man > systemd-sysusers(8)

SYSTEMD-SYSUSERS(8)                       systemd-sysusers                       SYSTEMD-SYSUSERS(8)

NAME
       systemd-sysusers, systemd-sysusers.service - Allocate system users and groups

SYNOPSIS


       systemd-sysusers [OPTIONS...] [CONFIGFILE...]

       systemd-sysusers.service

DESCRIPTION
       systemd-sysusers creates system users and groups, based on files in the format described in
       sysusers.d(5).

       If invoked with no arguments, it applies all directives from all files found in the
       directories specified by sysusers.d(5). When invoked with positional arguments, if option
       --replace=PATH is specified, arguments specified on the command line are used instead of the
       configuration file PATH. Otherwise, just the configuration specified by the command line
       arguments is executed. The string "-" may be specified instead of a filename to instruct
       systemd-sysusers to read the configuration from standard input. If the argument is a relative
       path, all configuration directories are searched for a matching file and the file found that
       has the highest priority is executed. If the argument is an absolute path, that file is used
       directly without searching of the configuration directories.

OPTIONS
       The following options are understood:

       --root=root
           Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed with the given
           alternate root path, including config search paths.

           Added in version 215.

       --image=image
           Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If specified all operations are
           applied to file system in the indicated disk image. This is similar to --root= but
           operates on file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The disk image should
           either contain just a file system or a set of file systems within a GPT partition table,
           following the Discoverable Partitions Specification[1]. For further information on
           supported disk images, see systemd-nspawn(1)'s switch of the same name.

           Added in version 247.

       --image-policy=policy
           Takes an image policy string as argument, as per systemd.image-policy(7). The policy is
           enforced when operating on the disk image specified via --image=, see above. If not
           specified defaults to the "*" policy, i.e. all recognized file systems in the image are
           used.

       --replace=PATH
           When this option is given, one or more positional arguments must be specified. All
           configuration files found in the directories listed in sysusers.d(5) will be read, and
           the configuration given on the command line will be handled instead of and with the same
           priority as the configuration file PATH.

           This option is intended to be used when package installation scripts are running and
           files belonging to that package are not yet available on disk, so their contents must be
           given on the command line, but the admin configuration might already exist and should be
           given higher priority.

           Example 1. RPM installation script for radvd

               echo 'u radvd - "radvd daemon"' | \
                         systemd-sysusers --replace=/usr/lib/sysusers.d/radvd.conf -

           This will create the radvd user as if /usr/lib/sysusers.d/radvd.conf was already on disk.
           An admin might override the configuration specified on the command line by placing
           /etc/sysusers.d/radvd.conf or even /etc/sysusers.d/00-overrides.conf.

           Note that this is the expanded form, and when used in a package, this would be written
           using a macro with "radvd" and a file containing the configuration line as arguments.

           Added in version 238.

       --dry-run
           Process the configuration and figure out what entries would be created, but don't
           actually write anything.

           Added in version 250.

       --inline
           Treat each positional argument as a separate configuration line instead of a file name.

           Added in version 238.

       --cat-config
           Copy the contents of config files to standard output. Before each file, the filename is
           printed as a comment.

       --tldr
           Copy the contents of config files to standard output. Only the "interesting" parts of the
           configuration files are printed, comments and empty lines are skipped. Before each file,
           the filename is printed as a comment.

       --no-pager
           Do not pipe output into a pager.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

CREDENTIALS
       systemd-sysusers supports the service credentials logic as implemented by
       ImportCredential=/LoadCredential=/SetCredential= (see systemd.exec(1) for details). The
       following credentials are used when passed in:

       passwd.hashed-password.user
           A UNIX hashed password string to use for the specified user, when creating an entry for
           it. This is particularly useful for the "root" user as it allows provisioning the default
           root password to use via a unit file drop-in or from a container manager passing in this
           credential. Note that setting this credential has no effect if the specified user account
           already exists. This credential is hence primarily useful in first boot scenarios or
           systems that are fully stateless and come up with an empty /etc/ on every boot.

           Added in version 249.

       passwd.plaintext-password.user
           Similar to "passwd.hashed-password.user" but expect a literal, plaintext password, which
           is then automatically hashed before used for the user account. If both the hashed and the
           plaintext credential are specified for the same user the former takes precedence. It's
           generally recommended to specify the hashed version; however in test environments with
           weaker requirements on security it might be easier to pass passwords in plaintext
           instead.

           Added in version 249.

       passwd.shell.user
           Specifies the shell binary to use for the specified account when creating it.

           Added in version 249.

       sysusers.extra
           The contents of this credential may contain additional lines to operate on. The
           credential contents should follow the same format as any other sysusers.d/ drop-in. If
           this credential is passed it is processed after all of the drop-in files read from the
           file system.

           Added in version 252.

       Note that by default the systemd-sysusers.service unit file is set up to inherit the
       "passwd.hashed-password.root", "passwd.plaintext-password.root", "passwd.shell.root" and
       "sysusers.extra" credentials from the service manager. Thus, when invoking a container with
       an unpopulated /etc/ for the first time it is possible to configure the root user's password
       to be "systemd" like this:

           # systemd-nspawn --image=... --set-credential=passwd.hashed-password.root:'$y$j9T$yAuRJu1o5HioZAGDYPU5d.$F64ni6J2y2nNQve90M/p0ZP0ECP/qqzipNyaY9fjGpC' ...

       Note again that the data specified in this credential is consulted only when creating an
       account for the first time, it may not be used for changing the password or shell of an
       account that already exists.

       Use mkpasswd(1) for generating UNIX password hashes from the command line.

EXIT STATUS
       On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.

SEE ALSO
       systemd(1), sysusers.d(5), Users, Groups, UIDs and GIDs on systemd systems[2],
       systemd.exec(1), mkpasswd(1)

NOTES
        1. Discoverable Partitions Specification
           https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification

        2. Users, Groups, UIDs and GIDs on systemd systems
           https://systemd.io/UIDS-GIDS

systemd 255                                                                      SYSTEMD-SYSUSERS(8)