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TLDR: systemd (cheat.sh)
  • To display process startup time:
    systemd-analyze
  • To display process startup time at service level:
    systemd-analyze blame
  • To list running units:
    systemctl list-units
  • To load a unit at startup:
    systemctl enable foo.service
  • To start or Stop a unit:
    systemctl <start | stop> foo.service
  • To unit file locations:
    /etc/systemd/system
systemd(1)
NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION CONCEPTS DIRECTORIES SIGNALS ENVIRONMENT KERNEL COMMAND LINE OPTIONS SOCKETS AND FIFOS SEE ALSO NOTES
SYSTEMD(1)                                     systemd                                    SYSTEMD(1)



NAME
       systemd, init - systemd system and service manager

SYNOPSIS
       /lib/systemd/systemd [OPTIONS...]

       init [OPTIONS...] {COMMAND}

DESCRIPTION
       systemd is a system and service manager for Linux operating systems. When run as first
       process on boot (as PID 1), it acts as init system that brings up and maintains userspace
       services. Separate instances are started for logged-in users to start their services.

       systemd is usually not invoked directly by the user, but is installed as the /sbin/init
       symlink and started during early boot. The user manager instances are started automatically
       through the user@.service(5) service.

       For compatibility with SysV, if the binary is called as init and is not the first process on
       the machine (PID is not 1), it will execute telinit and pass all command line arguments
       unmodified. That means init and telinit are mostly equivalent when invoked from normal login
       sessions. See telinit(8) for more information.

       When run as a system instance, systemd interprets the configuration file system.conf and the
       files in system.conf.d directories; when run as a user instance, systemd interprets the
       configuration file user.conf and the files in user.conf.d directories. See systemd-
       system.conf(5) for more information.

CONCEPTS
       systemd provides a dependency system between various entities called "units" of 11 different
       types. Units encapsulate various objects that are relevant for system boot-up and
       maintenance. The majority of units are configured in unit configuration files, whose syntax
       and basic set of options is described in systemd.unit(5), however some are created
       automatically from other configuration files, dynamically from system state or
       programmatically at runtime. Units may be "active" (meaning started, bound, plugged in, ...,
       depending on the unit type, see below), or "inactive" (meaning stopped, unbound, unplugged,
       ...), as well as in the process of being activated or deactivated, i.e. between the two
       states (these states are called "activating", "deactivating"). A special "failed" state is
       available as well, which is very similar to "inactive" and is entered when the service failed
       in some way (process returned error code on exit, or crashed, an operation timed out, or
       after too many restarts). If this state is entered, the cause will be logged, for later
       reference. Note that the various unit types may have a number of additional substates, which
       are mapped to the five generalized unit states described here.

       The following unit types are available:

        1. Service units, which start and control daemons and the processes they consist of. For
           details, see systemd.service(5).

        2. Socket units, which encapsulate local IPC or network sockets in the system, useful for
           socket-based activation. For details about socket units, see systemd.socket(5), for
           details on socket-based activation and other forms of activation, see daemon(7).

        3. Target units are useful to group units, or provide well-known synchronization points
           during boot-up, see systemd.target(5).

        4. Device units expose kernel devices in systemd and may be used to implement device-based
           activation. For details, see systemd.device(5).

        5. Mount units control mount points in the file system, for details see systemd.mount(5).

        6. Automount units provide automount capabilities, for on-demand mounting of file systems as
           well as parallelized boot-up. See systemd.automount(5).

        7. Timer units are useful for triggering activation of other units based on timers. You may
           find details in systemd.timer(5).

        8. Swap units are very similar to mount units and encapsulate memory swap partitions or
           files of the operating system. They are described in systemd.swap(5).

        9. Path units may be used to activate other services when file system objects change or are
           modified. See systemd.path(5).

       10. Slice units may be used to group units which manage system processes (such as service and
           scope units) in a hierarchical tree for resource management purposes. See
           systemd.slice(5).

       11. Scope units are similar to service units, but manage foreign processes instead of
           starting them as well. See systemd.scope(5).

