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NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
CONFIGURATION DIRECTORIES AND PRECEDENCE
CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
SPECIFIERS
EXAMPLES
/RUN/ AND /VAR/RUN/
SEE ALSO
NOTES
other versions
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257.9-1~deb13u1
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260.1-1
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260.1-1
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systemd
systemd-standalone-tmpfiles
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TMPFILES.D(5)
tmpfiles.d
TMPFILES.D(5)
NAME
tmpfiles.d - Configuration for creation, deletion, and cleaning of
files and directories
SYNOPSIS
/etc/tmpfiles.d/*.conf
/run/tmpfiles.d/*.conf
/usr/local/lib/tmpfiles.d/*.conf
/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/*.conf
~/.config/user-tmpfiles.d/*.conf
$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/user-tmpfiles.d/*.conf
~/.local/share/user-tmpfiles.d/*.conf
...
/usr/local/share/user-tmpfiles.d/*.conf
/usr/share/user-tmpfiles.d/*.conf
#Type Path Mode User Group Age Argument
f /file/to/create mode user group - content
f+ /file/to/create-or-truncate mode user group - content
w /file/to/write-to - - - - content
w+ /file/to/append-to - - - - content
d /directory/to/create-and-clean-up mode user group cleanup-age -
D /directory/to/create-and-remove mode user group cleanup-age -
e /directory/to/clean-up mode user group cleanup-age -
v /subvolume-or-directory/to/create mode user group cleanup-age -
q /subvolume-or-directory/to/create mode user group cleanup-age -
Q /subvolume-or-directory/to/create mode user group cleanup-age -
p /fifo/to/create mode user group - -
p+ /fifo/to/[re]create mode user group - -
L /symlink/to/create - - - - symlink/target/path
L+ /symlink/to/[re]create - - - - symlink/target/path
c /dev/char-device-to-create mode user group - major:minor
c+ /dev/char-device-to-[re]create mode user group - major:minor
b /dev/block-device-to-create mode user group - major:minor
b+ /dev/block-device-to-[re]create mode user group - major:minor
C /target/to/create - - - cleanup-age /source/to/copy
C+ /target/to/create - - - cleanup-age /source/to/copy
x /path-or-glob/to/ignore/recursively - - - cleanup-age -
X /path-or-glob/to/ignore - - - cleanup-age -
r /path-or-glob/to/remove - - - - -
R /path-or-glob/to/remove/recursively - - - - -
z /path-or-glob/to/adjust/mode mode user group - -
Z /path-or-glob/to/adjust/mode/recursively mode user group - -
t /path-or-glob/to/set/xattrs - - - - xattrs
T /path-or-glob/to/set/xattrs/recursively - - - - xattrs
h /path-or-glob/to/set/attrs - - - - file attrs
H /path-or-glob/to/set/attrs/recursively - - - - file attrs
a /path-or-glob/to/set/acls - - - - POSIX ACLs
a+ /path-or-glob/to/append/acls - - - - POSIX ACLs
A /path-or-glob/to/set/acls/recursively - - - - POSIX ACLs
A+ /path-or-glob/to/append/acls/recursively - - - - POSIX ACLs
DESCRIPTION
tmpfiles.d configuration files provide a generic mechanism to
define the
creation
of regular files, directories, pipes, and device
nodes, adjustments to their
access mode, ownership, attributes, quota
assignments, and contents
, and finally their time-based
removal
It is mostly commonly used for volatile and temporary files and directories
(such as those located under /run/, /tmp/, /var/tmp/, the API file systems
such as /sys/ or /proc/, as well as some other directories below /var/).
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
uses this configuration to create
volatile files and directories during boot and to do periodic cleanup
afterwards. See
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
for the description of
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service, and
associated units.
System daemons frequently require private runtime directories
below /run/ to store communication sockets and similar. For these, it is
better to use
RuntimeDirectory=
in their unit files (see
systemd.exec(5)
for details), if the flexibility provided by
tmpfiles.d is not required. The advantages are that the configuration
required by the unit is centralized in one place, and that the lifetime of
the directory is tied to the lifetime of the service itself. Similarly,
StateDirectory=
CacheDirectory=
LogsDirectory=
, and
ConfigurationDirectory=
should be used to create directories under
/var/lib/, /var/cache/, /var/log/, and /etc/. tmpfiles.d should be used for
files whose lifetime is independent of any service or requires more
complicated configuration.
