{
    "mode": "info",
    "parameter": "JOURNALD.CONF",
    "section": "",
    "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/info/JOURNALD.CONF/json",
    "generated": "2026-07-05T13:03:31Z",
    "synopsis": "/etc/systemd/journald.conf\n/etc/systemd/journald.conf.d/*.conf\n/run/systemd/journald.conf.d/*.conf\n/usr/lib/systemd/journald.conf.d/*.conf\n/etc/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf\n/etc/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf.d/*.conf\n/run/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf.d/*.conf\n/usr/lib/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf.d/*.conf",
    "sections": {
        "NAME": {
            "content": "journald.conf, journald.conf.d, journald@.conf - Journal service\nconfiguration files\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SYNOPSIS": {
            "content": "/etc/systemd/journald.conf\n\n/etc/systemd/journald.conf.d/*.conf\n\n/run/systemd/journald.conf.d/*.conf\n\n/usr/lib/systemd/journald.conf.d/*.conf\n\n/etc/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf\n\n/etc/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf.d/*.conf\n\n/run/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf.d/*.conf\n\n/usr/lib/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf.d/*.conf\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "DESCRIPTION": {
            "content": "These files configure various parameters of the systemd journal\nservice, systemd-journald.service(8). See systemd.syntax(7) for a\ngeneral description of the syntax.\n\nThe systemd-journald instance managing the default namespace is\nconfigured by /etc/systemd/journald.conf and associated drop-ins.\nInstances managing other namespaces read\n/etc/systemd/journald@NAMESPACE.conf and associated drop-ins with the\nnamespace identifier filled in. This allows each namespace to carry a\ndistinct configuration. See systemd-journald.service(8) for details\nabout journal namespaces.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "CONFIGURATION DIRECTORIES AND PRECEDENCE": {
            "content": "The default configuration is set during compilation, so configuration\nis only needed when it is necessary to deviate from those defaults.\nInitially, the main configuration file in /etc/systemd/ contains\ncommented out entries showing the defaults as a guide to the\nadministrator. Local overrides can be created by editing this file or\nby creating drop-ins, as described below. Using drop-ins for local\nconfiguration is recommended over modifications to the main\nconfiguration file.\n\nIn addition to the \"main\" configuration file, drop-in configuration\nsnippets are read from /usr/lib/systemd/*.conf.d/,\n/usr/local/lib/systemd/*.conf.d/, and /etc/systemd/*.conf.d/. Those\ndrop-ins have higher precedence and override the main configuration\nfile. Files in the *.conf.d/ configuration subdirectories are sorted by\ntheir filename in lexicographic order, regardless of in which of the\nsubdirectories they reside. When multiple files specify the same\noption, for options which accept just a single value, the entry in the\nfile sorted last takes precedence, and for options which accept a list\nof values, entries are collected as they occur in the sorted files.\n\nWhen packages need to customize the configuration, they can install\ndrop-ins under /usr/. Files in /etc/ are reserved for the local\nadministrator, who may use this logic to override the configuration\nfiles installed by vendor packages. Drop-ins have to be used to\noverride package drop-ins, since the main configuration file has lower\nprecedence. It is recommended to prefix all filenames in those\nsubdirectories with a two-digit number and a dash, to simplify the\nordering of the files.\n\nTo disable a configuration file supplied by the vendor, the recommended\nway is to place a symlink to /dev/null in the configuration directory\nin /etc/, with the same filename as the vendor configuration file.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "OPTIONS": {
