path: root/man/systemd.xml

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<refentry id="systemd">

        <refentryinfo>
                <title>systemd</title>
                <productname>systemd</productname>

                <authorgroup>
                        <author>
                                <contrib>Developer</contrib>
                                <firstname>Lennart</firstname>
                                <surname>Poettering</surname>
                                <email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
                        </author>
                </authorgroup>
        </refentryinfo>

        <refmeta>
                <refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle>
                <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
        </refmeta>

        <refnamediv>
                <refname>systemd</refname>
                <refname>init</refname>
                <refpurpose>systemd System and Session Manager</refpurpose>
        </refnamediv>

        <refsynopsisdiv>
                <cmdsynopsis>
                        <command>systemd <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg></command>
                </cmdsynopsis>
                <cmdsynopsis>
                        <command>init <arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">OPTIONS</arg> <arg choice="req">COMMAND</arg></command>
                </cmdsynopsis>
        </refsynopsisdiv>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Description</title>

                <para>systemd is a system and session manager for
                Linux operating systems. When run as first process on
                boot (as PID 1), it acts as init system that brings
                up and maintains userspace services.</para>

                <para>For compatibility with SysV, if systemd is called
                as <command>init</command> and a PID that is not
                1, it will execute <command>telinit</command> and pass
                all command line arguments unmodified. That means
                <command>init</command> and <command>telinit</command>
                are mostly equivalent when invoked from normal login sessions. See
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>telinit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                for more information.</para>

                <para>When run as system instance, systemd interprets
                the configuration file
                <filename>system.conf</filename>, otherwise
                <filename>session.conf</filename>. See
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                for more information.</para>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Options</title>

                <para>The following options are understood:</para>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>-h</option></term>
                                <term><option>--help</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Prints a short help
                                text and exits.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--test</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Determine startup
                                sequence, dump it and exit. This is an
                                option useful for debugging
                                only.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--dump-configuration-items</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Dump understood unit
                                configuration items. This outputs a
                                terse but complete list of
                                configuration items understood in unit
                                definition files.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--introspect=</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Extract D-Bus
                                interface introspection data. This is
                                mostly useful at install time
                                to generate data suitable for the
                                D-Bus interfaces
                                repository. Optionally the interface
                                name for the introspection data may be
                                specified. If omitted, the
                                introspection data for all interfaces
                                is dumped.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--unit=</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Set default unit to
                                activate on startup. If not specified
                                defaults to
                                <filename>default.target</filename>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--system</option></term>
                                <term><option>--session</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Tell systemd to run a
                                system instance (resp. session
                                instance), even if the process ID is
                                not 1 (resp. is 1), i.e. systemd is not
                                (resp. is) run as init process.
                                Normally it should not be necessary to
                                pass these options, as systemd
                                automatically detects the mode it is
                                started in. These options are hence of
                                little use except for
                                debugging.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--dump-core</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Dump core on crash. This switch has no effect when run as session instance.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--crash-shell</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Run shell on crash. This switch has no effect when run as session instance.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--confirm-spawn</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Ask for confirmation when spawning processes. This switch has no effect when run as session instance.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--show-status</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Show terse service status information while booting. This switch has no effect when run as session instance.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--log-target=</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Set log
                                target. Argument must be one of
                                <option>console</option>,
                                <option>syslog</option>,
                                <option>kmsg</option>,
                                <option>syslog-or-kmsg</option>,
                                <option>null</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--log-level=</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Set log level. As
                                argument this accepts a numerical log
                                level or the well-known <citerefentry><refentrytitle>syslog</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                                symbolic names (lowercase):
                                <option>emerg</option>,
                                <option>alert</option>,
                                <option>crit</option>,
                                <option>err</option>,
                                <option>warning</option>,
                                <option>notice</option>,
                                <option>info</option>,
                                <option>debug</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--log-color=</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Highlight important
                                log messages. Argument is a boolean
                                value. If the argument is omitted it
                                defaults to
                                <option>true</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><option>--log-location=</option></term>

                                <listitem><para>Include code location
                                in log messages. This is mostly
                                relevant for debugging
                                purposes. Argument is a boolean
                                value. If the argument is omitted
                                it defaults to
                                <option>true</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Concepts</title>