CONFIGURATION DIRECTORIES AND PRECEDENCE
Each configuration file shall be named in the style of
package
.conf or
package
part
.conf. The second variant
should be used when it is desirable to make it easy to override just this
part of configuration.
Files in /etc/tmpfiles.d override files with the same name in
/usr/lib/tmpfiles.d and /run/tmpfiles.d. Files in /run/tmpfiles.d override
files with the same name in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d. Packages should install
their configuration files in /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d. Files in /etc/tmpfiles.d
are reserved for the local administrator, who may use this logic to override
the configuration files installed by vendor packages. All configuration
files are sorted by their filename in lexicographic order, regardless of
which of the directories they reside in. If multiple files specify the same
path, the entry in the file with the lexicographically earliest name will be
applied (note that lines suppressed due to the "!" are filtered
before application, meaning that if an early line carries the exclamation
mark and is suppressed because of that, a later line matching in path will
be applied). All other conflicting entries will be logged as errors. When
two lines are prefix path and suffix path of each other, then the prefix
line is always created first, the suffix later (and if removal applies to
the line, the order is reversed: the suffix is removed first, the prefix
later). Lines that take globs are applied after those accepting no globs. If
multiple operations shall be applied on the same file (such as ACL, xattr,
file attribute adjustments), these are always done in the same fixed order.
Except for those cases, the files/directories are processed in the order
they are listed.
If the administrator wants to disable a configuration file
supplied by the vendor, the recommended way is to place a symlink to
/dev/null in /etc/tmpfiles.d/ bearing the same filename.
CONFIGURATION FILE FORMAT
The configuration format is one line per path, containing type,
path, mode, ownership, age, and argument fields. The lines are separated by
newlines, the fields by whitespace:
#Type Path Mode User Group Age Argument...
d /run/user 0755 root root 10d -
L /tmp/foobar - - - - /dev/null
Fields may contain C-style escapes. With the exception of the
seventh field (the "argument") all fields may be enclosed in
quotes. Note that any whitespace found in the line after the beginning of
the argument field will be considered part of the argument field. To begin
the argument field with a whitespace character, use C-style escapes (e.g.
"\x20").
Type
The type consists of a single letter and optionally one or more
modifier characters: a plus sign ("+"), exclamation mark
("!"), minus sign ("-"), equals sign ("="),
tilde character ("~") and/or caret ("^").
The following line types are understood:
f+
will create a file if it does not exist yet. If
the argument parameter is given and the file did not exist yet, it will be
written to the file.
f+
will create or truncate the file. If the
argument parameter is given, it will be written to the file. Does not follow
symlinks.
w+
Write the argument parameter to a file, if the file
exists. If suffixed with
, the line will be appended to the file. If
your configuration writes multiple lines to the same file, use
w+
Lines of this type accept shell-style globs in place of normal path names. The
argument parameter will be written without a trailing newline. C-style
backslash escapes are interpreted. Follows symlinks.
Create a directory. The mode and ownership will be
adjusted if specified. Contents of this directory are subject to time-based
cleanup if the age argument is specified.
Similar to
, but in addition the contents of the
directory will be removed when
--remove
is used.
Adjust the mode and ownership of existing directories and
remove their contents based on age. Lines of this type accept shell-style
globs in place of normal path names. Contents of the directories are subject
to time-based cleanup if the age argument is specified. If the age argument is
"0", contents will be unconditionally deleted every time
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
--clean
is run.
For this entry to be useful, at least one of the mode, user,
group, or age arguments must be specified, since otherwise this entry has no
effect. As an exception, an entry with no effect may be useful when combined
with
, see the examples.
Added in version 230.
Create a subvolume if the path does not exist yet, the
file system supports subvolumes (btrfs), and the system itself is installed
into a subvolume (specifically: the root directory / is itself a subvolume).
Otherwise, create a normal directory, in the same way as
A subvolume created with this line type is not assigned to any
higher-level quota group. For that, use
or
, which allow
creating simple quota group hierarchies, see below.
Added in version 219.
