-max= configures how soon after it has been
442           changed the password expires and needs to be changed again. After
443           this time passes logging in may only proceed after the password is
444           changed.  --password-change-warn= specifies how much earlier than
445           then the time configured with --password-change-max= the user is
446           warned at login to change their password as it will expire soon.
447           Finally --password-change-inactive= configures the time which has
448           to pass after the password as expired until the user is not
449           permitted to log in or change the password anymore. Note that these
450           options only apply to password authentication, and do not apply to
451           other forms of authentication, for example PKCS#11-based security
452           token authentication.
453
454       --disk-size=BYTES
455           Either takes a size in bytes as argument (possibly using the usual
456           K, M, G, ... suffixes for 1024 base values), a percentage value, or
457           the special strings "min" or "max", and configures the disk space
458           to assign to the user. If a percentage value is specified (i.e. the
459           argument suffixed with "%") it is taken relative to the available
460           disk space of the backing file system. If specified as "min"
461           assigns the minimal disk space permitted by the constraints of the
462           backing file system and other limits, when specified as "max"
463           assigns the maximum disk space available. If the LUKS2 backend is
464           used this configures the size of the loopback file and file system
465           contained therein. For the other storage backends configures disk
466           quota using the filesystem's native quota logic, if available. If
467           not specified, defaults to 85% of the available disk space for the
468           LUKS2 backend and to no quota for the others.
469
470       --access-mode=MODE
471           Takes a UNIX file access mode written in octal. Configures the
472           access mode of the home directory itself. Note that this is only
473           used when the directory is first created, and the user may change
474           this any time afterwards. Example: --access-mode=0700
475
476       --umask=MASK
477           Takes the access mode mask (in octal syntax) to apply to newly
478           created files and directories of the user ("umask"). If set this
479           controls the initial umask set for all login sessions of the user,
480           possibly overriding the system's defaults.
481
482       --nice=NICE
483           Takes the numeric scheduling priority ("nice level") to apply to
484           the processes of the user at login time. Takes a numeric value in
485           the range -20 (highest priority) to 19 (lowest priority).
486
487       --rlimit=LIMIT=VALUE[:VALUE]
488           Allows configuration of resource limits for processes of this user,
489           see getrlimit(2) for details. Takes a resource limit name (e.g.
490           "LIMIT_NOFILE") followed by an equal sign, followed by a numeric
491           limit. Optionally, separated by colon a second numeric limit may be
492           specified. If two are specified this refers to the soft and hard
493           limits, respectively. If only one limit is specified the setting
494           sets both limits in one.
495
496       --tasks-max=TASKS
497           Takes a non-zero unsigned integer as argument. Configures the
498           maximum number of tasks (i.e. threads, where each process is at
499           least one thread) the user may have at any given time. This limit
500           applies to all tasks forked off the user's sessions, even if they
501           change user identity via su(1) or a similar tool. Use
502           --rlimit=LIMIT_NPROC= to place a limit on the tasks actually
503           running under the UID of the user, thus excluding any child
504           processes that might have changed user identity. This controls the
505           TasksMax= setting of the per-user systemd slice unit
506           user-$UID.slice. See systemd.resource-control(5) for further
507           details.
508
509       --memory-high=BYTES, --memory-max=BYTES
510           Set a limit on the memory a user may take up on a system at any
511           given time in bytes (the usual K, M, G, ... suffixes are supported,
512           to the base of 1024). This includes all memory used by the user
513           itself and all processes they forked off that changed user
514           credentials. This controls the MemoryHigh= and MemoryMax= settings
515           of the per-user systemd slice unit user-$UID.slice. See
516           systemd.resource-control(5) for further details.
517
518       --cpu-weight=WEIGHT, --io-weight=WEIGHT
519           Set CPU and IO scheduling weights of the processes of the user,
520           including those of processes forked off by the user that changed
