summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
diff options
context:
space:
mode:
authorLennart Poettering <lennart@poettering.net>2016-12-06 19:33:36 +0100
committerLennart Poettering <lennart@poettering.net>2016-12-14 18:29:30 +0100
commit33d2308c1fb8d18400f3aba8f7fc477d9cd6c5b1 (patch)
treeb5325fcaf5e1e3975564439f2fd7993b4db6aa31
parent951aba625e2d6c152225a0f572268f12280b6e69 (diff)
man: document that "systemctl show" shows low-level properties
Fixes: #4654
-rw-r--r--man/systemctl.xml26
1 files changed, 15 insertions, 11 deletions
diff --git a/man/systemctl.xml b/man/systemctl.xml
index 68c8546189..acf975138a 100644
--- a/man/systemctl.xml
+++ b/man/systemctl.xml
@@ -882,17 +882,21 @@ kobject-uevent 1 systemd-udevd-kernel.socket systemd-udevd.service
<term><command>show</command> <optional><replaceable>PATTERN</replaceable>…|<replaceable>JOB</replaceable>…</optional></term>
<listitem>
- <para>Show properties of one or more units, jobs, or the
- manager itself. If no argument is specified, properties of
- the manager will be shown. If a unit name is specified,
- properties of the unit are shown, and if a job ID is
- specified, properties of the job are shown. By default, empty
- properties are suppressed. Use <option>--all</option> to
- show those too. To select specific properties to show, use
- <option>--property=</option>. This command is intended to be
- used whenever computer-parsable output is required. Use
- <command>status</command> if you are looking for formatted
- human-readable output.</para>
+ <para>Show properties of one or more units, jobs, or the manager itself. If no argument is specified,
+ properties of the manager will be shown. If a unit name is specified, properties of the unit are shown, and
+ if a job ID is specified, properties of the job are shown. By default, empty properties are suppressed. Use
+ <option>--all</option> to show those too. To select specific properties to show, use
+ <option>--property=</option>. This command is intended to be used whenever computer-parsable output is
+ required. Use <command>status</command> if you are looking for formatted human-readable output.</para>
+
+ <para>Many properties shown by <command>systemctl show</command> map directly to configuration settings of
+ the system and service manager and its unit files. Note that the properties shown by the command are
+ generally more low-level, normalized versions of the original configuration settings and expose runtime
+ state in addition to configuration. For example, properties shown for service units include the service's
+ current main process identifier as <literal>MainPID</literal> (which is runtime state), and time settings
+ are always exposed as properties ending in the <literal>…USec</literal> suffix even if a matching
+ configuration options end in <literal>…Sec</literal>, because microseconds is the normalized time unit used
+ by the system and service manager.</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>