Create a subvolume or directory the same as
, but
assign the subvolume to the same higher-level quota groups as the parent. This
ensures that higher-level limits and accounting applied to the parent
subvolume also include the specified subvolume. On non-btrfs file systems,
this line type is identical to
If the subvolume already exists, no change to the quota hierarchy
is made, regardless of whether the subvolume is already attached to a quota
group or not. Also see
below. See
btrfs-qgroup(8)
for
details about the btrfs quota group concept.
Added in version 228.
Create the subvolume or directory the same as
but assign the new subvolume to a new leaf quota group. Instead of copying the
higher-level quota group assignments from the parent as is done with
the lowest quota group of the parent subvolume is determined that is not the
leaf quota group. Then, an "intermediary" quota group is inserted
that is one level below this level, and shares the same ID part as the
specified subvolume. If no higher-level quota group exists for the parent
subvolume, a new quota group at level 255 sharing the same ID as the specified
subvolume is inserted instead. This new intermediary quota group is then
assigned to the parent subvolume's higher-level quota groups, and the
specified subvolume's leaf quota group is assigned to it.
Effectively, this has a similar effect as
, however
introduces a new higher-level quota group for the specified subvolume that
may be used to enforce limits and accounting to the specified subvolume and
children subvolume created within it. Thus, by creating subvolumes only via
and
, a concept of "subtree quotas" is
implemented. Each subvolume for which
is set will get a
"subtree" quota group created, and all child subvolumes created
within it will be assigned to it. Each subvolume for which
is set
will not get such a "subtree" quota group, but it is ensured that
they are added to the same "subtree" quota group as their
immediate parents.
It is recommended to use
for subvolumes that typically
contain further subvolumes, and where it is desirable to have accounting and
quota limits on all child subvolumes together. Examples for
are
typically /home/ or /var/lib/machines/. In contrast,
should be used
for subvolumes that either usually do not include further subvolumes or
where no accounting and quota limits are needed that apply to all child
subvolumes together. Examples for
are typically /var/ or
/var/tmp/.
As with
has no effect on the quota group
hierarchy if the subvolume already exists, regardless of whether the
subvolume already belong to a quota group or not.
Added in version 228.
p+
Create a named pipe (FIFO) if it does not exist yet. If
suffixed with
and a file already exists where the pipe is to be
created, it will be removed and be replaced by the pipe.
L+
L?
Create a symlink if it does not exist yet. If suffixed
with
and a file or directory already exists where the symlink is to
be created, it will be removed and be replaced by the symlink. If suffixed
with
and the source path does not exist, the symlink is not created.
If the argument is omitted, symlinks to files with the same name residing in
the directory /usr/share/factory/ are created. Note that permissions on
symlinks are ignored.
c+
Create a character device node if it does not exist yet.
If suffixed with
and a file already exists where the device node is
to be created, it will be removed and be replaced by the device node. It is
recommended to suffix this entry with an exclamation mark to only create
static device nodes at boot, as udev will not manage static device nodes that
are created at runtime.
b+
Create a block device node if it does not exist yet. If
suffixed with
and a file already exists where the device node is to
be created, it will be removed and be replaced by the device node. It is
recommended to suffix this entry with an exclamation mark to only create
static device nodes at boot, as udev will not manage static device nodes that
are created at runtime.
C+
Recursively copy a file or directory, if the destination
files or directories do not exist yet or the destination directory is empty.
Note that this command will not descend into subdirectories if the destination
directory already exists and is not empty, unless the action is suffixed with
. Instead, the entire copy operation is skipped. If the argument is
omitted, files from the source directory /usr/share/factory/ with the same
name are copied. Does not follow symlinks. Contents of the directories are
subject to time-based cleanup if the age argument is specified.
Added in version 214.
Ignore a path during cleaning. Use this type to exclude
paths from clean-up as controlled with the Age parameter. Lines of this type
accept shell-style globs in place of normal path names.
Ignore a path during cleaning. Use this type to exclude
paths from clean-up as controlled with the Age parameter. Unlike
this parameter will not exclude the content if path is a directory, but only
directory itself. Lines of this type accept shell-style globs in place of
normal path names.
Added in version 198.
Remove a file or directory if it exists. This may not be
used to remove non-empty directories, use
for that. Lines of this
type accept shell-style globs in place of normal path names. Does not follow
symlinks.
Recursively remove a path and all its subdirectories (if
it is a directory). Lines of this type accept shell-style globs in place of
normal path names. Does not follow symlinks.
