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. With --unescape, expects instantiated unit names for this template and extracts and
           unescapes just the instance part. May not be used in conjunction with --suffix=, --instance 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, -u
           Instead of escaping the specified strings, undo the escaping, reversing the operation. May not be
           used in conjunction with --suffix= or --mangle.

       --mangle, -m
           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.

       --instance
           With --unescape, unescape and print only the instance part of an instantiated unit name template.
           Results in an error for an uninstantiated template like ssh@.service or a non-template name like
           ssh.service. Must be used in conjunction with --unescape and may not be used in conjunction with
           --template.

       -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

       To extract the instance part of an instantiated unit:

           $ systemd-escape -u --instance 'systemd-nspawn@My\x20Container\x201.service'
           My Container 1

       To extract the instance part of an instance of a particular template:

           $ systemd-escape -u --template=systemd-nspawn@.service 'systemd-nspawn@My\x20Container\x201.service'
           My Container 1

EXIT STATUS

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

SEE ALSO

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

systemd 245                                                                                    SYSTEMD-ESCAPE(1)