            "content": "All options are configured in the [Journal] section:\n\nStorage=\nControls where to store journal data. One of \"volatile\",\n\"persistent\", \"auto\" and \"none\". If \"volatile\", journal log data\nwill be stored only in memory, i.e. below the /run/log/journal\nhierarchy (which is created if needed). If \"persistent\", data will\nbe stored preferably on disk, i.e. below the /var/log/journal\nhierarchy (which is created if needed), with a fallback to\n/run/log/journal (which is created if needed), during early boot\nand if the disk is not writable.  \"auto\" behaves like \"persistent\"\nif the /var/log/journal directory exists, and \"volatile\" otherwise\n(the existence of the directory controls the storage mode).  \"none\"\nturns off all storage, all log data received will be dropped (but\nforwarding to other targets, such as the console, the kernel log\nbuffer, or a syslog socket will still work). Defaults to \"auto\" in\nthe default journal namespace, and \"persistent\" in all others.\n\nNote that journald will initially use volatile storage, until a\ncall to journalctl --flush (or sending SIGUSR1 to journald) will\ncause it to switch to persistent logging (under the conditions\nmentioned above). This is done automatically on boot via\n\"systemd-journal-flush.service\".\n\nNote that when this option is changed to \"volatile\", existing\npersistent data is not removed. In the other direction,\njournalctl(1) with the --flush option may be used to move volatile\ndata to persistent storage.\n\nCompress=\nCan take a boolean value. If enabled (the default), data objects\nthat shall be stored in the journal and are larger than the default\nthreshold of 512 bytes are compressed before they are written to\nthe file system. It can also be set to a number of bytes to specify\nthe compression threshold directly. Suffixes like K, M, and G can\nbe used to specify larger units.\n\nSeal=\nTakes a boolean value. If enabled (the default), and a sealing key\nis available (as created by journalctl(1)'s --setup-keys command),\nForward Secure Sealing (FSS) for all persistent journal files is\nenabled. FSS is based on Seekable Sequential Key Generators[1] by\nG. A. Marson and B. Poettering (doi:10.1007/978-3-642-40203-67)\nand may be used to protect journal files from unnoticed alteration.\n\nSplitMode=\nControls whether to split up journal files per user, either \"uid\"\nor \"none\". Split journal files are primarily useful for access\ncontrol: on UNIX/Linux access control is managed per file, and the\njournal daemon will assign users read access to their journal\nfiles. If \"uid\", all regular users (with UID outside the range of\nsystem users, dynamic service users, and the nobody user) will each\nget their own journal files, and system users will log to the\nsystem journal. See Users, Groups, UIDs and GIDs on systemd\nsystems[2] for more details about UID ranges. If \"none\", journal\nfiles are not split up by user and all messages are instead stored\nin the single system journal. In this mode unprivileged users\ngenerally do not have access to their own log data. Note that\nsplitting up journal files by user is only available for journals\nstored persistently. If journals are stored on volatile storage\n(see Storage= above), only a single journal file is used. Defaults\nto \"uid\".\n\nRateLimitIntervalSec=, RateLimitBurst=\nConfigures the rate limiting that is applied to all messages\ngenerated on the system. If, in the time interval defined by\nRateLimitIntervalSec=, more messages than specified in\nRateLimitBurst= are logged by a service, all further messages\nwithin the interval are dropped until the interval is over. A\nmessage about the number of dropped messages is generated. This\nrate limiting is applied per-service, so that two services which\nlog do not interfere with each other's limits. Defaults to 10000\nmessages in 30s. The time specification for RateLimitIntervalSec=\nmay be specified in the following units: \"s\", \"min\", \"h\", \"ms\",\n\"us\". To turn off any kind of rate limiting, set either value to 0.\n\nNote that the effective rate limit is multiplied by a factor\nderived from the available free disk space for the journal.\nCurrently, this factor is calculated using the base 2 logarithm.