Adjust the access mode, user and group ownership, and
restore the SELinux security context of a file or directory, if it exists.
Lines of this type accept shell-style globs in place of normal path names.
Does not follow symlinks.
Recursively set the access mode, user and group
ownership, and restore the SELinux security context of a file or directory if
it exists, as well as of its subdirectories and the files contained therein
(if applicable). Lines of this type accept shell-style globs in place of
normal path names. Does not follow symlinks.
Set extended attributes, see
attr
(5) for details.
The argument field should take one or more assignment expressions in the form
namespace
attribute
value
, for examples see below. Lines
of this type accept shell-style globs in place of normal path names. This can
be useful for setting SMACK labels. Does not follow symlinks.
Please note that extended attributes settable with this line type
are a different concept from the Linux file attributes settable with
, see below.
Added in version 218.
Same as
, but operates recursively.
Added in version 219.
Set Linux file/directory attributes. Lines of this type
accept shell-style globs in place of normal path names.
The format of the argument field is
[+-=][aAcCdDeijPsStTu]
The prefix
(the default one) causes the attributes to be added;
causes the attributes to be removed;
causes the attributes
to be set exactly as the following letters. The letters
"aAcCdDeijPsStTu" select the new attributes for the files, see
chattr(1)
for further information.
Passing only
as argument resets all the file attributes
listed above. It has to be pointed out that the
prefix limits
itself to the attributes corresponding to the letters listed here. All other
attributes will be left untouched. Does not follow symlinks.
Please note that the Linux file attributes settable with this line
type are a different concept from the extended attributes settable with
, see above.
Sames as
, but operates recursively.
Added in version 220.
a+
Set POSIX ACLs (access control lists), see
acl(5)
Additionally, if 'X' is used, the execute bit is set only if the file is a
directory or already has execute permission for some user, as mentioned in
setfacl(1)
. If suffixed with
, the specified entries will be
added to the existing set.
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
will automatically add
the required base entries for user and group based on the access mode of the
file, unless base entries already exist or are explicitly specified. The mask
will be added if not specified explicitly or already present. Lines of this
type accept shell-style globs in place of normal path names. This can be
useful for allowing additional access to certain files. Does not follow
symlinks.
Added in version 219.
A+
Same as
and
a+
, but recursive. Does not
follow symlinks.
Added in version 219.
Type Modifiers
If the exclamation mark ("!") is used, this line is only
safe to execute during boot, and can break a running system. Lines without
the exclamation mark are presumed to be safe to execute at any time, e.g. on
package upgrades.
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
will take lines with an
exclamation mark only into consideration, if the
--boot
option is
given.
For example:
# Make sure these are created by default so that nobody else can
d /tmp/.X11-unix 1777 root root 10d
# Unlink the X11 lock files
r! /tmp/.X[0-9]*-lock
The second line in contrast to the first one would break a running
system, and will only be executed with
--boot
If the minus sign ("-") is used, this line failing to
run successfully during create (and only create) will not cause the
execution of
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
to return an error.
For example:
# Modify sysfs but do not fail if we are in a container with a read-only /proc
w- /proc/sys/vm/swappiness - - - - 10
If the equals sign ("=") is used, the file types of
existing objects in the specified path are checked, and removed if they do
not match. This includes any implicitly created parent directories (which
can be either directories or directory symlinks). For example, if there is a
FIFO in place of one of the parent path components it will be replaced with
a directory.
If the tilde character ("~") is used, the argument (i.e.
6th) column is
Base64 decoded
[1] before use. This modifier is only
supported on line types that can write file contents, i.e.
f+
. This is useful for writing arbitrary binary
data (including newlines and NUL bytes) to files. Note that if this switch
is used, the argument is not subject to specifier expansion, neither before
nor after Base64 decoding.
If the caret character ("^") is used, the argument (i.e.
6th) column takes a service credential name to read the argument data from.
See
System and Service Credentials
[2] for details about the
credentials concept. This modifier is only supported on line types that can
write file contents, i.e.
f+
w+
. This is
useful for writing arbitrary files with contents sourced from elsewhere,
including from VM or container managers further up. If the specified
credential is not set for the
systemd-tmpfiles
service, the line is
silently skipped. If "^" and "~" are combined Base64
decoding is applied to the credential contents.