521           user credentials. Takes a numeric value in the range 1...10000.
522           This controls the CPUWeight= and IOWeight= settings of the per-user
523           systemd slice unit user-$UID.slice. See systemd.resource-control(5)
524           for further details.
525
526       --storage=STORAGE
527           Selects the storage mechanism to use for this home directory. Takes
528           one of "luks", "fscrypt", "directory", "subvolume", "cifs". For
529           details about these mechanisms, see above. If a new home directory
530           is created and the storage type is not specifically specified,
531           homed.conf(5) defines which default storage to use.
532
533       --image-path=PATH
534           Takes a file system path. Configures where to place the user's home
535           directory. When LUKS2 storage is used refers to the path to the
536           loopback file, otherwise to the path to the home directory (which
537           may be in /home/ or any other accessible filesystem). When
538           unspecified defaults to /home/$USER.home when LUKS storage is used
539           and /home/$USER.homedir for the other storage mechanisms. Not
540           defined for the "cifs" storage mechanism. To use LUKS2 storage on a
541           regular block device (for example a USB stick) pass the path to the
542           block device here. Specifying the path to a directory here when
543           using LUKS2 storage is not allowed. Similar, specifying the path to
544           a regular file or device node is not allowed if any of the other
545           storage backends are used.
546
547       --drop-caches=BOOL
548           Automatically flush OS file system caches on logout. This is useful
549           in combination with the fscrypt storage backend to ensure the OS
550           does not keep decrypted versions of the files and directories in
551           memory (and accessible) after logout. This option is also supported
552           on other backends, but should not bring any benefit there. Defaults
553           to off, except if the selected storage backend is fscrypt, where it
554           defaults to on. Note that flushing OS caches will negatively
555           influence performance of the OS shortly after logout.
556
557       --fs-type=TYPE
558           When LUKS2 storage is used configures the file system type to use
559           inside the home directory LUKS2 container. One of "btrfs", "ext4",
560           "xfs". If not specified homed.conf(5) defines which default file
561           system type to use. Note that "xfs" is not recommended as its
562           support for file system resizing is too limited.
563
564       --luks-discard=BOOL
565           When LUKS2 storage is used configures whether to enable the
566           "discard" feature of the file system. If enabled the file system on
567           top of the LUKS2 volume will report empty block information to
568           LUKS2 and the loopback file below, ensuring that empty space in the
569           home directory is returned to the backing file system below the
570           LUKS2 volume, resulting in a "sparse" loopback file. This option
571           mostly defaults to off, since this permits over-committing home
572           directories which results in I/O errors if the underlying file
573           system runs full while the upper file system wants to allocate a
574           block. Such I/O errors are generally not handled well by file
575           systems nor applications. When LUKS2 storage is used on top of
576           regular block devices (instead of on top a loopback file) the
577           discard logic defaults to on.
578
579       --luks-offline-discard=BOOL
580           Similar to --luks-discard=, controls the trimming of the file
581           system. However, while --luks-discard= controls what happens when
582           the home directory is active, --luks-offline-discard= controls what
583           happens when it becomes inactive, i.e. whether to trim/allocate the
584           storage when deactivating the home directory. This option defaults
585           to on, to ensure disk space is minimized while a user is not logged
586           in.
587
588       --luks-extra-mount-options=OPTIONS
589           Takes a string containing additional mount options to use when
590           mounting the LUKS volume. If specified, this string will be
591           appended to the default, built-in mount options.
592
593       --luks-cipher=CIPHER, --luks-cipher-mode=MODE,
594       --luks-volume-key-size=BYTES, --luks-pbkdf-type=TYPE,
595       --luks-pbkdf-hash-algorithm=ALGORITHM, --luks-pbkdf-time-cost=SECONDS,
596       --luks-pbkdf-memory-cost=BYTES, --luks-pbkdf-parallel-threads=THREADS
597           Configures various cryptographic parameters for the LUKS2 storage
598           mechanism. See cryptsetup(8) for details on the specific
599           attributes.
600
601           Note that homectl uses bytes for key size, like /proc/crypto, but