\n\nTable 1. Example RateLimitBurst= rate modifications by the\navailable disk space\n+---------------------+------------------+\n|Available Disk Space | Burst Multiplier |\n+---------------------+------------------+\n|<= 1MB               | 1                |\n+---------------------+------------------+\n|<= 16MB              | 2                |\n+---------------------+------------------+\n|<= 256MB             | 3                |\n+---------------------+------------------+\n|<= 4GB               | 4                |\n+---------------------+------------------+\n|<= 64GB              | 5                |\n+---------------------+------------------+\n|<= 1TB               | 6                |\n+---------------------+------------------+\nIf a service provides rate limits for itself through\nLogRateLimitIntervalSec= and/or LogRateLimitBurst= in\nsystemd.exec(5), those values will override the settings specified\nhere.\n\nSystemMaxUse=, SystemKeepFree=, SystemMaxFileSize=, SystemMaxFiles=,\nRuntimeMaxUse=, RuntimeKeepFree=, RuntimeMaxFileSize=, RuntimeMaxFiles=\nEnforce size limits on the journal files stored. The options\nprefixed with \"System\" apply to the journal files when stored on a\npersistent file system, more specifically /var/log/journal. The\noptions prefixed with \"Runtime\" apply to the journal files when\nstored on a volatile in-memory file system, more specifically\n/run/log/journal. The former is used only when /var/ is mounted,\nwritable, and the directory /var/log/journal exists. Otherwise,\nonly the latter applies. Note that this means that during early\nboot and if the administrator disabled persistent logging, only the\nlatter options apply, while the former apply if persistent logging\nis enabled and the system is fully booted up.  journalctl and\nsystemd-journald ignore all files with names not ending with\n\".journal\" or \".journal~\", so only such files, located in the\nappropriate directories, are taken into account when calculating\ncurrent disk usage.\n\nSystemMaxUse= and RuntimeMaxUse= control how much disk space the\njournal may use up at most.  SystemKeepFree= and RuntimeKeepFree=\ncontrol how much disk space systemd-journald shall leave free for\nother uses.  systemd-journald will respect both limits and use the\nsmaller of the two values.\n\nThe first pair defaults to 10% and the second to 15% of the size of\nthe respective file system, but each value is capped to 4G. If the\nfile system is nearly full and either SystemKeepFree= or\nRuntimeKeepFree= are violated when systemd-journald is started, the\nlimit will be raised to the percentage that is actually free. This\nmeans that if there was enough free space before and journal files\nwere created, and subsequently something else causes the file\nsystem to fill up, journald will stop using more space, but it will\nnot be removing existing files to reduce the footprint again,\neither. Also note that only archived files are deleted to reduce\nthe space occupied by journal files. This means that, in effect,\nthere might still be more space used than SystemMaxUse= or\nRuntimeMaxUse= limit after a vacuuming operation is complete.\n\nSystemMaxFileSize= and RuntimeMaxFileSize= control how large\nindividual journal files may grow at most. This influences the\ngranularity in which disk space is made available through rotation,\ni.e. deletion of historic data. Defaults to one eighth of the\nvalues configured with SystemMaxUse= and RuntimeMaxUse=, so that\nusually seven rotated journal files are kept as history.\n\nSpecify values in bytes or use K, M, G, T, P, E as units for the\nspecified sizes (equal to 1024, 1024^2, ... bytes). Note that size\nlimits are enforced synchronously when journal files are extended,\nand no explicit rotation step triggered by time is needed.\n\nSystemMaxFiles= and RuntimeMaxFiles= control how many individual\njournal files to keep at most. Note that only archived files are\ndeleted to reduce the number of files until this limit is reached;\nactive files will stay around. This means that, in effect, there\nmight still be more journal files around in total than this limit\nafter a vacuuming operation is complete. This setting defaults to\n100.\n\nMaxFileSec=\nThe maximum time to store entries in a single journal file before\nrotating to the next one. Normally, time-based rotation should not\nbe required as size-based rotation with options such as\nSystemMaxFileSize= should be sufficient to ensure that journal\nfiles do not grow without bounds. However, to ensure that not too\nmuch data is lost at once when old journal files are deleted, it\nmight make sense to change this value from the default of one\nmonth. Set to 0 to turn off this feature. This setting takes time\nvalues which may be suffixed with the units \"year\", \"month\",\n\"week\", \"day\", \"h\" or \"m\" to override the default time unit of\nseconds.