If the dollar sign ("$") is used, the file becomes
subject to removal when
systemd-tmpfiles
is invoked with the
--purge
switch. Lines without this character are unaffected by that
switch.
Note that for all line types that result in creation of any kind
of file node (i.e.
and
) leading directories are
implicitly created if needed, owned by root with an access mode of 0755. In
order to create them with different modes or ownership make sure to add
appropriate
lines.
Path
The file system path specification supports simple specifier
expansion, see below. The path (after expansion) must be absolute.
Mode
The file access mode to use when creating this file or directory.
If omitted or when set to "-", the default is used: 0755 for
directories, 0644 for all other file objects. For
lines,
if omitted or when set to "-", the file access mode will not be
modified. This parameter is ignored for
, and
lines.
Optionally, if prefixed with "~", the access mode is
masked based on the already set access bits for existing file or
directories: if the existing file has all executable bits unset, all
executable bits are removed from the new access mode, too. Similarly, if all
read bits are removed from the old access mode, they will be removed from
the new access mode too, and if all write bits are removed, they will be
removed from the new access mode too. In addition, the sticky/SUID/SGID bit
is removed unless applied to a directory. This functionality is particularly
useful in conjunction with
By default the access mode of listed inodes is set to the
specified mode regardless if it is created anew, or already existed.
Optionally, if prefixed with ":", the configured access mode is
only applied when creating new inodes, and if the inode the line refers to
already exists, its access mode is left in place unmodified.
User, Group
The user and group to use for this file or directory. This may
either be a numeric ID or a user/group name. If omitted or when set to
"-", the user and group of the user who invokes
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
is used. For
and
lines, when
omitted or when set to "-", the file ownership will not be
modified. These parameters are ignored for
, and
lines.
This field should generally only reference system users/groups,
i.e. users/groups that are guaranteed to be resolvable during early boot. If
this field references users/groups that only become resolveable during later
boot (i.e. after NIS, LDAP or a similar networked directory service become
available), execution of the operations declared by the line will likely
fail. Also see
Notes on Resolvability of User and Group Names
[3] for
more information on requirements on system user/group definitions.
By default the ownership of listed inodes is set to the specified
user/group regardless if it is created anew, or already existed. Optionally,
if prefixed with ":", the configured user/group information is
only applied when creating new inodes, and if the inode the line refers to
already exists, its user/group is left in place unmodified.
Age
The date field, when set, is used to decide what files to delete
when cleaning. If a file or directory is older than the current time minus
the age field, it is deleted. The field format is a series of integers each
followed by one of the following suffixes for the respective time units:
or
min
ms
and
us
, meaning seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, milliseconds,
and microseconds, respectively. Full names of the time units can be used
too.
If multiple integers and units are specified, the time values are
summed. If an integer is given without a unit,
is assumed.
When the age is set to zero, the files are cleaned
unconditionally.
The age field only applies to lines starting with
and
. If omitted or set to "-", no automatic clean-up is
done.
If the age field starts with a tilde character "~",
clean-up is only applied to files and directories one level inside the
directory specified, but not the files and directories immediately inside
it.
The age of a file system entry is determined from its last
modification timestamp (mtime), its last access timestamp (atime), and
(except for directories) its last status change timestamp (ctime). By
default, any of these three (or two) values will prevent cleanup if it is
more recent than the current time minus the age field. To restrict the
deletion based on particular type of file timestamps, the age-by argument
can be used.
The age-by argument overrides the timestamp types to be used for
the age check. It can be specified by prefixing the age argument with a
sequence of characters to specify the timestamp types and a colon
(":"): "
age-by
...:
cleanup-age
". The
argument can consist of
for directories),
for directories),
for directories), or
for directories). Those respectively indicate access, creation,
last status change, and last modification time of a file system entry. The
lower-case letter signifies that the given timestamp type should be
considered for files, while the upper-case letter signifies that the given
timestamp type should be considered for directories. See
statx(2)
file timestamp fields for more details about timestamp types.
If not specified, the age-by field defaults to
abcmABM
i.e. by default all file timestamps are taken into consideration, with the
exception of the last status change timestamp (ctime) for directories. This
is because the aging logic itself will alter the ctime whenever it deletes a
file inside it. To ensure that running the aging logic does not feed back
into the next iteration of itself, ctime for directories is ignored by
default.