                <para>systemd provides a dependency system between
                various entities called "units". Units encapsulate
                various objects that are relevant for system boot-up
                and maintainance. The majority of units are configured
                in unit configuration files, whose syntax and basic
                set of options is described in
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                however some are created automatically from other
                configuration or dynamically from system state. Units
                may be 'active' (meaning started, bound, plugged in,
                ...  depending on the unit type, see below), or
                'inactive' (meaning stopped, unbound, unplugged, ...),
                as well as in the process of being activated or
                deactivated, i.e. between the two states (these states
                are called 'activating', 'deactivating'). A special
                'maintenance' state is available as well which is very
                similar to 'inactive' and is entered when the service
                failed in some way (process returned error code on
                exit, or crashed, or an operation timed out). If this
                state is entered the cause will be logged, for later
                reference. Note that the various unit types may have a
                number of additional substates, which are mapped to
                the five generalized unit states described
                here.</para>

                <para>The following unit types are available:</para>

                <orderedlist>
                        <listitem><para>Service units, which control
                        daemons and the processes they consist of. For
                        details see
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Socket units, which
                        encapsulate local IPC or network sockets in
                        the system, useful for socket-based
                        activation. For details about socket units see
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        for details on socket-based activation and
                        other forms of activation, see
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Target units are useful to
                        group units, or provide well-known
                        synchronization points during boot-up, see
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.target</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Device units expose kernel
                        devices in systemd and may be used to
                        implement device-based activation. For details
                        see
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Mount units control mount
                        points in the file system, for details see
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.mount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Automount units provide
                        automount capabilities, for on-demand mounting
                        of file systems as well as parallelized
                        boot-up. See
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.automount</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Snapshot units can be used to
                        temporarily save the state of the set of
                        systemd units, which later may be restored by
                        activating the saved snapshot unit. For more
                        information see
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.snapshot</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Timer units are useful for
                        triggering activation of other units based on
                        timers. You may find details in
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.timer</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Swap units are very similar to
                        mount units and encapsulated memory swap
                        partitions or files of the operating
                        systemd. They are described in <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.swap</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        <listitem><para>Path units may be used
                        to activate other services when file system
                        objects change or are modified. See
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.path</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                </orderedlist>

                <para>Units are named as their configuration
                files. Some units have special semantics. A detailed
                list you may find in
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>

                <para>systemd knows various kinds of dependencies,
                including positive and negative requirement
                dependencies (i.e. <varname>Requires=</varname> and
                <varname>Conflicts=</varname>) as well as ordering
                dependencies (<varname>After=</varname> and
                <varname>Before=</varname>). NB: ordering and
                requirement dependencies are orthogonal. If only a
                requirement dependency exists between two units
                (e.g. <filename>foo.service</filename> requires
                <filename>bar.service</filename>), but no ordering
                dependency (e.g. <filename>foo.service</filename>
                after <filename>bar.service</filename>) and both are
                requested to start, they will be started in
                parallel. It is a common pattern that both requirement
                and ordering dependencies are placed between two
                units. Also note that the majority of dependencies are
                implicitly created and maintained by systemd. In most
                cases it should be unnecessary to declare additional
                dependencies manually, however it is possible to do
                this.</para>

                <para>Application programs and units (via
                dependencies) may requests state changes of units. In
                systemd, these requests are encapsulated as 'jobs' and
                maintained in a job queue. Jobs may succeed or can
                fail, their execution is ordered based on the ordering
                dependencies of the units they have been scheduled
                for.</para>

                <para>On boot systemd activates the target unit
                <filename>default.target</filename> whose job is to
                activate on-boot services and other on-boot units by
                pulling them in via dependencies. Usually the unit
                name is just an alias (symlink) for either
                <filename>graphical.target</filename> (for
                fully-featured boots into the UI) or
                <filename>multi-user.target</filename> (for limited
                console-only boots for use in embedded or server
                environments, or similar; a subset of
                graphical.target). However it is at the discretion of
                the administrator to configure it as an alias to any
                other target unit. See
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                for details about these target units.</para>