602           cryptsetup(8) uses bits.
603
604       --auto-resize-mode=
605           Configures whether to automatically grow and/or shrink the backing
606           file system on login and logout. Takes one of the strings "off",
607           "grow", "shrink-and-grow". Only applies to the LUKS2 backend
608           currently, and if the btrfs file system is used inside it (since
609           only then online growing/shrinking of the file system is
610           supported). Defaults to "shrink-and-grow", if LUKS2/btrfs is used,
611           otherwise is off. If set to "off" no automatic shrinking/growing
612           during login or logout is done. If set to "grow" the home area is
613           grown to the size configured via --disk-size= should it currently
614           be smaller. If it already matches the configured size or is larger
615           no operation is executed. If set to "shrink-and-grow" the home area
616           is also resized during logout to the minimal size the used disk
617           space and file system constraints permit. This mode thus ensures
618           that while a home area is activated it is sized to the configured
619           size, but while deactivated it is compacted taking up only the
620           minimal space possible. Note that if the system is powered off
621           abnormally or if the user otherwise not logged out cleanly the
622           shrinking operation will not take place, and the user has to
623           re-login/logout again before it is executed again.
624
625       --rebalance-weight=
626           Configures the weight parameter for the free disk space rebalancing
627           logic. Only applies to the LUKS2 backend (since for the LUKS2
628           backend disk space is allocated from a per-user loopback file
629           system instead of immediately from a common pool like the other
630           backends do it). In regular intervals free disk space in the active
631           home areas and their backing storage is redistributed among them,
632           taking the weight value configured here into account. Expects an
633           integer in the range 1...10000, or the special string "off". If not
634           specified defaults to 100. The weight is used to scale free space
635           made available to the home areas: a home area with a weight of 200
636           will get twice the free space as one with a weight of 100; a home
637           area with a weight of 50 will get half of that. The backing file
638           system will be assigned space for a weight of 20. If set to "off"
639           no automatic free space distribution is done for this home area.
640           Note that resizing the home area explicitly (with homectl resize
641           see below) will implicitly turn off the automatic rebalancing. To
642           reenable the automatic rebalancing use --rebalance-weight= with an
643           empty parameter.
644
645       --nosuid=BOOL, --nodev=BOOL, --noexec=BOOL
646           Configures the "nosuid", "nodev" and "noexec" mount options for the
647           home directories. By default "nodev" and "nosuid" are on, while
648           "noexec" is off. For details about these mount options see
649           mount(8).
650
651       --cifs-domain=DOMAIN, --cifs-user-name=USER, --cifs-service=SERVICE,
652       --cifs-extra-mount-options=OPTIONS
653           Configures the Windows File Sharing (CIFS) domain and user to
654           associate with the home directory/user account, as well as the file
655           share ("service") to mount as directory. The latter is used when
656           "cifs" storage is selected. The file share should be specified in
657           format "//host/share/directory/...". The directory part is optional
658           — if not specified the home directory will be placed in the
659           top-level directory of the share. The --cifs-extra-mount-options=
660           setting allows specifying additional mount options when mounting
661           the share, see mount.cifs(8) for details.
662
663       --stop-delay=SECS
664           Configures the time the per-user service manager shall continue to
665           run after the all sessions of the user ended. The default is
666           configured in logind.conf(5) (for home directories of LUKS2 storage
667           located on removable media this defaults to 0 though). A longer
668           time makes sure quick, repetitive logins are more efficient as the
669           user's service manager doesn't have to be started every time.
670
671       --kill-processes=BOOL
672           Configures whether to kill all processes of the user on logout. The
673           default is configured in logind.conf(5).
674
675       --auto-login=BOOL
676           Takes a boolean argument. Configures whether the graphical UI of
677           the system should automatically log this user in if possible.
678           Defaults to off. If less or more than one user is marked this way
679           automatic login is disabled.
680