       Units are named as their configuration files. Some units have special semantics. A detailed
       list is available in systemd.special(7).

       systemd knows various kinds of dependencies, including positive and negative requirement
       dependencies (i.e.  Requires= and Conflicts=) as well as ordering dependencies (After= and
       Before=). NB: ordering and requirement dependencies are orthogonal. If only a requirement
       dependency exists between two units (e.g.  foo.service requires bar.service), but no ordering
       dependency (e.g.  foo.service after bar.service) and both are requested to start, they will
       be started in parallel. It is a common pattern that both requirement and ordering
       dependencies are placed between two units. Also note that the majority of dependencies are
       implicitly created and maintained by systemd. In most cases, it should be unnecessary to
       declare additional dependencies manually, however it is possible to do this.

       Application programs and units (via dependencies) may request state changes of units. In
       systemd, these requests are encapsulated as 'jobs' and maintained in a job queue. Jobs may
       succeed or can fail, their execution is ordered based on the ordering dependencies of the
       units they have been scheduled for.

       On boot systemd activates the target unit default.target whose job is to activate on-boot
       services and other on-boot units by pulling them in via dependencies. Usually, the unit name
       is just an alias (symlink) for either graphical.target (for fully-featured boots into the UI)
       or multi-user.target (for limited console-only boots for use in embedded or server
       environments, or similar; a subset of graphical.target). However, it is at the discretion of
       the administrator to configure it as an alias to any other target unit. See
       systemd.special(7) for details about these target units.

       systemd only keeps a minimal set of units loaded into memory. Specifically, the only units
       that are kept loaded into memory are those for which at least one of the following conditions
       is true:

        1. It is in an active, activating, deactivating or failed state (i.e. in any unit state
           except for "inactive")

        2. It has a job queued for it

        3. It is a dependency of at least one other unit that is loaded into memory

        4. It has some form of resource still allocated (e.g. a service unit that is inactive but
           for which a process is still lingering that ignored the request to be terminated)

        5. It has been pinned into memory programmatically by a D-Bus call

       systemd will automatically and implicitly load units from disk — if they are not loaded yet —
       as soon as operations are requested for them. Thus, in many respects, the fact whether a unit
       is loaded or not is invisible to clients. Use systemctl list-units --all to comprehensively
       list all units currently loaded. Any unit for which none of the conditions above applies is
       promptly unloaded. Note that when a unit is unloaded from memory its accounting data is
       flushed out too. However, this data is generally not lost, as a journal log record is
       generated declaring the consumed resources whenever a unit shuts down.

       Processes systemd spawns are placed in individual Linux control groups named after the unit
       which they belong to in the private systemd hierarchy. (see cgroups.txt[1] for more
       information about control groups, or short "cgroups"). systemd uses this to effectively keep
       track of processes. Control group information is maintained in the kernel, and is accessible
       via the file system hierarchy (beneath /sys/fs/cgroup/systemd/), or in tools such as systemd-
       cgls(1) or ps(1) (ps xawf -eo pid,user,cgroup,args is particularly useful to list all
       processes and the systemd units they belong to.).

       systemd is compatible with the SysV init system to a large degree: SysV init scripts are
       supported and simply read as an alternative (though limited) configuration file format. The
       SysV /dev/initctl interface is provided, and compatibility implementations of the various
       SysV client tools are available. In addition to that, various established Unix functionality
       such as /etc/fstab or the utmp database are supported.

       systemd has a minimal transaction system: if a unit is requested to start up or shut down it
       will add it and all its dependencies to a temporary transaction. Then, it will verify if the
       transaction is consistent (i.e. whether the ordering of all units is cycle-free). If it is
       not, systemd will try to fix it up, and removes non-essential jobs from the transaction that
       might remove the loop. Also, systemd tries to suppress non-essential jobs in the transaction
       that would stop a running service. Finally it is checked whether the jobs of the transaction
       contradict jobs that have already been queued, and optionally the transaction is aborted
       then. If all worked out and the transaction is consistent and minimized in its impact it is
       merged with all already outstanding jobs and added to the run queue. Effectively this means
       that before executing a requested operation, systemd will verify that it makes sense, fixing
       it if possible, and only failing if it really cannot work.

       Note that transactions are generated independently of a unit's state at runtime, hence, for
       example, if a start job is requested on an already started unit, it will still generate a
       transaction and wake up any inactive dependencies (and cause propagation of other jobs as per
       the defined relationships). This is because the enqueued job is at the time of execution
       compared to the target unit's state and is marked successful and complete when both satisfy.
       However, this job also pulls in other dependencies due to the defined relationships and thus
       leads to, in our example, start jobs for any of those inactive units getting queued as well.

       systemd contains native implementations of various tasks that need to be executed as part of
       the boot process. For example, it sets the hostname or configures the loopback network
       device. It also sets up and mounts various API file systems, such as /sys/ or /proc/.

