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

SYNOPSIS

       systemd-tmpfiles [OPTIONS...] [CONFIGFILE...]

       System units:

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

       User units:

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

DESCRIPTION

       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).

       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.

       System services (systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service, systemd-tmpfiles-setup-dev.service,
       systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service) invoke systemd-tmpfiles to create system files and to
       perform system wide cleanup. Those services read administrator-controlled configuration
       files in tmpfiles.d/ directories. User services (systemd-tmpfiles-setup.service,
       systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service) also invoke systemd-tmpfiles, but it reads a separate set
       of files, which includes user-controlled files under ~/.config/user-tmpfiles.d/ and
       ~/.local/share/user-tmpfiles.d/, and administrator-controlled files under
       /usr/share/user-tmpfiles.d/. Users may use this to create and clean up files under their
       control, but the system instance performs global cleanup and is not influenced by user
       configuration. Note that this means a time-based cleanup configured in the system
       instance, such as the one typically configured for /tmp/, will thus also affect files
       created by the user instance if they are placed in /tmp/, even if the user instance's
       time-based cleanup is turned off.

OPTIONS

       The following options are understood:

       --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.

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

       --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.

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

       --boot
           Also execute lines with an exclamation mark.

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

       --exclude-prefix=path
           Ignore rules with paths that start with the specified prefix. This option can be
           specified multiple times.

       -E
           A shortcut for "--exclude-prefix=/dev --exclude-prefix=/proc --exclude-prefix=/run
           --exclude-prefix=/sys", i.e. exclude the hierarchies typically backed by virtual or
           memory file systems. This is useful in combination with --root=, if the specified
           directory tree contains an OS tree without these virtual/memory file systems mounted
           in, as it is typically not desirable to create any files and directories below these
           subdirectories if they are supposed to be overmounted during runtime.

       --root=root
           Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed with the given
           alternate root path, including config search paths.

           When this option is used, the libc Name Service Switch (NSS) is bypassed for resolving
           users and groups. Instead the files /etc/passwd and /etc/group inside the alternate
           root are read directly. This means that users/groups not listed in these files will
           not be resolved, i.e. LDAP NIS and other complex databases are not considered.

           Consider combining this with -E to ensure the invocation does not create files or
           directories below mount points in the OS image operated on that are typically
           overmounted during runtime.

       --image=image
           Takes a path to a disk image file or block device node. If specified all operations
           are applied to file system in the indicated disk image. This is similar to --root= but
           operates on file systems stored in disk images or block devices. The disk image should
           either contain just a file system or a set of file systems within a GPT partition
           table, following the Discoverable Partitions Specification[1]. For further information
           on supported disk images, see systemd-nspawn(1)'s switch of the same name.

           Implies -E.

       --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.

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

       --no-pager
           Do not pipe output into a pager.

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

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

       It is possible to combine --create, --clean, and --remove in one invocation (in which case
       removal and cleanup 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

UNPRIVILEGED --CLEANUP OPERATION

       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.

EXIT STATUS

       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).

SEE ALSO

       systemd(1), tmpfiles.d(5)

NOTES

        1. Discoverable Partitions Specification
           https://systemd.io/DISCOVERABLE_PARTITIONS