SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8) systemd-tmpfiles SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)
NAME
systemd-tmpfiles, systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service, systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service, systemd-tmpfiles-
clean.timer - Creates, deletes and cleans up volatile and temporary files and directories
SYNOPSIS
systemd-tmpfiles [OPTIONS...] [CONFIGFILE...]
System units:
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
User units:
systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
DESCRIPTION
systemd-tmpfiles creates, deletes, and cleans up volatile and temporary files and directories, based on the configuration file format and
location specified in tmpfiles.d(5).
If invoked with no arguments, it applies all directives from all configuration files. If one or more absolute filenames are passed on the
command line, only the directives in these files are applied. If "-" is specified instead of a filename, directives are read from standard
input. If only the basename of a configuration file is specified, all configuration directories as specified in tmpfiles.d(5) are searched
for a matching file.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--create
If this option is passed, all files and directories marked with f, F, w, d, D, v, p, L, c, b, m in the configuration files are created
or written to. Files and directories marked with z, Z, t, T, a, and A have their ownership, access mode and security labels set.
--clean
If this option is passed, all files and directories with an age parameter configured will be cleaned up.
--remove
If this option is passed, the contents of directories marked with D or R, and files or directories themselves marked with r or R are
removed.
--user
Execute "user" configuration, i.e. tmpfiles.d files in user configuration directories.
--boot
Also execute lines with an exclamation mark.
--prefix=path
Only apply rules with paths that start with the specified prefix. This option can be specified multiple times.
--exclude-prefix=path
Ignore rules with paths that start with the specified prefix. This option can be specified multiple times.
--root=root
Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed with the given alternate root path, including config search paths.
Note that this option does not alter how the users and groups specified in the configuration files are resolved. With or without this
option, users and groups are always resolved according to the host's user and group databases, any such databases stored under the
specified root directories are not consulted.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
It is possible to combine --create, --clean, and --remove in one invocation. For example, during boot the following command line is
executed to ensure that all temporary and volatile directories are removed and created according to the configuration file:
systemd-tmpfiles --remove --create
UNPRIVILEGED --CLEANUP OPERATION
systemd-tmpfiles tries to avoid changing the access and modification times on the directories it accesses, which requires CAP_ADMIN
privileges. When running as non-root, directories which are checked for files to clean up will have their access time bumped, which might
prevent their cleanup.
EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned. If the configuration was invalid (invalid syntax, missing arguments, ...), so some lines had to be ignored, but
no other errors occurred, 65 is returned (EX_DATAERR from /usr/include/sysexits.h). Otherwise, 1 is returned (EXIT_FAILURE from
/usr/include/stdlib.h).
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), tmpfiles.d(5)
systemd 237 SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)