       For more information about the concepts and ideas behind systemd, please refer to the
       Original Design Document[2].

       Note that some but not all interfaces provided by systemd are covered by the Interface
       Portability and Stability Promise[3].

       Units may be generated dynamically at boot and system manager reload time, for example based
       on other configuration files or parameters passed on the kernel command line. For details,
       see systemd.generator(7).

       The D-Bus API of systemd is described in org.freedesktop.systemd1(5) and
       org.freedesktop.LogControl1(5).

       Systems which invoke systemd in a container or initrd environment should implement the
       Container Interface[4] or initrd Interface[5] specifications, respectively.

DIRECTORIES
       System unit directories
           The systemd system manager reads unit configuration from various directories. Packages
           that want to install unit files shall place them in the directory returned by pkg-config
           systemd --variable=systemdsystemunitdir. Other directories checked are
           /usr/local/lib/systemd/system and /lib/systemd/system. User configuration always takes
           precedence.  pkg-config systemd --variable=systemdsystemconfdir returns the path of the
           system configuration directory. Packages should alter the content of these directories
           only with the enable and disable commands of the systemctl(1) tool. Full list of
           directories is provided in systemd.unit(5).

       User unit directories
           Similar rules apply for the user unit directories. However, here the XDG Base Directory
           specification[6] is followed to find units. Applications should place their unit files in
           the directory returned by pkg-config systemd --variable=systemduserunitdir. Global
           configuration is done in the directory reported by pkg-config systemd
           --variable=systemduserconfdir. The enable and disable commands of the systemctl(1) tool
           can handle both global (i.e. for all users) and private (for one user) enabling/disabling
           of units. Full list of directories is provided in systemd.unit(5).

       SysV init scripts directory
           The location of the SysV init script directory varies between distributions. If systemd
           cannot find a native unit file for a requested service, it will look for a SysV init
           script of the same name (with the .service suffix removed).

       SysV runlevel link farm directory
           The location of the SysV runlevel link farm directory varies between distributions.
           systemd will take the link farm into account when figuring out whether a service shall be
           enabled. Note that a service unit with a native unit configuration file cannot be started
           by activating it in the SysV runlevel link farm.

SIGNALS
       SIGTERM
           Upon receiving this signal the systemd system manager serializes its state, reexecutes
           itself and deserializes the saved state again. This is mostly equivalent to systemctl
           daemon-reexec.

           systemd user managers will start the exit.target unit when this signal is received. This
           is mostly equivalent to systemctl --user start exit.target
           --job-mode=replace-irreversibly.

       SIGINT
           Upon receiving this signal the systemd system manager will start the ctrl-alt-del.target
           unit. This is mostly equivalent to systemctl start ctrl-alt-del.target
           --job-mode=replace-irreversibly. If this signal is received more than 7 times per 2s, an
           immediate reboot is triggered. Note that pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del on the console will
           trigger this signal. Hence, if a reboot is hanging, pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del more than 7
           times in 2 seconds is a relatively safe way to trigger an immediate reboot.

           systemd user managers treat this signal the same way as SIGTERM.

       SIGWINCH
           When this signal is received the systemd system manager will start the kbrequest.target
           unit. This is mostly equivalent to systemctl start kbrequest.target.

           This signal is ignored by systemd user managers.

       SIGPWR
           When this signal is received the systemd manager will start the sigpwr.target unit. This
           is mostly equivalent to systemctl start sigpwr.target.

       SIGUSR1
           When this signal is received the systemd manager will try to reconnect to the D-Bus bus.

       SIGUSR2
           When this signal is received the systemd manager will log its complete state in
           human-readable form. The data logged is the same as printed by systemd-analyze dump.

       SIGHUP
           Reloads the complete daemon configuration. This is mostly equivalent to systemctl
           daemon-reload.

       SIGRTMIN+0
           Enters default mode, starts the default.target unit. This is mostly equivalent to
           systemctl isolate default.target.

       SIGRTMIN+1
           Enters rescue mode, starts the rescue.target unit. This is mostly equivalent to systemctl
           isolate rescue.target.

