NAME

       systemd-escape - Escape strings for usage in systemd unit names

SYNOPSIS

       systemd-escape [OPTIONS...] [STRING...]

DESCRIPTION

       systemd-escape may be used to escape strings for inclusion in systemd unit names. The
       command may be used to escape and to undo escaping of strings.

       The command takes any number of strings on the command line, and will process them
       individually, one after another. It will output them separated by spaces to stdout.

       By default, this command will escape the strings passed, unless --unescape is passed which
       results in the inverse operation being applied. If --mangle is given, a special mode of
       escaping is applied instead, which assumes the string is already escaped but will escape
       everything that appears obviously non-escaped.

       For details on the escaping and unescaping algorithms see the relevant section in
       systemd.unit(5).

OPTIONS

       The following options are understood:

       --suffix=
           Appends the specified unit type suffix to the escaped string. Takes one of the unit
           types supported by systemd, such as "service" or "mount". May not be used in
           conjunction with --template=, --unescape or --mangle.

       --template=
           Inserts the escaped strings in a unit name template. Takes a unit name template such
           as foobar@.service. May not be used in conjunction with --suffix=, --unescape or
           --mangle.

       --path, -p
           When escaping or unescaping a string, assume it refers to a file system path. This
           eliminates leading, trailing or duplicate "/" characters and rejects "."  and ".."
           path components. This is particularly useful for generating strings suitable for
           unescaping with the "%f" specifier in unit files, see systemd.unit(5).

       --unescape
           Instead of escaping the specified strings, undo the escaping, reversing the operation.
           May not be used in conjunction with --suffix=, --template= or --mangle.

       --mangle
           Like --escape, but only escape characters that are obviously not escaped yet, and
           possibly automatically append an appropriate unit type suffix to the string. May not
           be used in conjunction with --suffix=, --template= or --unescape.

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

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

EXAMPLES

       To escape a single string:

           $ systemd-escape 'Hallöchen, Meister'
           Hall\xc3\xb6chen\x2c\x20Meister

       To undo escaping on a single string:

           $ systemd-escape -u 'Hall\xc3\xb6chen\x2c\x20Meister'
           Hallöchen, Meister

       To generate the mount unit for a path:

           $ systemd-escape -p --suffix=mount "/tmp//waldi/foobar/"
           tmp-waldi-foobar.mount

       To generate instance names of three strings:

           $ systemd-escape --template=systemd-nspawn@.service 'My Container 1' 'containerb' 'container/III'
           systemd-nspawn@My\x20Container\x201.service systemd-nspawn@containerb.service systemd-nspawn@container-III.service

EXIT STATUS

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

SEE ALSO

       systemd(1), systemd.unit(5), systemctl(1)