\n\nMaxRetentionSec=\nThe maximum time to store journal entries. This controls whether\njournal files containing entries older than the specified time span\nare deleted. Normally, time-based deletion of old journal files\nshould not be required as size-based deletion with options such as\nSystemMaxUse= should be sufficient to ensure that journal files do\nnot grow without bounds. However, to enforce data retention\npolicies, it might make sense to change this value from the default\nof 0 (which turns off this feature). This setting also takes time\nvalues which may be suffixed with the units \"year\", \"month\",\n\"week\", \"day\", \"h\" or \" m\" to override the default time unit of\nseconds.\n\nSyncIntervalSec=\nThe timeout before synchronizing journal files to disk. After\nsyncing, journal files are placed in the OFFLINE state. Note that\nsyncing is unconditionally done immediately after a log message of\npriority CRIT, ALERT or EMERG has been logged. This setting hence\napplies only to messages of the levels ERR, WARNING, NOTICE, INFO,\nDEBUG. The default timeout is 5 minutes.\n\nForwardToSyslog=, ForwardToKMsg=, ForwardToConsole=, ForwardToWall=\nControl whether log messages received by the journal daemon shall\nbe forwarded to a traditional syslog daemon, to the kernel log\nbuffer (kmsg), to the system console, or sent as wall messages to\nall logged-in users. These options take boolean arguments. If\nforwarding to syslog is enabled but nothing reads messages from the\nsocket, forwarding to syslog has no effect. By default, only\nforwarding to syslog and wall is enabled. These settings may be\noverridden at boot time with the kernel command line options\n\"systemd.journald.forwardtosyslog\",\n\"systemd.journald.forwardtokmsg\",\n\"systemd.journald.forwardtoconsole\", and\n\"systemd.journald.forwardtowall\". If the option name is specified\nwithout \"=\" and the following argument, true is assumed. Otherwise,\nthe argument is parsed as a boolean.\n\nWhen forwarding to the console, the TTY to log to can be changed\nwith TTYPath=, described below.\n\nWhen forwarding to the kernel log buffer (kmsg), make sure to\nselect a suitably large size for the log buffer, for example by\nadding \"logbuflen=8M\" to the kernel command line.  systemd will\nautomatically disable kernel's rate-limiting applied to userspace\nprocesses (equivalent to setting \"printk.devkmsg=on\").\n\nMaxLevelStore=, MaxLevelSyslog=, MaxLevelKMsg=, MaxLevelConsole=,\nMaxLevelWall=\nControls the maximum log level of messages that are stored in the\njournal, forwarded to syslog, kmsg, the console or wall (if that is\nenabled, see above). As argument, takes one of \"emerg\", \"alert\",\n\"crit\", \"err\", \"warning\", \"notice\", \"info\", \"debug\", or integer\nvalues in the range of 0-7 (corresponding to the same levels).\nMessages equal or below the log level specified are\nstored/forwarded, messages above are dropped. Defaults to \"debug\"\nfor MaxLevelStore= and MaxLevelSyslog=, to ensure that the all\nmessages are stored in the journal and forwarded to syslog.\nDefaults to \"notice\" for MaxLevelKMsg=, \"info\" for\nMaxLevelConsole=, and \"emerg\" for MaxLevelWall=. These settings may\nbe overridden at boot time with the kernel command line options\n\"systemd.journald.maxlevelstore=\",\n\"systemd.journald.maxlevelsyslog=\",\n\"systemd.journald.maxlevelkmsg=\",\n\"systemd.journald.maxlevelconsole=\",\n\"systemd.journald.maxlevelwall=\".\n\nReadKMsg=\nTakes a boolean value. If enabled systemd-journal processes\n/dev/kmsg messages generated by the kernel. In the default journal\nnamespace this option is enabled by default, it is disabled in all\nothers.\n\nAudit=\nTakes a boolean value. If enabled systemd-journal will turn on\nkernel auditing on start-up. If disabled it will turn it off. If\nunset it will neither enable nor disable it, leaving the previous\nstate unchanged. Note that this option does not control whether\nsystemd-journald collects generated audit records, it just controls\nwhether it tells the kernel to generate them. This means if another\ntool turns on auditing even if systemd-journald left it off, it\nwill still collect the generated messages. Defaults to off.