       SIGRTMIN+2
           Enters emergency mode, starts the emergency.service unit. This is mostly equivalent to
           systemctl isolate emergency.service.

       SIGRTMIN+3
           Halts the machine, starts the halt.target unit. This is mostly equivalent to systemctl
           start halt.target --job-mode=replace-irreversibly.

       SIGRTMIN+4
           Powers off the machine, starts the poweroff.target unit. This is mostly equivalent to
           systemctl start poweroff.target --job-mode=replace-irreversibly.

       SIGRTMIN+5
           Reboots the machine, starts the reboot.target unit. This is mostly equivalent to
           systemctl start reboot.target --job-mode=replace-irreversibly.

       SIGRTMIN+6
           Reboots the machine via kexec, starts the kexec.target unit. This is mostly equivalent to
           systemctl start kexec.target --job-mode=replace-irreversibly.

       SIGRTMIN+13
           Immediately halts the machine.

       SIGRTMIN+14
           Immediately powers off the machine.

       SIGRTMIN+15
           Immediately reboots the machine.

       SIGRTMIN+16
           Immediately reboots the machine with kexec.

       SIGRTMIN+20
           Enables display of status messages on the console, as controlled via
           systemd.show_status=1 on the kernel command line.

       SIGRTMIN+21
           Disables display of status messages on the console, as controlled via
           systemd.show_status=0 on the kernel command line.

       SIGRTMIN+22
           Sets the service manager's log level to "debug", in a fashion equivalent to
           systemd.log_level=debug on the kernel command line.

       SIGRTMIN+23
           Restores the log level to its configured value. The configured value is derived from – in
           order of priority – the value specified with systemd.log-level= on the kernel command
           line, or the value specified with LogLevel= in the configuration file, or the built-in
           default of "info".

       SIGRTMIN+24
           Immediately exits the manager (only available for --user instances).

       SIGRTMIN+26
           Restores the log target to its configured value. The configured value is derived from –
           in order of priority – the value specified with systemd.log-target= on the kernel command
           line, or the value specified with LogTarget= in the configuration file, or the built-in
           default.

       SIGRTMIN+27, SIGRTMIN+28
           Sets the log target to "console" on SIGRTMIN+27 (or "kmsg" on SIGRTMIN+28), in a fashion
           equivalent to systemd.log_target=console (or systemd.log_target=kmsg on SIGRTMIN+28) on
           the kernel command line.

ENVIRONMENT
       The environment block for the system manager is initially set by the kernel. (In particular,
       "key=value" assignments on the kernel command line are returned into environment variables
       for PID 1). For the user manager, the system manager sets the environment as described in the
       "Environment Variables in Spawned Processes" section of systemd.exec(5). The
       DefaultEnvironment= setting in the system manager applies to all services including
       user@.service. Additional entries may be configured (as for any other service) through the
       Environment= and EnvironmentFile= settings for user@.service (see systemd.exec(5)). Also,
       additional environment variables may be set through the ManagerEnvironment= setting in
       systemd-system.conf(5) and systemd-user.conf(5).

       Some of the variables understood by systemd:

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL
           The maximum log level of emitted messages (messages with a higher log level, i.e. less
           important ones, will be suppressed). Either one of (in order of decreasing importance)
           emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug, or an integer in the range 0...7.
           See syslog(3) for more information.

           This can be overridden with --log-level=.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR
           A boolean. If true, messages written to the tty will be colored according to priority.

           This can be overridden with --log-color=.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME
           A boolean. If true, console log messages will be prefixed with a timestamp.

           This can be overridden with --log-time=.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION
           A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with a filename and line number in the
           source code where the message originates.

           This can be overridden with --log-location=.

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
           A boolean. If true, messages will be prefixed with the current numerical thread ID (TID).

       $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET
           The destination for log messages. One of console (log to the attached tty),
           console-prefixed (log to the attached tty but with prefixes encoding the log level and
           "facility", see syslog(3), kmsg (log to the kernel circular log buffer), journal (log to
           the journal), journal-or-kmsg (log to the journal if available, and to kmsg otherwise),
           auto (determine the appropriate log target automatically, the default), null (disable log
           output).

           This can be overridden with --log-target=.

       $XDG_CONFIG_HOME, $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS, $XDG_DATA_HOME, $XDG_DATA_DIRS
           The systemd user manager uses these variables in accordance to the XDG Base Directory
           specification[6] to find its configuration.