                <para>Processes systemd spawns are placed in
                individual Linux control groups named after the unit
                which they belong to in the private systemd
                hierarchy. (see <ulink
                url="http://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/cgroups/cgroups.txt">cgroups.txt</ulink>
                for more information about control groups, or short
                "cgroups"). systemd uses this to effectively keep
                track of processes. Control group information is
                maintained in the kernel, and is accessible via the
                file system hierarchy (beneath
                <filename>/cgroup/systemd/</filename>), or in tools
                such as
                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>ps</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                (<command>ps xawf -eo pid,user,cgroup,args</command>
                is particularly useful to list all processes and the
                systemd units they belong to.).</para>

                <para>systemd is compatible with the SysV init system
                to a large degree: SysV init scripts are supported and
                simply read as an alternative (though limited)
                configuration file format. The SysV
                <filename>/dev/initctl</filename> interface is
                provided, and compatibility implementations of the
                various SysV client tools are available. In addition to
                that, various established Unix functionality such as
                <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> or the
                <filename>utmp</filename> database are
                supported.</para>

                <para>systemd has a minimal transaction system: if a
                unit is requested to start up or shut down it will add
                it and all its dependencies to a temporary
                transaction. Then, it will verify if the transaction
                is consistent (i.e. whether the ordering of all units
                is cycle-free). If it is not, systemd will try to fix
                it up, and removes non-essential jobs from the
                transaction that might remove the loop. Also, systemd
                tries to suppress non-essential jobs in the
                transaction that would stop a running service. Finally
                it is checked whether the jobs of the transaction
                contradict jobs that have already been queued, and
                optionally the transaction is aborted then. If all
                worked out and the transaction is consistent and
                minimized in its impact it is merged with all already
                outstanding jobs and added to the run
                queue. Effectively this means that before executing a
                requested operation, systemd will verify that it makes
                sense, fixing it if possible, and only failing if it
                really cannot work.</para>

                <para>Systemd contains native implementations of
                various tasks that need to be executed as part of the
                boot process. For example, it sets the host name or
                configures the loopback network device. It also sets
                up and mounts various API file systems, such as
                <filename>/sys</filename> or
                <filename>/proc</filename>.</para>

                <para>For more information about the concepts and
                ideas behind systemd please refer to the <ulink
                url="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">Original
                Design Document</ulink>.</para>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Directories</title>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>System unit directories</term>

                                <listitem><para>The systemd system
                                manager reads unit configuration from
                                various directories. Packages that
                                want to install unit files shall place
                                them in the directory returned by
                                <command>pkg-config systemd
                                --variable=systemdsystemunitdir</command>. Other
                                directories checked are
                                <filename>/usr/local/share/systemd/system</filename>
                                and
                                <filename>/usr/share/systemd/system</filename>. User
                                configuration always takes
                                precedence. <command>pkg-config
                                systemd
                                --variable=systemdsystemconfdir</command>
                                returns the path of the system
                                configuration directory. Packages
                                should alter the content of these directories
                                only with the
                                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-install</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                                tool.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>Session unit directories</term>

                                <listitem><para>Similar rules apply
                                for the session unit
                                directories. However, here the <ulink
                                url="http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html">XDG
                                Base Directory specification</ulink>
                                is followed to find
                                units. Applications should place their
                                unit files in the directory returned
                                by <command>pkg-config systemd
                                --variable=systemdsessionunitdir</command>. Global
                                configuration is done in the
                                directory reported by
                                <command>pkg-config systemd
                                --variable=systemdsessionconfdir</command>. The
                                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-install</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                                tool can handle both global (i.e. for
                                all users) and private (for one user)
                                enabling/disabling of
                                units.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SysV init scripts directory</term>

                                <listitem><para>The location of the
                                SysV init script directory varies
                                between distributions. If systemd
                                cannot find a native unit file for a
                                requested service, it will look for a
                                SysV init script of the same name
                                (with the
                                <filename>.service</filename> suffix
                                removed).</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SysV runlevel link farm directory</term>

