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2 <!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3 "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
4 <!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
6 <refentry id="systemd-escape"
7 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
10 <title>systemd-escape</title>
11 <productname>systemd</productname>
15 <refentrytitle>systemd-escape</refentrytitle>
16 <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
20 <refname>systemd-escape</refname>
21 <refpurpose>Escape strings for usage in systemd unit names</refpurpose>
26 <command>systemd-escape</command>
27 <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg>
28 <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">STRING</arg>
33 <title>Description</title>
35 <para><command>systemd-escape</command> may be used to escape
36 strings for inclusion in systemd unit names. The command may be
37 used to escape and to undo escaping of strings.</para>
39 <para>The command takes any number of strings on the command line,
40 and will process them individually, one after another. It will
41 output them separated by spaces to stdout.</para>
43 <para>By default, this command will escape the strings passed,
44 unless <option>--unescape</option> is passed which results in the
45 inverse operation being applied. If <option>--mangle</option> is given, a
46 special mode of escaping is applied instead, which assumes the
47 string is already escaped but will escape everything that
48 appears obviously non-escaped.</para>
50 <para>For details on the escaping and unescaping algorithms see the relevant section in
51 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
55 <title>Options</title>
57 <para>The following options are understood:</para>
61 <term><option>--suffix=</option></term>
63 <listitem><para>Appends the specified unit type suffix to the
64 escaped string. Takes one of the unit types supported by
65 systemd, such as <literal>service</literal> or
66 <literal>mount</literal>. May not be used in conjunction with
67 <option>--template=</option>, <option>--unescape</option> or
68 <option>--mangle</option>.</para>
70 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v216"/></listitem>
74 <term><option>--template=</option></term>
76 <listitem><para>Inserts the escaped strings in a unit name
77 template. Takes a unit name template such as
78 <filename>foobar@.service</filename>. With
79 <option>--unescape</option>, expects instantiated unit names
80 for this template and extracts and unescapes just the instance
81 part. May not be used in conjunction with
82 <option>--suffix=</option>,
83 <option>--instance</option> or
84 <option>--mangle</option>.</para>
86 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v216"/></listitem>
90 <term><option>--path</option></term>
91 <term><option>-p</option></term>
93 <listitem><para>When escaping or unescaping a string, assume it refers to a file system path. This
94 simplifies the path (leading, trailing, and duplicate <literal>/</literal> characters are removed,
95 no-op path <literal>.</literal> components are removed, and for absolute paths, leading
96 <literal>..</literal> components are removed). After the simplification, the path must not contain
97 <literal>..</literal>.</para>
99 <para>This is particularly useful for generating strings suitable for unescaping with the
100 <literal>%f</literal> specifier in unit files, see
101 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
104 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v216"/></listitem>
108 <term><option>--unescape</option></term>
109 <term><option>-u</option></term>
111 <listitem><para>Instead of escaping the specified strings,
112 undo the escaping, reversing the operation. May not be used in
113 conjunction with <option>--suffix=</option> or
114 <option>--mangle</option>.</para>
116 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v216"/></listitem>
120 <term><option>--mangle</option></term>
121 <term><option>-m</option></term>
123 <listitem><para>Like <option>--escape</option>, but only
124 escape characters that are obviously not escaped yet, and
125 possibly automatically append an appropriate unit type suffix
126 to the string. May not be used in conjunction with
127 <option>--suffix=</option>, <option>--template=</option> or
128 <option>--unescape</option>.</para>
130 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v216"/></listitem>
134 <term><option>--instance</option></term>
136 <listitem><para>With <option>--unescape</option>, unescape
137 and print only the instance part of an instantiated unit name
138 template. Results in an error for an uninstantiated template
139 like <filename>ssh@.service</filename> or a non-template name
140 like <filename>ssh.service</filename>.
141 Must be used in conjunction with <option>--unescape</option>
142 and may not be used in conjunction with
143 <option>--template</option>.</para>
145 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v240"/></listitem>
148 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
149 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
155 <title>Examples</title>
157 <para>To escape a single string:</para>
158 <programlisting>$ systemd-escape 'Hallöchen, Meister'
159 Hall\xc3\xb6chen\x2c\x20Meister</programlisting>
161 <para>To undo escaping on a single string:</para>
162 <programlisting>$ systemd-escape -u 'Hall\xc3\xb6chen\x2c\x20Meister'
163 Hallöchen, Meister</programlisting>
165 <para>To generate the mount unit for a path:</para>
166 <programlisting>$ systemd-escape -p --suffix=mount "/tmp//waldi/foobar/"
167 tmp-waldi-foobar.mount</programlisting>
169 <para>To generate instance names of three strings:</para>
170 <programlisting>$ systemd-escape --template=systemd-nspawn@.service 'My Container 1' 'containerb' 'container/III'
171 systemd-nspawn@My\x20Container\x201.service systemd-nspawn@containerb.service systemd-nspawn@container-III.service</programlisting>
173 <para>To extract the instance part of an instantiated unit:</para>
174 <programlisting>$ systemd-escape -u --instance 'systemd-nspawn@My\x20Container\x201.service'
175 My Container 1</programlisting>
177 <para>To extract the instance part of an instance of a particular template:</para>
178 <programlisting>$ systemd-escape -u --template=systemd-nspawn@.service 'systemd-nspawn@My\x20Container\x201.service'
179 My Container 1</programlisting>
183 <title>Exit status</title>
185 <para>On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code
190 <title>See Also</title>
192 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
193 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
194 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>