       $SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH, $SYSTEMD_GENERATOR_PATH, $SYSTEMD_ENVIRONMENT_GENERATOR_PATH
           Controls where systemd looks for unit files and generators.

           These variables may contain a list of paths, separated by colons (":"). When set, if the
           list ends with an empty component ("...:"), this list is prepended to the usual set of
           paths. Otherwise, the specified list replaces the usual set of paths.

       $SYSTEMD_PAGER
           Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER
           nor $PAGER are set, a set of well-known pager implementations are tried in turn,
           including less(1) and more(1), until one is found. If no pager implementation is
           discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this environment variable to an empty string or
           the value "cat" is equivalent to passing --no-pager.

       $SYSTEMD_LESS
           Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").

           Users might want to change two options in particular:

           K
               This option instructs the pager to exit immediately when Ctrl+C is pressed. To allow
               less to handle Ctrl+C itself to switch back to the pager command prompt, unset this
               option.

               If the value of $SYSTEMD_LESS does not include "K", and the pager that is invoked is
               less, Ctrl+C will be ignored by the executable, and needs to be handled by the pager.

           X
               This option instructs the pager to not send termcap initialization and
               deinitialization strings to the terminal. It is set by default to allow command
               output to remain visible in the terminal even after the pager exits. Nevertheless,
               this prevents some pager functionality from working, in particular paged output
               cannot be scrolled with the mouse.

           See less(1) for more discussion.

       $SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
           Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the invoking terminal is
           determined to be UTF-8 compatible).

       $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE
           Takes a boolean argument. When true, the "secure" mode of the pager is enabled; if false,
           disabled. If $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, secure mode is enabled if the
           effective UID is not the same as the owner of the login session, see geteuid(2) and
           sd_pid_get_owner_uid(3). In secure mode, LESSSECURE=1 will be set when invoking the
           pager, and the pager shall disable commands that open or create new files or start new
           subprocesses. When $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE is not set at all, pagers which are not known to
           implement secure mode will not be used. (Currently only less(1) implements secure mode.)

           Note: when commands are invoked with elevated privileges, for example under sudo(8) or
           pkexec(1), care must be taken to ensure that unintended interactive features are not
           enabled. "Secure" mode for the pager may be enabled automatically as describe above.
           Setting SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE=0 or not removing it from the inherited environment allows
           the user to invoke arbitrary commands. Note that if the $SYSTEMD_PAGER or $PAGER
           variables are to be honoured, $SYSTEMD_PAGERSECURE must be set too. It might be
           reasonable to completely disable the pager using --no-pager instead.

       $SYSTEMD_COLORS
           Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd and related utilities will use colors in
           their output, otherwise the output will be monochrome. Additionally, the variable can
           take one of the following special values: "16", "256" to restrict the use of colors to
           the base 16 or 256 ANSI colors, respectively. This can be specified to override the
           automatic decision based on $TERM and what the console is connected to.

       $SYSTEMD_URLIFY
           The value must be a boolean. Controls whether clickable links should be generated in the
           output for terminal emulators supporting this. This can be specified to override the
           decision that systemd makes based on $TERM and other conditions.

       $LISTEN_PID, $LISTEN_FDS, $LISTEN_FDNAMES
           Set by systemd for supervised processes during socket-based activation. See
           sd_listen_fds(3) for more information.

       $NOTIFY_SOCKET
           Set by systemd for supervised processes for status and start-up completion notification.
           See sd_notify(3) for more information.

       For further environment variables understood by systemd and its various components, see Known
       Environment Variables[7].

KERNEL COMMAND LINE
       When run as the system instance systemd parses a number of options listed below. They can be
       specified as kernel command line arguments[8], or through the "SystemdOptions" EFI variable
       (on EFI systems). The kernel command line has higher priority. Following variables are
       understood:

       systemd.unit=, rd.systemd.unit=
           Overrides the unit to activate on boot. Defaults to default.target. This may be used to
           temporarily boot into a different boot unit, for example rescue.target or
           emergency.service. See systemd.special(7) for details about these units. The option
           prefixed with "rd."  is honored only in the initial RAM disk (initrd), while the one that
           is not prefixed only in the main system.

       systemd.dump_core
           Takes a boolean argument or enables the option if specified without an argument. If
           enabled, the systemd manager (PID 1) dumps core when it crashes. Otherwise, no core dump
           is created. Defaults to enabled.