COMMANDS

682       The following commands are understood:
683
684       list
685           List all home directories (along with brief details) currently
686           managed by systemd-homed.service. This command is also executed if
687           none is specified on the command line. (Note that the list of users
688           shown by this command does not include users managed by other
689           subsystems, such as system users or any traditional users listed in
690           /etc/passwd.)
691
692       activate USER [USER...]
693           Activate one or more home directories. The home directories of each
694           listed user will be activated and made available under their mount
695           points (typically in /home/$USER). Note that any home activated
696           this way stays active indefinitely, until it is explicitly
697           deactivated again (with deactivate, see below), or the user logs in
698           and out again and it thus is deactivated due to the automatic
699           deactivation-on-logout logic.
700
701           Activation of a home directory involves various operations that
702           depend on the selected storage mechanism. If the LUKS2 mechanism is
703           used, this generally involves: inquiring the user for a password,
704           setting up a loopback device, validating and activating the LUKS2
705           volume, checking the file system, mounting the file system, and
706           potentially changing the ownership of all included files to the
707           correct UID/GID.
708
709       deactivate USER [USER...]
710           Deactivate one or more home directories. This undoes the effect of
711           activate.
712
713       inspect USER [USER...]
714           Show various details about the specified home directories. This
715           shows various information about the home directory and its user
716           account, including runtime data such as current state, disk use and
717           similar. Combine with --json= to show the detailed JSON user record
718           instead, possibly combined with --export-format= to suppress
719           certain aspects of the output.
720
721       authenticate USER [USER...]
722           Validate authentication credentials of a home directory. This
723           queries the caller for a password (or similar) and checks that it
724           correctly unlocks the home directory. This leaves the home
725           directory in the state it is in, i.e. it leaves the home directory
726           in inactive state if it was inactive before, and in active state if
727           it was active before.
728
729       create USER, create --identity=PATH [USER]
730           Create a new home directory/user account of the specified name. Use
731           the various user record property options (as documented above) to
732           control various aspects of the home directory and its user
733           accounts.
734
735           The specified user name should follow the strict syntax described
736           on User/Group Name Syntax[3].
737
738       remove USER
739           Remove a home directory/user account. This will remove both the
740           home directory's user record and the home directory itself, and
741           thus delete all files and directories owned by the user.
742
743       update USER, update --identity=PATH [USER]
744           Update a home directory/user account. Use the various user record
745           property options (as documented above) to make changes to the
746           account, or alternatively provide a full, updated JSON user record
747           via the --identity= option.
748
749           Note that changes to user records not signed by a cryptographic
750           private key available locally are not permitted, unless --identity=
751           is used with a user record that is already correctly signed by a
752           recognized private key.
753
754       passwd USER
755           Change the password of the specified home directory/user account.
756
757       resize USER BYTES
758           Change the disk space assigned to the specified home directory. If
759           the LUKS2 storage mechanism is used this will automatically resize
760           the loopback file and the file system contained within. Note that
761           if "ext4" is used inside of the LUKS2 volume, it is necessary to
762           deactivate the home directory before shrinking it (i.e the user has
763           to log out). Growing can be done while the home directory is
764           active. If "xfs" is used inside of the LUKS2 volume the home
765           directory may not be shrunk whatsoever. On all three of "ext4",
766           "xfs" and "btrfs" the home directory may be grown while the user is
767           logged in, and on the latter also shrunk while the user is logged
768           in. If the "subvolume", "directory", "fscrypt" storage mechanisms
769           are used, resizing will change file system quota. The size
770           parameter may make use of the usual suffixes B, K, M, G, T (to the
771           base of 1024). The special strings "min" and "max" may be specified
772           in place of a numeric size value, for minimizing or maximizing disk
773           space assigned to the home area, taking constraints of the file
774           system, disk usage inside the home area and on the backing storage
775           into account.
776
777       lock USER
778           Temporarily suspend access to the user's home directory and remove
779           any associated cryptographic keys from memory. Any attempts to
780           access the user's home directory will stall until the home
781           directory is unlocked again (i.e. re-authenticated). This
782           functionality is primarily intended to be used during system
783           suspend to make sure the user's data cannot be accessed until the
784           user re-authenticates on resume. This operation is only defined for
785           home directories that use the LUKS2 storage mechanism.
786
787       unlock USER
788           Resume access to the user's home directory again, undoing the
789           effect of lock above. This requires authentication of the user, as
790           the cryptographic keys required for access to the home directory
791           need to be reacquired.
792
793       lock-all
794           Execute the lock command on all suitable home directories at once.
795           This operation is generally executed on system suspend (i.e. by
796           systemctl suspend and related commands), to ensure all active
797           user's cryptographic keys for accessing their home directories are
798           removed from memory.
799
800       deactivate-all
801           Execute the deactivate command on all active home directories at
802           once. This operation is generally executed on system shut down
803           (i.e. by systemctl poweroff and related commands), to ensure all
804           active user's home directories are fully deactivated before /home/
805           and related file systems are unmounted.
806
807       with USER COMMAND...
808           Activate the specified user's home directory, run the specified
809           command (under the caller's identity, not the specified user's) and
810           deactivate the home directory afterwards again (unless the user is
811           logged in otherwise). This command is useful for running privileged
812           backup scripts and such, but requires authentication with the
813           user's credentials in order to be able to unlock the user's home
814           directory.
815
816       rebalance
817           Rebalance free disk space between active home areas and the backing
818           storage. See --rebalance-weight= above. This executes no operation
819           unless there's at least one active LUKS2 home area that has disk
820           space rebalancing enabled. This operation is synchronous: it will
821           only complete once disk space is rebalanced according to the
822           rebalancing weights. Note that rebalancing also takes place
823           automatically in the background in regular intervals. Use this
824           command to synchronously ensure disk space is properly
825           redistributed before initiating an operation requiring large
826           amounts of disk space.
827

EXIT STATUS

829       On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
830
831       When a command is invoked with with, the exit status of the child is
832       propagated. Effectively, homectl will exit without error if the command
833       is successfully invoked and finishes successfully.
834

