1PORTABLECTL(1) portablectl PORTABLECTL(1)
2
6 portablectl - Attach, detach or inspect portable service images
7
9 portablectl [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND} [NAME...]
10
12 portablectl may be used to attach, detach or inspect portable service
13 images. It's primarily a command interfacing with systemd-
14 portabled.service(8).
15 Portable service images contain an OS file system tree along with
17 systemd(1) unit file information. A service image may be "attached" to
18 the local system. If attached, a set of unit files are copied from the
19 image to the host, and extended with RootDirectory= or RootImage=
20 assignments (in case of service units) pointing to the image file or
21 directory, ensuring the services will run within the file system
22 context of the image.
23 Portable service images are an efficient way to bundle multiple related
25 services and other units together, and transfer them as a whole between
26 systems. When these images are attached the local system the contained
27 units may run in most ways like regular system-provided units, either
28 with full privileges or inside strict sandboxing, depending on the
29 selected configuration. For more details, see Portable Services
30 Documentation[1].
31 Specifically portable service images may be of the following kind:
33 • Directory trees containing an OS, including the top-level
35 directories /usr/, /etc/, and so on.
36 • btrfs subvolumes containing OS trees, similar to normal directory
38 trees.
39 • Binary "raw" disk images containing MBR or GPT partition tables and
41 Linux file system partitions. (These must be regular files, with
42 the .raw suffix.)
43
45 The following commands are understood:
46 list
48 List available portable service images. This will list all portable
49 service images discovered in the portable image search paths (see
50 below), along with brief metadata and state information. Note that
51 many of the commands below may both operate on images inside and
52 outside of the search paths. This command is hence mostly a
53 convenience option, the commands are generally not restricted to
54 what this list shows.
55 attach IMAGE [PREFIX...]
57 Attach a portable service image to the host system. Expects a file
58 system path to a portable service image file or directory as first
59 argument. If the specified path contains no slash character ("/")
60 it is understood as image filename that is searched for in the
61 portable service image search paths (see below). To reference a
62 file in the current working directory prefix the filename with "./"
63 to avoid this search path logic.
64 When a portable service is attached four operations are executed:
66 1. All unit files of types .service, .socket, .target, .timer and
68 .path which match the indicated unit file name prefix are
69 copied from the image to the host's
70 /etc/systemd/system.attached/ directory (or
71 /run/systemd/system.attached/ — depending whether --runtime is
72 specified, see below), which is included in the built-in unit
73 search path of the system service manager.
74 2. For unit files of type .service a drop-in is added to these
76 copies that adds RootDirectory= or RootImage= settings (see
77 systemd.unit(5) for details), that ensures these services are
78 run within the file system of the originating portable service
79 image.
80 3. A second drop-in is created: the "profile" drop-in, that may
82 contain additional security settings (and other settings). A
83 number of profiles are available by default but administrators
84 may define their own ones. See below.
85 4. If the portable service image file is not already in the search
87 path (see below), a symbolic link to it is created in
88 /etc/portables/ or /run/portables/, to make sure it is included
89 in it.
90 By default all unit files whose names start with a prefix generated
92 from the image's file name are copied out. Specifically, the prefix
93 is determined from the image file name with any suffix such as .raw
94 removed, truncated at the first occurrence of an underscore
95 character ("_"), if there is one. The underscore logic is supposed
96 to be used to versioning so that the an image file foobar_47.11.raw
97 will result in a unit file matching prefix of foobar. This prefix
98 is then compared with all unit files names contained in the image
99 in the usual directories, but only unit file names where the prefix
100 is followed by "-", "." or "@" are considered. Example: if a
101 portable service image file is named foobar_47.11.raw then by
102 default all its unit files with names such as
103 foobar-quux-waldi.service, foobar.service or foobar@.service will
104 be considered. It's possible to override the matching prefix: all
105 strings listed on the command line after the image file name are
106 considered prefixes, overriding the implicit logic where the prefix
107 is derived from the image file name.
108 By default, after the unit files are attached the service manager's
110 configuration is reloaded, except when --no-reload is specified
111 (see below). This ensures that the new units made available to the
112 service manager are seen by it.
113 If --now and/or --enable are passed, the portable services are
115 immediately started (blocking operation unless --no-block is
116 passed) and/or enabled after attaching the image.
117 detach IMAGE [PREFIX...]
119 Detaches a portable service image from the host. This undoes the
120 operations executed by the attach command above, and removes the
121 unit file copies, drop-ins and image symlink again. This command
122 expects an image name or path as parameter. Note that if a path is
123 specified only the last component of it (i.e. the file or directory
124 name itself, not the path to it) is used for finding matching unit
125 files. This is a convenience feature to allow all arguments passed
126 as attach also to detach.