\n\nTTYPath=\nChange the console TTY to use if ForwardToConsole=yes is used.\nDefaults to /dev/console.\n\nLineMax=\nThe maximum line length to permit when converting stream logs into\nrecord logs. When a systemd unit's standard output/error are\nconnected to the journal via a stream socket, the data read is\nsplit into individual log records at newline (\"\\n\", ASCII 10) and\nNUL characters. If no such delimiter is read for the specified\nnumber of bytes a hard log record boundary is artificially\ninserted, breaking up overly long lines into multiple log records.\nSelecting overly large values increases the possible memory usage\nof the Journal daemon for each stream client, as in the worst case\nthe journal daemon needs to buffer the specified number of bytes in\nmemory before it can flush a new log record to disk. Also note that\npermitting overly large line maximum line lengths affects\ncompatibility with traditional log protocols as log records might\nnot fit anymore into a single AFUNIX or AFINET datagram. Takes a\nsize in bytes. If the value is suffixed with K, M, G or T, the\nspecified size is parsed as Kilobytes, Megabytes, Gigabytes, or\nTerabytes (with the base 1024), respectively. Defaults to 48K,\nwhich is relatively large but still small enough so that log\nrecords likely fit into network datagrams along with extra room for\nmetadata. Note that values below 79 are not accepted and will be\nbumped to 79.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "FORWARDING TO TRADITIONAL SYSLOG DAEMONS": {
            "content": "Journal events can be transferred to a different logging daemon in two\ndifferent ways. With the first method, messages are immediately\nforwarded to a socket (/run/systemd/journal/syslog), where the\ntraditional syslog daemon can read them. This method is controlled by\nthe ForwardToSyslog= option. With a second method, a syslog daemon\nbehaves like a normal journal client, and reads messages from the\njournal files, similarly to journalctl(1). With this, messages do not\nhave to be read immediately, which allows a logging daemon which is\nonly started late in boot to access all messages since the start of the\nsystem. In addition, full structured meta-data is available to it. This\nmethod of course is available only if the messages are stored in a\njournal file at all. So it will not work if Storage=none is set. It\nshould be noted that usually the second method is used by syslog\ndaemons, so the Storage= option, and not the ForwardToSyslog= option,\nis relevant for them.\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "SEE ALSO": {
            "content": "systemd(1), systemd-journald.service(8), journalctl(1),\nsystemd.journal-fields(7), systemd-system.conf(5)\n",
            "subsections": []
        },
        "NOTES": {
            "content": "1. Seekable Sequential Key Generators\nhttps://eprint.iacr.org/2013/397\n\n2. Users, Groups, UIDs and GIDs on systemd systems\nhttps://systemd.io/UIDS-GIDS\n\nsystemd 249                                                   JOURNALD.CONF(5)",
            "subsections": []
        }
    },
    "summary": "journald.conf, journald.conf.d, journald@.conf - Journal service configuration files",
    "flags": [],
    "examples": [],
    "see_also": [
        {
            "name": "systemd",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/systemd/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "systemd-journald.service",
            "section": "8",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/systemd-journald.service/8/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "journalctl",
            "section": "1",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/journalctl/1/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "systemd.journal-fields",
            "section": "7",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/systemd.journal-fields/7/json"
        },
        {
            "name": "systemd-system.conf",
            "section": "5",
            "url": "https://www.chedong.com/phpMan.php/man/systemd-system.conf/5/json"
        }
    ]
}