       systemd.crash_chvt
           Takes a positive integer, or a boolean argument. Can be also specified without an
           argument, with the same effect as a positive boolean. If a positive integer (in the range
           1–63) is specified, the system manager (PID 1) will activate the specified virtual
           terminal when it crashes. Defaults to disabled, meaning that no such switch is attempted.
           If set to enabled, the virtual terminal the kernel messages are written to is used
           instead.

       systemd.crash_shell
           Takes a boolean argument or enables the option if specified without an argument. If
           enabled, the system manager (PID 1) spawns a shell when it crashes, after a 10s delay.
           Otherwise, no shell is spawned. Defaults to disabled, for security reasons, as the shell
           is not protected by password authentication.

       systemd.crash_reboot
           Takes a boolean argument or enables the option if specified without an argument. If
           enabled, the system manager (PID 1) will reboot the machine automatically when it
           crashes, after a 10s delay. Otherwise, the system will hang indefinitely. Defaults to
           disabled, in order to avoid a reboot loop. If combined with systemd.crash_shell, the
           system is rebooted after the shell exits.

       systemd.confirm_spawn
           Takes a boolean argument or a path to the virtual console where the confirmation messages
           should be emitted. Can be also specified without an argument, with the same effect as a
           positive boolean. If enabled, the system manager (PID 1) asks for confirmation when
           spawning processes using /dev/console. If a path or a console name (such as "ttyS0") is
           provided, the virtual console pointed to by this path or described by the give name will
           be used instead. Defaults to disabled.

       systemd.service_watchdogs=
           Takes a boolean argument. If disabled, all service runtime watchdogs (WatchdogSec=) and
           emergency actions (e.g.  OnFailure= or StartLimitAction=) are ignored by the system
           manager (PID 1); see systemd.service(5). Defaults to enabled, i.e. watchdogs and failure
           actions are processed normally. The hardware watchdog is not affected by this option.

       systemd.show_status
           Takes a boolean argument or the constants error and auto. Can be also specified without
           an argument, with the same effect as a positive boolean. If enabled, the systemd manager
           (PID 1) shows terse service status updates on the console during bootup. With error, only
           messages about failures are shown, but boot is otherwise quiet.  auto behaves like false
           until there is a significant delay in boot. Defaults to enabled, unless quiet is passed
           as kernel command line option, in which case it defaults to error. If specified overrides
           the system manager configuration file option ShowStatus=, see systemd-system.conf(5).

       systemd.status_unit_format=
           Takes name, description or combined as the value. If name, the system manager will use
           unit names in status messages. If combined, the system manager will use unit names and
           description in status messages. When specified, overrides the system manager
           configuration file option StatusUnitFormat=, see systemd-system.conf(5).

       systemd.log_color, systemd.log_level=, systemd.log_location, systemd.log_target=,
       systemd.log_time, systemd.log_tid
           Controls log output, with the same effect as the $SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR, $SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL,
           $SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION, $SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET, $SYSTEMD_LOG_TIME, and $SYSTEMD_LOG_TID
           environment variables described above.  systemd.log_color, systemd.log_location,
           systemd.log_time, and systemd.log_tid= can be specified without an argument, with the
           same effect as a positive boolean.

       systemd.default_standard_output=, systemd.default_standard_error=
           Controls default standard output and error output for services and sockets. That is,
           controls the default for StandardOutput= and StandardError= (see systemd.exec(5) for
           details). Takes one of inherit, null, tty, journal, journal+console, kmsg, kmsg+console.
           If the argument is omitted systemd.default-standard-output= defaults to journal and
           systemd.default-standard-error= to inherit.

       systemd.setenv=
           Takes a string argument in the form VARIABLE=VALUE. May be used to set default
           environment variables to add to forked child processes. May be used more than once to set
           multiple variables.

       systemd.machine_id=
           Takes a 32 character hex value to be used for setting the machine-id. Intended mostly for
           network booting where the same machine-id is desired for every boot.

       systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy
           When specified without an argument or with a true argument, enables the usage of unified
           cgroup hierarchy[9] (a.k.a. cgroups-v2). When specified with a false argument, fall back
           to hybrid or full legacy cgroup hierarchy.