127 If --now and/or --enable are passed, the portable services are
129 immediately stopped (blocking operation) and/or disabled before
130 detaching the image. Prefix(es) are also accepted, to be used in
131 case the unit names do not match the image name as described in the
132 attach.
133 reattach IMAGE [PREFIX...]
135 Detaches an existing portable service image from the host, and
136 immediately attaches it again. This is useful in case the image was
137 replaced. Running units are not stopped during the process. Partial
138 matching, to allow for different versions in the image name, is
139 allowed: only the part before the first "_" character has to match.
140 If the new image doesn't exist, the existing one will not be
141 detached. The parameters follow the same syntax as the attach
142 command.
143 If --now and/or --enable are passed, the portable services are
145 immediately stopped if removed, started and/or enabled if added, or
146 restarted if updated. Prefixes are also accepted, in the same way
147 as described in the attach case.
148 inspect IMAGE [PREFIX...]
150 Extracts various metadata from a portable service image and
151 presents it to the caller. Specifically, the os-release(5) file of
152 the image is retrieved as well as all matching unit files. By
153 default a short summary showing the most relevant metadata in
154 combination with a list of matching unit files is shown (that is
155 the unit files attach would install to the host system). If
156 combined with --cat (see above), the os-release data and the units
157 files' contents is displayed unprocessed. This command is useful to
158 determine whether an image qualifies as portable service image, and
159 which unit files are included. This command expects the path to the
160 image as parameter, optionally followed by a list of unit file
161 prefixes to consider, similar to the attach command described
162 above.
163 is-attached IMAGE
165 Determines whether the specified image is currently attached or
166 not. Unless combined with the --quiet switch this will show a short
167 state identifier for the image. Specifically:
168 Table 1. Image attachment states
170 ┌─────────────────┬────────────────────────────┐
171 │State │ Description │
172 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
173 │detached │ The image is currently not │
174 │ │ attached. │
175 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
176 │attached │ The image is currently │
177 │ │ attached, i.e. its unit │
178 │ │ files have been made │
179 │ │ available to the host │
180 │ │ system. │
181 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
182 │attached-runtime │ Like attached, but the │
183 │ │ unit files have been made │
184 │ │ available transiently │
185 │ │ only, i.e. the attach │
186 │ │ command has been invoked │
187 │ │ with the --runtime option. │
188 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
189 │enabled │ The image is currently │
190 │ │ attached, and at least one │
191 │ │ unit file associated with │
192 │ │ it has been enabled. │
193 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
194 │enabled-runtime │ Like enabled, but the unit │
195 │ │ files have been made │
196 │ │ available transiently │
197 │ │ only, i.e. the attach │
198 │ │ command has been invoked │
199 │ │ with the --runtime option. │
200 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
201 │running │ The image is currently │
202 │ │ attached, and at least one │
203 │ │ unit file associated with │
204 │ │ it is running. │
205 ├─────────────────┼────────────────────────────┤
206 │running-runtime │ The image is currently │
207 │ │ attached transiently, and │
208 │ │ at least one unit file │
209 │ │ associated with it is │
210 │ │ running. │
211 └─────────────────┴────────────────────────────┘
212 read-only IMAGE [BOOL]
214 Marks or (unmarks) a portable service image read-only. Takes an
215 image name, followed by a boolean as arguments. If the boolean is
216 omitted, positive is implied, i.e. the image is marked read-only.
217 remove IMAGE...
219 Removes one or more portable service images. Note that this command
220 will only remove the specified image path itself — it refers to a
221 symbolic link then the symbolic link is removed and not the image
222 it points to.
223 set-limit [IMAGE] BYTES
225 Sets the maximum size in bytes that a specific portable service
226 image, or all images, may grow up to on disk (disk quota). Takes
227 either one or two parameters. The first, optional parameter refers
228 to a portable service image name. If specified, the size limit of
229 the specified image is changed. If omitted, the overall size limit
230 of the sum of all images stored locally is changed. The final
231 argument specifies the size limit in bytes, possibly suffixed by
232 the usual K, M, G, T units. If the size limit shall be disabled,
233 specify "-" as size.
234 Note that per-image size limits are only supported on btrfs file
236 systems. Also, depending on BindPaths= settings in the portable
237 service's unit files directories from the host might be visible in
238 the image environment during runtime which are not affected by this
239 setting, as only the image itself is counted against this limit.
240
242 The following options are understood:
243 -q, --quiet
245 Suppresses additional informational output while running.
246 -p PROFILE, --profile=PROFILE
248 When attaching an image, select the profile to use. By default the
249 "default" profile is used. For details about profiles, see below.