ENVIRONMENT

836       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
837           The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher
838           log level, i.e. less important ones, will be suppressed). Either
839           one of (in order of decreasing importance) emerg, alert, crit, err,
840           warning, notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range 0...7. See
841           syslog(3) for more information.
842
843       $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
844           A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored
845           according to priority.
846
847           This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
848           the terminal, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display
849           logs will color messages based on the log level on their own.
850
851       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
852           A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a
853           timestamp.
854
855           This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
856           the terminal or a file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that
857           display logs will attach timestamps based on the entry metadata on
858           their own.
859
860       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
861           A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and
862           line number in the source code where the message originates.
863
864           Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal
865           entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
866           nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
867
868       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
869           A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current
870           numerical thread ID (TID).
871
872           Note that the this information is attached as metadata to journal
873           entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
874           nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
875
876       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
877           The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the
878           attached tty), console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with
879           prefixes encoding the log level and "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg
880           (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log to the
881           journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to
882           kmsg otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target
883           automatically, the default), null (disable log output).
884
885       $SYSTEMD_PAGER
886           Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If
887           neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known
888           pager implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and
889           more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
890           discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable
891           to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing
892           --no-pager.
893
894           Note: if $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, $SYSTEMD_PAGER (as well
895           as $PAGER) will be silently ignored.
896
897       $SYSTEMD_LESS
898           Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
899
900           Users might want to change two options in particular:
901
902           K
903               This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C
904               is pressed. To allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch
905               back to the pager command prompt, unset this option.
906
907               If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the
908               pager that is invoked is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the
909               executable, and needs to be handled by the pager.
910
911           X
912               This option instructs the pager to not send termcap
913               initialization and deinitialization strings to the terminal. It
914               is set by default to allow command output to remain visible in
915               the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless, this
916               prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular
917               paged output cannot be scrolled with the mouse.
918
919           See less(1) for more discussion.
920
921       $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
922           Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the
923           invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).
924
925       $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
926           Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager
927           is enabled; if false, disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set
928           at all, secure mode is enabled if the effective UID is not the same
929           as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2) and
930           sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set
931           when invoking the pager, and the pager shall disable commands that
932           open or create new files or start new subprocesses. When
933           $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not known
934           to implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1)
935           implements secure mode.)
936
937           Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for
938           example under sudo(8) or pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure
939           that unintended interactive features are not enabled. "Secure" mode
940           for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
941           Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited
942           environment allows the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that
943           if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be honoured,
944           $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be reasonable to
945           completely disable the pager using --no-pager instead.
946
947       $SYSTEMD_COLORS
948           Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities
949           will use colors in their output, otherwise the output will be
950           monochrome. Additionally, the variable can take one of the
951           following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors
952           to the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be
953           specified to override the automatic decision based on $TERM and
954           what the console is connected to.
955
956       $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
957           The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links
958           should be generated in the output for terminal emulators supporting
959           this. This can be specified to override the decision that systemd
960           makes based on $TERM and other conditions.
961

EXAMPLES

963       Example 1. Create a user "waldo" in the administrator group "wheel",
964       and assign 500 MiB disk space to them.
965
966           homectl create waldo --real-name="Waldo McWaldo" -G wheel --disk-size=500M
967
968       Example 2. Create a user "wally" on a USB stick, and assign a maximum
969       of 500 concurrent tasks to them.
970
971           homectl create wally --real-name="Wally McWally" --image-path=/dev/disk/by-id/usb-SanDisk_Ultra_Fit_476fff954b2b5c44-0:0 --tasks-max=500
972
973       Example 3. Change nice level of user "odlaw" to +5 and make sure the
974       environment variable $SOME is set to the string "THING" for them on
975       login.
976
977           homectl update odlaw --nice=5 --setenv=SOME=THING
978
979       Example 4. Set up authentication with a YubiKey security token using
980       PKCS#11/PIV:
981
982           # Clear the Yubikey from any old keys (careful!)
983           ykman piv reset
984
985           # Generate a new private/public key pair on the device, store the public key in 'pubkey.pem'.
986           ykman piv generate-key -a RSA2048 9d pubkey.pem
987
988           # Create a self-signed certificate from this public key, and store it on the device.
989           ykman piv generate-certificate --subject "Knobelei" 9d pubkey.pem
990
991           # We don't need the public key on disk anymore
992           rm pubkey.pem
993
994           # Allow the security token to unlock the account of user 'lafcadio'.
995           homectl update lafcadio --pkcs11-token-uri=auto
996
997       Example 5. Set up authentication with a FIDO2 security token:
998
999           # Allow a FIDO2 security token to unlock the account of user 'nihilbaxter'.
1000           homectl update nihilbaxter --fido2-device=auto
1001

SEE ALSO

1003       systemd(1), systemd-homed.service(8), homed.conf(5), userdbctl(1),
1004       useradd(8), cryptsetup(8)
1005

NOTES

1007        1. JSON User Records
1008           https://systemd.io/USER_RECORD
1009
1010        2. Icon Naming Specification
1011           https://standards.freedesktop.org/icon-naming-spec/icon-naming-spec-latest.html
1012
1013        3. User/Group Name Syntax
1014           https://systemd.io/USER_NAMES
1015
1016
1017
1018systemd 251                                                         HOMECTL(1)
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