SYSTEMD-TMPFILES(8)

  .SH "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
  .SH "SYNOPSIS"
    .HP u
      systemd-tmpfiles
       [OPTIONS...]
       [CONFIGFILE...]

    .PP System units:

systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer
    .PP User units:

systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer

  .SH "DESCRIPTION"

    .PP 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).
    .PP If invoked with no arguments, it applies all directives from all configuration files. When invoked with --replace=PATH, arguments specified on the command line are used instead of the configuration file PATH. Otherwise, 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 and the file found that has the highest priority is executed.

  .SH "OPTIONS"

    .PP The following options are understood:

      .PP --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.
          .RE
          .PP --clean

                If this option is passed, all files and directories with an age parameter configured will be cleaned up.
              .RE
              .PP --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.
                  .RE
                  .PP --user

                        Execute "user" configuration, i.e. tmpfiles.d files in user configuration directories.
                      .RE
                      .PP --boot

                            Also execute lines with an exclamation mark.
                          .RE
                          .PP --prefix=path

                                Only apply rules with paths that start with the specified prefix. This option can be specified multiple times.
                              .RE
                              .PP --exclude-prefix=path

                                    Ignore rules with paths that start with the specified prefix. This option can be specified multiple times.
                                  .RE
                                  .PP --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.
                                      .RE
                                      .PP --replace=PATH

                                            When this option is given, one ore more positional arguments must be specified. All configuration files found in the directories listed in tmpfiles.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.
                                          .RE
                                          .PP --cat-config

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

                                          .RE
                                              .PP --no-pager

                                                  Do not pipe output into a pager.

                                              .RE
                                                  .PP -h, --help

                                                      Print a short help text and exit.
                                                  .RE
                                                      .PP --version

                                                          Print a short version string and exit.

                                                      .RE

                                                        .PP It is possible to combine --create, --clean, and --remove in one invocation (in which case removal and clean-up are executed before creation of new files). 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

                                                      .SH "UNPRIVILEGED --CLEANUP OPERATION"

                                                        .PP systemd-tmpfiles tries to avoid changing the access and modification times on the directories it accesses, which requires CAP_FOWNER 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.

                                                      .SH "EXIT STATUS"

                                                        .PP On success, 0 is returned. If the configuration was syntactically invalid (syntax errors, missing arguments, ...), so some lines had to be ignored, but no other errors occurred, 65 is returned (EX_DATAERR from /usr/include/sysexits.h). If the configuration was syntactically valid, but could not be executed (lack of permissions, creation of files in missing directories, invalid contents when writing to /sys/ values, ...), 73 is returned (EX_CANTCREAT from /usr/include/sysexits.h). Otherwise, 1 is returned (EXIT_FAILURE from /usr/include/stdlib.h).

                                                      .SH "SEE ALSO"

                                                        .PP systemd(1), tmpfiles.d(5)