250 --copy=
252 When attaching an image, select whether to prefer copying or
253 symlinking of files installed into the host system. Takes one of
254 "copy" (to prefer copying of files), "symlink" (to prefer creation
255 of symbolic links) or "auto" for an intermediary mode where
256 security profile drop-ins are symlinked while unit files are
257 copied. Note that this option expresses a preference only, in cases
258 where symbolic links cannot be created — for example when the image
259 operated on is a raw disk image, and hence not directly
260 referentiable from the host file system — copying of files is used
261 unconditionally.
262 --runtime
264 When specified the unit and drop-in files are placed in
265 /run/systemd/system.attached/ instead of
266 /etc/systemd/system.attached/. Images attached with this option set
267 hence remain attached only until the next reboot, while they are
268 normally attached persistently.
269 --no-reload
271 Don't reload the service manager after attaching or detaching a
272 portable service image. Normally the service manager is reloaded to
273 ensure it is aware of added or removed unit files.
274 --cat
276 When inspecting portable service images, show the (unprocessed)
277 contents of the metadata files pulled from the image, instead of
278 brief summaries. Specifically, this will show the os-release(5) and
279 unit file contents of the image.
280 --enable
282 Immediately enable/disable the portable service after
283 attaching/detaching.
284 --now
286 Immediately start/stop/restart the portable service after
287 attaching/before detaching/after upgrading.
288 --no-block
290 Don't block waiting for attach --now to complete.
291 --extension=PATH
293 Add an additional image PATH as an overlay on top of IMAGE when
294 attaching/detaching. This argument can be specified multiple times,
295 in which case the order in which images are laid down follows the
296 rules specified in systemd.exec(5) for the ExtensionImages=
297 directive and for the systemd-sysext(8) tool. The images must
298 contain an extension-release file with metadata that matches what
299 is defined in the os-release of IMAGE. See: os-release(5). Images
300 can be block images, btrfs subvolumes or directories. For more
301 information on portable services with extensions, see the
302 "Extension Images" paragraph on Portable Services Documentation[1].
303 Note that the same extensions have to be specified, in the same
305 order, when attaching and detaching.
306 --force
308 Skip safety checks and attach or detach images (with extensions)
309 without first ensuring that the units are not running, and do not
310 insist that the extension-release.NAME file in the extension image
311 has to match the image filename.
312 -H, --host=
314 Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username
315 and hostname separated by "@", to connect to. The hostname may
316 optionally be suffixed by a port ssh is listening on, separated by
317 ":", and then a container name, separated by "/", which connects
318 directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will
319 use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager instance. Container
320 names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST. Put IPv6 addresses
321 in brackets.
322 -M, --machine=
324 Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to
325 connect to, optionally prefixed by a user name to connect as and a
326 separating "@" character. If the special string ".host" is used in
327 place of the container name, a connection to the local system is
328 made (which is useful to connect to a specific user's user bus:
329 "--user --machine=lennart@.host"). If the "@" syntax is not used,
330 the connection is made as root user. If the "@" syntax is used
331 either the left hand side or the right hand side may be omitted
332 (but not both) in which case the local user name and ".host" are
333 implied.
334 --no-pager
336 Do not pipe output into a pager.
337 --no-legend
339 Do not print the legend, i.e. column headers and the footer with
340 hints.
341 --no-ask-password
343 Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
344 -h, --help
346 Print a short help text and exit.
347 --version
349 Print a short version string and exit.
350
352 Portable service images are preferably stored in /var/lib/portables/,
353 but are also searched for in /etc/portables/, /run/systemd/portables/,
354 /usr/local/lib/portables/ and /usr/lib/portables/. It's recommended not
355 to place image files directly in /etc/portables/ or
356 /run/systemd/portables/ (as these are generally not suitable for
357 storing large or non-textual data), but use these directories only for
358 linking images located elsewhere into the image search path.
359 When a portable service image is attached, matching unit files are
361 copied onto the host into the /etc/systemd/system.attached/ and
362 /run/systemd/system.attached/ directories. When an image is detached,
363 the unit files are removed again from these directories.