           If this option is not specified, the default behaviour is determined during compilation
           (the -Ddefault-hierarchy= meson option). If the kernel does not support unified cgroup
           hierarchy, the legacy hierarchy will be used even if this option is specified.

       systemd.legacy_systemd_cgroup_controller
           Takes effect if the full unified cgroup hierarchy is not used (see previous option). When
           specified without an argument or with a true argument, disables the use of "hybrid"
           cgroup hierarchy (i.e. a cgroups-v2 tree used for systemd, and legacy cgroup
           hierarchy[10], a.k.a. cgroups-v1, for other controllers), and forces a full "legacy"
           mode. When specified with a false argument, enables the use of "hybrid" hierarchy.

           If this option is not specified, the default behaviour is determined during compilation
           (the -Ddefault-hierarchy= meson option). If the kernel does not support unified cgroup
           hierarchy, the legacy hierarchy will be used even if this option is specified.

       quiet
           Turn off status output at boot, much like systemd.show_status=no would. Note that this
           option is also read by the kernel itself and disables kernel log output. Passing this
           option hence turns off the usual output from both the system manager and the kernel.

       debug
           Turn on debugging output. This is equivalent to systemd.log_level=debug. Note that this
           option is also read by the kernel itself and enables kernel debug output. Passing this
           option hence turns on the debug output from both the system manager and the kernel.

       emergency, rd.emergency, -b
           Boot into emergency mode. This is equivalent to systemd.unit=emergency.target or
           rd.systemd.unit=emergency.target, respectively, and provided for compatibility reasons
           and to be easier to type.

       rescue, rd.rescue, single, s, S, 1
           Boot into rescue mode. This is equivalent to systemd.unit=rescue.target or
           rd.systemd.unit=rescue.target, respectively, and provided for compatibility reasons and
           to be easier to type.

       2, 3, 4, 5
           Boot into the specified legacy SysV runlevel. These are equivalent to
           systemd.unit=runlevel2.target, systemd.unit=runlevel3.target,
           systemd.unit=runlevel4.target, and systemd.unit=runlevel5.target, respectively, and
           provided for compatibility reasons and to be easier to type.

       locale.LANG=, locale.LANGUAGE=, locale.LC_CTYPE=, locale.LC_NUMERIC=, locale.LC_TIME=,
       locale.LC_COLLATE=, locale.LC_MONETARY=, locale.LC_MESSAGES=, locale.LC_PAPER=,
       locale.LC_NAME=, locale.LC_ADDRESS=, locale.LC_TELEPHONE=, locale.LC_MEASUREMENT=,
       locale.LC_IDENTIFICATION=
           Set the system locale to use. This overrides the settings in /etc/locale.conf. For more
           information, see locale.conf(5) and locale(7).

       For other kernel command line parameters understood by components of the core OS, please
       refer to kernel-command-line(7).

OPTIONS
       systemd is only very rarely invoked directly, since it is started early and is already
       running by the time users may interact with it. Normally, tools like systemctl(1) are used to
       give commands to the manager. Since systemd is usually not invoked directly, the options
       listed below are mostly useful for debugging and special purposes.

   Introspection and debugging options
       Those options are used for testing and introspection, and systemd may be invoked with them at
       any time:

       --dump-configuration-items
           Dump understood unit configuration items. This outputs a terse but complete list of
           configuration items understood in unit definition files.

       --dump-bus-properties
           Dump exposed bus properties. This outputs a terse but complete list of properties exposed
           on D-Bus.

       --test
           Determine the initial start-up transaction (i.e. the list of jobs enqueued at start-up),
           dump it and exit — without actually executing any of the determined jobs. This option is
           useful for debugging only. Note that during regular service manager start-up additional
           units not shown by this operation may be started, because hardware, socket, bus or other
           kinds of activation might add additional jobs as the transaction is executed. Use
           --system to request the initial transaction of the system service manager (this is also
           the implied default), combine with --user to request the initial transaction of the
           per-user service manager instead.

       --system, --user
           When used in conjunction with --test, selects whether to calculate the initial
           transaction for the system instance or for a per-user instance. These options have no
           effect when invoked without --test, as during regular (i.e. non---test) invocations the
           service manager will automatically detect whether it shall operate in system or per-user
           mode, by checking whether the PID it is run as is 1 or not. Note that it is not supported
           booting and maintaining a system with the service manager running in --system mode but
           with a PID other than 1.