                                <listitem><para>The location of the
                                SysV runlevel link farm directory
                                varies between distributions. systemd
                                will take the link farm into account
                                when figuring out whether a service
                                shall be enabled. Note that a service
                                unit with a native unit configuration
                                file cannot be started by activating it
                                in the SysV runlevel link
                                farm.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Signals</title>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGTERM</term>

                                <listitem><para>Upon receiving this
                                signal the systemd system manager
                                serializes its state, reexecutes
                                itself and deserializes the saved
                                state again. This is mostly equivalent
                                to <command>systemctl
                                daemon-reexec</command>.</para>

                                <para>systemd session managers will
                                start the
                                <filename>exit.target</filename> unit
                                when this signal is received. This is
                                mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl --session start
                                exit.target</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGINT</term>

                                <listitem><para>Upon receiving this
                                signal the systemd system manager will
                                start the
                                <filename>ctrl-alt-del.target</filename> unit. This
                                is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl start
                                ctl-alt-del.target</command>.</para>

                                <para>systemd session managers
                                treat this signal the same way as
                                SIGTERM.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGWINCH</term>

                                <listitem><para>When this signal is
                                received the systemd system manager
                                will start the
                                <filename>kbrequest.target</filename>
                                unit. This is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl start
                                kbrequest.target</command>.</para>

                                <para>This signal is ignored by
                                systemd session
                                managers.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGPWR</term>

                                <listitem><para>When this signal is
                                received the systemd manager
                                will start the
                                <filename>sigpwr.target</filename>
                                unit. This is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl start
                                sigpwr.target</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGUSR1</term>

                                <listitem><para>When this signal is
                                received the systemd manager will try
                                to reconnect to the D-Bus
                                bus.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGUSR2</term>

                                <listitem><para>When this signal is
                                received the systemd manager will log
                                its complete state in human readable
                                form. The data logged is the same as
                                printed by <command>systemctl
                                dump</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGHUP</term>

                                <listitem><para>Reloads the complete
                                daemon configuration. This is mostly
                                equivalent to <command>systemctl
                                daemon-reload</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGRTMIN+0</term>

                                <listitem><para>Enters default mode, starts the
                                <filename>default.target</filename>
                                unit. This is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl start
                                default.target</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGRTMIN+1</term>

                                <listitem><para>Enters rescue mode,
                                starts the
                                <filename>rescue.target</filename>
                                unit. This is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl isolate
                                rescue.target</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGRTMIN+2</term>

                                <listitem><para>Enters emergency mode,
                                starts the
                                <filename>emergency.service</filename>
                                unit. This is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl isolate
                                emergency.service</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGRTMIN+3</term>

                                <listitem><para>Halts the machine,
                                starts the
                                <filename>halt.target</filename>
                                unit. This is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl start
                                halt.target</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGRTMIN+4</term>

                                <listitem><para>Powers off the machine,
                                starts the
                                <filename>poweroff.target</filename>
                                unit. This is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl start
                                poweroff.target</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term>SIGRTMIN+5</term>

                                <listitem><para>Reboots the machine,
                                starts the
                                <filename>reboot.target</filename>
                                unit. This is mostly equivalent to
                                <command>systemctl start
                                reboot.target</command>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Environment</title>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL</varname></term>
                                <listitem><para>systemd reads the
                                log level from this environment
                                variable. This can be overridden with
                                <option>--log-level=</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET</varname></term>
                                <listitem><para>systemd reads the
                                log target from this environment
                                variable. This can be overridden with
                                <option>--log-target=</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR</varname></term>
                                <listitem><para>Controls whether
                                systemd highlights important log
                                messages. This can be overridden with
                                <option>--log-color=</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION</varname></term>
                                <listitem><para>Controls whether
                                systemd prints the code location along
                                with log messages. This can be
                                overridden with
                                <option>--log-location=</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$XDG_CONFIG_HOME</varname></term>
                                <term><varname>$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS</varname></term>
                                <term><varname>$XDG_DATA_HOME</varname></term>
                                <term><varname>$XDG_DATA_DIRS</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>The systemd session
                                manager uses these variables in
                                accordance to the <ulink
                                url="http://standards.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html">XDG
                                Base Directory specification</ulink>
                                to find its configuration.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$SYSTEMD_UNIT_PATH</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Controls where systemd
                                looks for unit
                                files.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$SYSTEMD_SYSVINIT_PATH</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Controls where systemd
                                looks for SysV init scripts.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$SYSTEMD_SYSVRCND_PATH</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Controls where systemd
                                looks for SysV init script runlevel link
                                farms.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$LISTEN_PID</varname></term>
                                <term><varname>$LISTEN_FDS</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Set by systemd for
                                supervised processes during
                                socket-based activation. See
                                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                                for more information.
                                </para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>$NOTIFY_SOCKET</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Set by systemd for
                                supervised processes for status and
                                start-up completion notification. See
                                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                                for more information.
                                </para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Kernel Command Line</title>