For example:
# Files created and modified, and directories accessed more than
# an hour ago in "/tmp/foo/bar", are subject to time-based cleanup.
d /tmp/foo/bar - - - bmA:1h -
Note that while the aging algorithm is run an exclusive BSD file
lock (see
flock(2)
) is taken on each directory/file the algorithm
decides to remove. If the aging algorithm finds a lock (shared or exclusive)
is already taken on some directory/file, it (and everything below it) is
skipped. Applications may use this to temporarily exclude certain directory
subtrees from the aging algorithm: the applications can take a BSD file lock
themselves, and as long as they keep it aging of the directory/file and
everything below it is disabled.
This behavior can be used to ensure guaranteed cleanup of files or
directories whose lifetime should be aligned with the process that created
them by having that process create them in a location monitored by
systemd-tmpfiles
with an age of "0", and having the process
immediately lock the directory or file before using it. Because the BSD lock
is process specific, the file is guaranteed to be unlocked as soon as the
process exits, meaning that even if the process crashes, those files and
directories will be unlocked and cleaned up by
systemd-tmpfiles
Argument
For
lines determines the destination path of the symlink.
For
and
, determines the major/minor of the device node,
with major and minor formatted as integers, separated by ":", e.g.
"1:3". For
and
, the argument may be used to
specify a short string that is written to the file, suffixed by a newline.
For
, specifies the source file or directory. For
and
, determines extended attributes to be set. For
and
, determines ACL attributes to be set. For
and
determines the file attributes to set. Ignored for all other lines.
This field can contain specifiers, see below.
SPECIFIERS
Specifiers can be used in the "path" and
"argument" fields. An unknown or unresolvable specifier is treated
as invalid configuration. The following expansions are understood:
Table 1. Specifiers available
Specifier
Meaning
Details
"%a"
Architecture
A short string identifying the architecture of the local system. A
string such as
x86
x86-64
or
arm64
. See the
architectures defined for
ConditionArchitecture=
in
systemd.unit(5)
for a full list.
"%A"
Operating system image version
The operating system image version identifier of the running system, as
read from the
IMAGE_VERSION=
field of /etc/os-release. If not set,
resolves to an empty string. See
os-release(5)
for more
information.
"%b"
Boot ID
The boot ID of the running system, formatted as string. See
random(4)
for more information.
"%B"
Operating system build ID
The operating system build identifier of the running system, as read
from the
BUILD_ID=
field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves
to an empty string. See
os-release(5)
for more information.
"%C"
System or user cache directory
In
--user
mode, this is the same as
$XDG_CACHE_HOME
, and
/var/cache otherwise.
"%g"
User group
This is the name of the group running the command. In case of the system
instance this resolves to "root".
"%G"
User GID
This is the numeric GID of the group running the command. In case of the
system instance this resolves to
"%h"
User home directory
This is the home directory of the user running the command. In case of
the system instance this resolves to "/root".
"%H"
Host name
The hostname of the running system.
"%l"
Short host name
The hostname of the running system, truncated at the first dot to remove
any domain component.
"%L"
System or user log directory
In
--user
mode, this is the same as
$XDG_STATE_HOME
with
/log appended, and /var/log otherwise.
"%m"
Machine ID
The machine ID of the running system, formatted as string. See
machine-id(5)
for more information.
"%M"
Operating system image identifier
The operating system image identifier of the running system, as read
from the
IMAGE_ID=
field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves
to an empty string. See
os-release(5)
for more information.
"%o"
Operating system ID
The operating system identifier of the running system, as read from the
ID=
field of /etc/os-release. See
os-release(5)
for more
information.
"%q"
Pretty host name
The pretty hostname of the running system, as read from the
PRETTY_HOSTNAME=
field of /etc/machine-info. If not set, resolves
to the short hostname. See
machine-info(5)
for more
information.
"%S"
System or user state directory
In
--user
mode, this is the same as
$XDG_STATE_HOME
, and
/var/lib otherwise.
"%t"
System or user runtime directory
In
--user
mode, this is the same
$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR
, and
/run/ otherwise.
"%T"
Directory for temporary files
This is either /tmp or the path "$TMPDIR", "$TEMP"
or "$TMP" are set to. (Note that the directory may be specified
without a trailing slash.)