364
366 When portable service images are attached a "profile" drop-in is linked
367 in, which may be used to enforce additional security (and other)
368 restrictions locally. Four profile drop-ins are defined by default, and
369 shipped in /usr/lib/systemd/portable/profile/. Additional, local
370 profiles may be defined by placing them in
371 /etc/systemd/portable/profile/. The default profiles are:
372 Table 2. Profiles
374 ┌──────────┬────────────────────────────┐
375 │Name │ Description │
376 ├──────────┼────────────────────────────┤
377 │default │ This is the default │
378 │ │ profile if no other │
379 │ │ profile name is set via │
380 │ │ the --profile= (see │
381 │ │ above). It's fairly │
382 │ │ restrictive, but should be │
383 │ │ useful for common, │
384 │ │ unprivileged system │
385 │ │ workloads. This includes │
386 │ │ write access to the │
387 │ │ logging framework, as well │
388 │ │ as IPC access to the D-Bus │
389 │ │ system. │
390 ├──────────┼────────────────────────────┤
391 │nonetwork │ Very similar to default, │
392 │ │ but networking is turned │
393 │ │ off for any services of │
394 │ │ the portable service │
395 │ │ image. │
396 ├──────────┼────────────────────────────┤
397 │strict │ A profile with very strict │
398 │ │ settings. This profile │
399 │ │ excludes IPC (D-Bus) and │
400 │ │ network access. │
401 ├──────────┼────────────────────────────┤
402 │trusted │ A profile with very │
403 │ │ relaxed settings. In this │
404 │ │ profile the services run │
405 │ │ with full privileges. │
406 └──────────┴────────────────────────────┘
407 For details on these profiles and their effects see their precise
409 definitions, e.g.
410 /usr/lib/systemd/portable/profile/default/service.conf and similar.
411
413 On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
414
416 $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
417 The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher
418 log level, i.e. less important ones, will be suppressed). Either
419 one of (in order of decreasing importance) emerg, alert, crit, err,
420 warning, notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range 0...7. See
421 syslog(3) for more information.
422 $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
424 A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored
425 according to priority.
426 This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
428 the terminal, because journalctl(1) and other tools that display
429 logs will color messages based on the log level on their own.
430 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
432 A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a
433 timestamp.
434 This setting is only useful when messages are written directly to
436 the terminal or a file, because journalctl(1) and other tools that
437 display logs will attach timestamps based on the entry metadata on
438 their own.
439 $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
441 A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and
442 line number in the source code where the message originates.
443 Note that the log location is often attached as metadata to journal
445 entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
446 nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
447 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
449 A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current
450 numerical thread ID (TID).
451 Note that the this information is attached as metadata to journal
453 entries anyway. Including it directly in the message text can
454 nevertheless be convenient when debugging programs.
455 $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
457 The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the
458 attached tty), console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with
459 prefixes encoding the log level and "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg
460 (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log to the
461 journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to
462 kmsg otherwise), auto (determine the appropriate log target
463 automatically, the default), null (disable log output).
464 $SYSTEMD_PAGER
466 Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If
467 neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known
468 pager implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and
469 more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
470 discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable
471 to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing
472 --no-pager.
473 Note: if $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set, $SYSTEMD_PAGER (as well
475 as $PAGER) will be silently ignored.
476 $SYSTEMD_LESS
478 Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
479 Users might want to change two options in particular:
481 K
483 This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C
484 is pressed. To allow less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch
485 back to the pager command prompt, unset this option.
486 If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the
488 pager that is invoked is less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the
489 executable, and needs to be handled by the pager.
490 X
492 This option instructs the pager to not send termcap
493 initialization and deinitialization strings to the terminal. It
494 is set by default to allow command output to remain visible in
495 the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless, this
496 prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular
497 paged output cannot be scrolled with the mouse.
498 See less(1) for more discussion.
500 $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
502 Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the
503 invoking terminal is determined to be UTF-8 compatible).
504 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
506 Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager
507 is enabled; if false, disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set
508 at all, secure mode is enabled if the effective UID is not the same
509 as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2) and
510 sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set
511 when invoking the pager, and the pager shall disable commands that
512 open or create new files or start new subprocesses. When
513 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not known
514 to implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1)
515 implements secure mode.)
516 Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for
518 example under sudo(8) or pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure
519 that unintended interactive features are not enabled. "Secure" mode
520 for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
521 Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited
522 environment allows the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that
523 if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER variables are to be honoured,
524 $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be reasonable to
525 completely disable the pager using --no-pager instead.
526 $SYSTEMD_COLORS
528 Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities
529 will use colors in their output, otherwise the output will be
530 monochrome. Additionally, the variable can take one of the
531 following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors
532 to the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be
533 specified to override the automatic decision based on $TERM and
534 what the console is connected to.
535 $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
537 The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links
538 should be generated in the output for terminal emulators supporting
539 this. This can be specified to override the decision that systemd
540 makes based on $TERM and other conditions.
541
543 systemd(1), systemd-sysext(8), org.freedesktop.portable1(5), systemd-
544 portabled.service(8)
545
547 1. Portable Services Documentation
548 https://systemd.io/PORTABLE_SERVICES
549systemd 253 PORTABLECTL(1)