1 <?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
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-sysusers"
7 xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
10 <title>systemd-sysusers</title>
11 <productname>systemd</productname>
15 <refentrytitle>systemd-sysusers</refentrytitle>
16 <manvolnum>8</manvolnum>
20 <refname>systemd-sysusers</refname>
21 <refname>systemd-sysusers.service</refname>
22 <refpurpose>Allocate system users and groups</refpurpose>
27 <command>systemd-sysusers</command>
28 <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg>
29 <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat"><replaceable>CONFIGFILE</replaceable></arg>
32 <para><filename>systemd-sysusers.service</filename></para>
36 <title>Description</title>
38 <para><command>systemd-sysusers</command> creates system users and groups, based on files in the format
40 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sysusers.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
43 <para>If invoked with no arguments, it applies all directives from all files found in the directories
45 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sysusers.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>. When
46 invoked with positional arguments, if option <option>--replace=<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option>
47 is specified, arguments specified on the command line are used instead of the configuration file
48 <replaceable>PATH</replaceable>. Otherwise, just the configuration specified by the command line
49 arguments is executed. The string <literal>-</literal> may be specified instead of a filename to instruct
50 <command>systemd-sysusers</command> to read the configuration from standard input. If the argument is a
51 relative path, all configuration directories are searched for a matching file and the file found that has
52 the highest priority is executed. If the argument is an absolute path, that file is used directly without
53 searching of the configuration directories.</para>
57 <title>Options</title>
59 <para>The following options are understood:</para>
63 <term><option>--root=<replaceable>root</replaceable></option></term>
64 <listitem><para>Takes a directory path as an argument. All
65 paths will be prefixed with the given alternate
66 <replaceable>root</replaceable> path, including config search
69 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v215"/></listitem>
73 <term><option>--image=<replaceable>image</replaceable></option></term>
75 <listitem><para>Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If specified all operations
76 are applied to file system in the indicated disk image. This is similar to <option>--root=</option>
77 but operates on file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The disk image should either
78 contain just a file system or a set of file systems within a GPT partition table, following the
79 <ulink url="https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification">Discoverable Partitions
80 Specification</ulink>. For further information on supported disk images, see
81 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>'s
82 switch of the same name.</para>
84 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v247"/></listitem>
87 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="image-policy-open" />
90 <term><option>--replace=<replaceable>PATH</replaceable></option></term>
91 <listitem><para>When this option is given, one or more positional arguments
92 must be specified. All configuration files found in the directories listed in
93 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sysusers.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
94 will be read, and the configuration given on the command line will be
95 handled instead of and with the same priority as the configuration file
96 <replaceable>PATH</replaceable>.</para>
98 <para>This option is intended to be used when package installation scripts
99 are running and files belonging to that package are not yet available on
100 disk, so their contents must be given on the command line, but the admin
101 configuration might already exist and should be given higher priority.
105 <title>RPM installation script for radvd</title>
107 <programlisting>echo 'u radvd - "radvd daemon"' | \
108 systemd-sysusers --replace=/usr/lib/sysusers.d/radvd.conf -</programlisting>
110 <para>This will create the radvd user as if
111 <filename>/usr/lib/sysusers.d/radvd.conf</filename> was already on disk.
112 An admin might override the configuration specified on the command line by
113 placing <filename>/etc/sysusers.d/radvd.conf</filename> or even
114 <filename>/etc/sysusers.d/00-overrides.conf</filename>.</para>
116 <para>Note that this is the expanded form, and when used in a package, this
117 would be written using a macro with "radvd" and a file containing the
118 configuration line as arguments.</para>
121 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v238"/>
126 <term><option>--dry-run</option></term>
127 <listitem><para>Process the configuration and figure out what entries would be created, but don't
128 actually write anything.</para>
130 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v250"/></listitem>
134 <term><option>--inline</option></term>
135 <listitem><para>Treat each positional argument as a separate configuration
136 line instead of a file name.</para>
138 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v238"/></listitem>
141 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="cat-config" />
142 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="tldr" />
143 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="no-pager" />
144 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
145 <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
150 <title>Credentials</title>
152 <para><command>systemd-sysusers</command> supports the service credentials logic as implemented by
153 <varname>ImportCredential=</varname>/<varname>LoadCredential=</varname>/<varname>SetCredential=</varname>
154 (see <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
155 details). The following credentials are used when passed in:</para>
157 <variablelist class='system-credentials'>
159 <term><varname>passwd.hashed-password.<replaceable>user</replaceable></varname></term>
160 <listitem><para>A UNIX hashed password string to use for the specified user, when creating an entry
161 for it. This is particularly useful for the <literal>root</literal> user as it allows provisioning
162 the default root password to use via a unit file drop-in or from a container manager passing in this
163 credential. Note that setting this credential has no effect if the specified user account already
164 exists. This credential is hence primarily useful in first boot scenarios or systems that are fully
165 stateless and come up with an empty <filename>/etc/</filename> on every boot.</para>
167 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
171 <term><varname>passwd.plaintext-password.<replaceable>user</replaceable></varname></term>
173 <listitem><para>Similar to <literal>passwd.hashed-password.<replaceable>user</replaceable></literal>
174 but expect a literal, plaintext password, which is then automatically hashed before used for the user
175 account. If both the hashed and the plaintext credential are specified for the same user the
176 former takes precedence. It's generally recommended to specify the hashed version; however in test
177 environments with weaker requirements on security it might be easier to pass passwords in plaintext
180 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
184 <term><varname>passwd.shell.<replaceable>user</replaceable></varname></term>
186 <listitem><para>Specifies the shell binary to use for the specified account when creating it.</para>
188 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v249"/></listitem>
192 <term><varname>sysusers.extra</varname></term>
194 <listitem><para>The contents of this credential may contain additional lines to operate on. The
195 credential contents should follow the same format as any other <filename>sysusers.d/</filename>
196 drop-in. If this credential is passed it is processed after all of the drop-in files read from the
199 <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v252"/></listitem>
203 <para>Note that by default the <filename>systemd-sysusers.service</filename> unit file is set up to
204 inherit the <literal>passwd.hashed-password.root</literal>,
205 <literal>passwd.plaintext-password.root</literal>, <literal>passwd.shell.root</literal> and
206 <literal>sysusers.extra</literal> credentials from the service manager. Thus, when invoking a container
207 with an unpopulated <filename>/etc/</filename> for the first time it is possible to configure the root
208 user's password to be <literal>systemd</literal> like this:</para>
210 <para><programlisting># systemd-nspawn --image=… --set-credential=passwd.hashed-password.root:'$y$j9T$yAuRJu1o5HioZAGDYPU5d.$F64ni6J2y2nNQve90M/p0ZP0ECP/qqzipNyaY9fjGpC' …</programlisting></para>
212 <para>Note again that the data specified in this credential is consulted only when creating an account
213 for the first time, it may not be used for changing the password or shell of an account that already
216 <para>Use <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>mkpasswd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
217 for generating UNIX password hashes from the command line.</para>
221 <title>Exit status</title>
223 <para>On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code
228 <title>See Also</title>
230 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
231 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sysusers.d</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
232 <ulink url="https://systemd.io/UIDS-GIDS">Users, Groups, UIDs and GIDs on systemd systems</ulink>,
233 <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
234 <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>mkpasswd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>