"%u"
User name
This is the name of the user running the command. In case of the system
instance this resolves to "root".
"%U"
User UID
This is the numeric UID of the user running the command. In case of the
system instance this resolves to
"%v"
Kernel release
Identical to
uname -r
output.
"%V"
Directory for larger and persistent temporary files
This is either /var/tmp or the path "$TMPDIR",
"$TEMP" or "$TMP" are set to. (Note that the directory
may be specified without a trailing slash.)
"%w"
Operating system version ID
The operating system version identifier of the running system, as read
from the
VERSION_ID=
field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves
to an empty string. See
os-release(5)
for more information.
"%W"
Operating system variant ID
The operating system variant identifier of the running system, as read
from the
VARIANT_ID=
field of /etc/os-release. If not set, resolves
to an empty string. See
os-release(5)
for more information.
"%%"
Single percent sign
Use "%%" in place of "%" to specify a single percent
sign.
EXAMPLES
Example 1. Create directories with specific mode
and ownership
screen(1)
, needs two directories created at boot with
specific modes and ownership:
# /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/screen.conf
d /run/screens 1777 root screen 10d
d /run/uscreens 0755 root screen 10d12h
Contents of /run/screens and /run/uscreens will be cleaned up
after 10 and 10½ days, respectively.
Example 2. Create a directory with a SMACK
attribute
D /run/cups - - - -
t /run/cups - - - - security.SMACK64=printing user.attr-with-spaces="foo bar"
The directory will be owned by root and have default mode. Its
contents are not subject to time-based cleanup, but will be obliterated when
systemd-tmpfiles --remove
runs.
Example 3. Create a directory and prevent its
contents from cleanup
abrt
(1), needs a directory created at boot with specific
mode and ownership and its content should be preserved from the automatic
cleanup applied to the contents of /var/tmp:
# /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/tmp.conf
d /var/tmp 1777 root root 30d
# /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/abrt.conf
d /var/tmp/abrt 0755 abrt abrt -
Example 4. Apply clean up during boot and based
on time
# /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/dnf.conf
r! /var/cache/dnf/*/*/download_lock.pid
r! /var/cache/dnf/*/*/metadata_lock.pid
r! /var/lib/dnf/rpmdb_lock.pid
e /var/cache/dnf/ - - - 30d
The lock files will be removed during boot. Any files and
directories in /var/cache/dnf/ will be removed after they have not been
accessed in 30 days.
Example 5. Empty the contents of a cache
directory on boot
# /usr/lib/tmpfiles.d/krb5rcache.conf
e! /var/cache/krb5rcache - - - 0
Any files and subdirectories in /var/cache/krb5rcache/ will be
removed on boot. The directory will not be created.
Example 6. Provision SSH public key access for
root user via Credentials in QEMU
-smbios type=11,value=io.systemd.credential.binary:tmpfiles.extra=$(echo -e "d /root/.ssh 0750 root root -\nf~ /root/.ssh/authorized_keys 0600 root root - $(ssh-add -L | base64 -w 0)" | base64 -w 0)
By passing this line to QEMU, the public key of the current user
will be encoded in base64, added to a tmpfiles.d line that tells
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
to decode it into /root/.ssh/authorized_keys,
encode that line itself in base64 and pass it as a Credential that will be
picked up by systemd from SMBIOS on boot.
/RUN/ AND /VAR/RUN/
/var/run/ is a deprecated symlink to /run/, and applications
should use the latter.
systemd-tmpfiles
will warn if /var/run/ is
used.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1)
systemd-tmpfiles(8)
systemd-delta(1)
systemd.exec(5)
attr
(5),
getfattr(1)
setfattr(1)
setfacl(1)
getfacl(1)
chattr(1)
btrfs-subvolume(8)
btrfs-qgroup(8)
NOTES
1.
Base64 decoded
2.
System and Service Credentials
3.
Notes on Resolvability of User and Group Names
systemd 257.9
Source file:
tmpfiles.d.5.en.gz (from
systemd 257.9-1~deb13u1
Source last updated:
2025-09-03T18:38:20Z
Converted to HTML:
2026-04-11T20:45:30Z
debiman HEAD, see
github.com/Debian/debiman
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