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

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

   Options that duplicate kernel command line settings
       Those options correspond directly to options listed above in "Kernel Command Line". Both
       forms may be used equivalently for the system manager, but it is recommended to use the forms
       listed above in this context, because they are properly namespaced. When an option is
       specified both on the kernel command line and as a normal command line argument, the latter
       has higher precedence.

       When systemd is used as a user manager, the kernel command line is ignored and only the
       options described below are understood. Nevertheless, systemd is usually started in this mode
       through the user@.service(5) service, which is shared between all users. It may be more
       convenient to use configuration files to modify settings (see systemd-user.conf(5)), or
       environment variables. See the "Environment" section above for a discussion of how the
       environment block is set.

       --unit=
           Set default unit to activate on startup. If not specified, defaults to default.target.
           See systemd.unit= above.

       --dump-core
           Enable core dumping on crash. This switch has no effect when running as user instance.
           Same as systemd.dump_core= above.

       --crash-vt=VT
           Switch to a specific virtual console (VT) on crash. This switch has no effect when
           running as user instance. Same as systemd.crash_chvt= above (but not the different
           spelling!).

       --crash-shell
           Run a shell on crash. This switch has no effect when running as user instance. See
           systemd.crash_shell= above.

       --crash-reboot
           Automatically reboot the system on crash. This switch has no effect when running as user
           instance. See systemd.crash_reboot above.

       --confirm-spawn
           Ask for confirmation when spawning processes. This switch has no effect when run as user
           instance. See systemd.confirm_spawn above.

       --show-status
           Show terse unit status information on the console during boot-up and shutdown. See
           systemd.show_status above.

       --log-color
           Highlight important log messages. See systemd.log_color above.

       --log-level=
           Set log level. See systemd.log_level above.

       --log-location
           Include code location in log messages. See systemd.log_location above.

       --log-target=
           Set log target. See systemd.log_target above.

       --log-time=
           Prefix console messages with timestamp. See systemd.log_time above.

       --machine-id=
           Override the machine-id set on the hard drive. See systemd.machine_id= above.

       --service-watchdogs
           Globally enable/disable all service watchdog timeouts and emergency actions. See
           systemd.service_watchdogs above.

       --default-standard-output=, --default-standard-error=
           Sets the default output or error output for all services and sockets, respectively. See
           systemd.default_standard_output= and systemd.default_standard_error= above.

SOCKETS AND FIFOS
       /run/systemd/notify
           Daemon status notification socket. This is an AF_UNIX datagram socket and is used to
           implement the daemon notification logic as implemented by sd_notify(3).

       /run/systemd/private
           Used internally as communication channel between systemctl(1) and the systemd process.
           This is an AF_UNIX stream socket. This interface is private to systemd and should not be
           used in external projects.

       /dev/initctl
           Limited compatibility support for the SysV client interface, as implemented by the
           systemd-initctl.service unit. This is a named pipe in the file system. This interface is
           obsolete and should not be used in new applications.

SEE ALSO
       The systemd Homepage[11], systemd-system.conf(5), locale.conf(5), systemctl(1),
       journalctl(1), systemd-notify(1), daemon(7), sd-daemon(3), org.freedesktop.systemd1(5),
       systemd.unit(5), systemd.special(7), pkg-config(1), kernel-command-line(7), bootup(7),
       systemd.directives(7)

NOTES
        1. cgroups.txt
           https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/cgroup-v1/cgroups.txt

        2. Original Design Document
           http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html

        3. Interface Portability and Stability Promise
           https://systemd.io/PORTABILITY_AND_STABILITY/

        4. Container Interface
           https://systemd.io/CONTAINER_INTERFACE

        5. initrd Interface
           https://systemd.io/INITRD_INTERFACE/

        6. XDG Base Directory specification
           http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html

        7. Known Environment Variables
           https://systemd.io/ENVIRONMENT

        8. If run inside a Linux container these arguments may be passed as command line arguments
           to systemd itself, next to any of the command line options listed in the Options section
           above. If run outside of Linux containers, these arguments are parsed from /proc/cmdline
           instead.

        9. unified cgroup hierarchy
           https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/cgroup-v2.html

       10. legacy cgroup hierarchy
           https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/cgroup-v1/

       11. systemd Homepage
           https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/



systemd 249                                                                               SYSTEMD(1)

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