                <para>When run as system instance systemd parses a few kernel command line arguments:</para>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>systemd.unit=</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Overrides the unit to
                                activate on boot. Defaults to
                                <filename>default.target</filename>. This
                                may be used to temporarily boot into a
                                different boot unit, for example
                                <filename>rescue.target</filename> or
                                <filename>emergency.service</filename>. See
                                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                                for details about these
                                units.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>systemd.log_target=</varname></term>
                                <term><varname>systemd.log_level=</varname></term>
                                <term><varname>systemd.log_color=</varname></term>
                                <term><varname>systemd.log_location=</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Controls log output,
                                with the same effect as the
                                <varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_TARGET</varname>, <varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_LEVEL</varname>, <varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_COLOR</varname>, <varname>$SYSTEMD_LOG_LOCATION</varname>
                                environment variables described above.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>systemd.dump_core=</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
                                argument. If <option>true</option>
                                systemd dumps core when it
                                crashes. Otherwise no core dump is
                                created. Defaults to
                                <option>true</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>systemd.crash_shell=</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
                                argument. If <option>true</option>
                                systemd spawns a shell when it
                                crashes. Otherwise no core dump is
                                created. Defaults to
                                <option>false</option>, for security
                                reasons, as the shell is not protected
                                by any password
                                authentication.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>systemd.crash_chvt=</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Takes an integer
                                argument. If positive systemd
                                activates the specified virtual
                                terminal when it crashes. Defaults to
                                <literal>-1</literal>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><varname>systemd.show_status=</varname></term>

                                <listitem><para>Takes a boolean
                                argument. If <option>true</option>
                                shows terse service status updates on
                                the console during bootup. Defaults to
                                <option>true</option>.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                </variablelist>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>Sockets and FIFOs</title>

                <variablelist>
                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><filename>@/org/freedesktop/systemd1/notify</filename></term>

                                <listitem><para>Daemon status
                                notification socket. This is an AF_UNIX
                                datagram socket in the Linux abstract
                                namespace, and is used to implement
                                the daemon notification logic as
                                implemented by
                                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para></listitem>

                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><filename>@/org/freedesktop/systemd1/logger</filename></term>

                                <listitem><para>Used internally by the
                                <filename>systemd-logger.service</filename>
                                unit to connect STDOUT and/or STDERR
                                of spawned processes to
                                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>syslog</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                                or the kernel log buffer. This is an
                                AF_UNIX stream socket in the Linux
                                abstract namespace.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><filename>@/org/freedesktop/systemd1/private</filename></term>

                                <listitem><para>Used internally as
                                communication channel between
                                <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                                and the systemd process. This is an
                                AF_UNIX stream socket in the Linux
                                abstract namespace. This interface is
                                private to systemd and should not be
                                used in external
                                projects.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>

                        <varlistentry>
                                <term><filename>/dev/initctl</filename></term>

                                <listitem><para>Limited compatibility
                                support for the SysV client interface,
                                as implemented by the
                                <filename>systemd-initctl.service</filename>
                                unit. This is a named pipe in the file
                                system. This interface is obsolete and
                                should not be used in new
                                applications.</para></listitem>
                        </varlistentry>
                </variablelist>
        </refsect1>

        <refsect1>
                <title>See Also</title>
                <para>
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemadm</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-install</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-notify</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd-daemon</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
                        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>pkg-config</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
                </para>
        </refsect1>

</refentry>