SYSTEMD-SYSUSERS(8) systemd-sysusers SYSTEMD-SYSUSERS(8)
NAME
systemd-sysusers, systemd-sysusers.service - Allocate system users and
groups
SYNOPSIS
systemd-sysusers [OPTIONS...] [CONFIGFILE...]
systemd-sysusers.service
DESCRIPTION
systemd-sysusers creates system users and groups, based on files in the
format described in sysusers.d(5).
If invoked with no arguments, directives from the configuration files
found in the directories specified by sysusers.d(5) are executed. When
invoked with positional arguments, if option --replace=PATH is
specified, arguments specified on the command line are used instead of
the configuration file PATH. Otherwise, just the configuration specified
by the command line arguments is executed. If the string "-" is
specified instead of a filename, the configuration is read from standard
input. If the argument is a file name (without any slashes), all
configuration directories are searched for a matching file and the file
found that has the highest priority is executed. If the argument is a
path, that file is used directly without searching the configuration
directories for any other matching file.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
--root=root
Takes a directory path as an argument. All paths will be prefixed
with the given alternate root path, including config search paths.
Added in version 215.
--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.
Added in version 247.
--image-policy=policy
Takes an image policy string as argument, as per systemd.image-
policy(7). The policy is enforced when operating on the disk image
specified via --image=, see above. If not specified, defaults to the
"*" policy, i.e. all recognized file systems in the image are used.
--replace=PATH
When this option is given, one or more positional arguments must be
specified. All configuration files found in the directories listed
in sysusers.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.
Example 1. RPM installation script for radvd
echo 'u radvd - "radvd daemon"' | \
systemd-sysusers --replace=/usr/lib/sysusers.d/radvd.conf -
This will create the radvd user as if /usr/lib/sysusers.d/radvd.conf
was already on disk. An admin might override the configuration
specified on the command line by placing /etc/sysusers.d/radvd.conf
or even /etc/sysusers.d/00-overrides.conf.
Note that this is the expanded form, and when used in a package,
this would be written using a macro with "radvd" and a file
containing the configuration line as arguments.
Added in version 238.
--dry-run
Process the configuration and figure out what entries would be
created, but do not actually write anything.
Added in version 250.
--inline
Treat each positional argument as a separate configuration line
instead of a file name.
Added in version 238.
--cat-config
Copy the contents of config files to standard output. Before each
file, the filename is printed as a comment.
--tldr
Copy the contents of config files to standard output. Only the
"interesting" parts of the configuration files are printed, comments
and empty lines are skipped. 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.
CREDENTIALS
systemd-sysusers supports the service credentials logic as implemented
by ImportCredential=/LoadCredential=/SetCredential= (see systemd.exec(5)
for details). The following credentials are used when passed in:
passwd.hashed-password.user
A UNIX hashed password string to use for the specified user, when
creating an entry for it. This is particularly useful for the "root"
user as it allows provisioning the default root password to use via
a unit file drop-in or from a container manager passing in this
credential. Note that setting this credential has no effect if the
specified user account already exists. This credential is hence
primarily useful in first boot scenarios or systems that are fully
stateless and come up with an empty /etc/ on every boot.
Added in version 249.
passwd.plaintext-password.user
Similar to "passwd.hashed-password.user" but expect a literal,
plaintext password, which is then automatically hashed before used
for the user account. If both the hashed and the plaintext
credential are specified for the same user the former takes
precedence. It's generally recommended to specify the hashed
version; however in test environments with weaker requirements on
security it might be easier to pass passwords in plaintext instead.
Added in version 249.
passwd.shell.user
Specifies the shell binary to use for the specified account when
creating it.
Added in version 249.
sysusers.extra
The contents of this credential may contain additional lines to
operate on. The credential contents should follow the same format as
any other sysusers.d/ drop-in. If this credential is passed it is
processed after all of the drop-in files read from the file system.
Added in version 252.
Note that by default the systemd-sysusers.service unit file is set up to
inherit the "passwd.hashed-password.root",
"passwd.plaintext-password.root", "passwd.shell.root" and
"sysusers.extra" credentials from the service manager. Thus, when
invoking a container with an unpopulated /etc/ for the first time it is
possible to configure the root user's password to be "systemd" like
this:
# systemd-nspawn --image=... --set-credential=passwd.hashed-password.root:'$y$j9T$yAuRJu1o5HioZAGDYPU5d.$F64ni6J2y2nNQve90M/p0ZP0ECP/qqzipNyaY9fjGpC' ...
Note again that the data specified in this credential is consulted only
when creating an account for the first time, it may not be used for
changing the password or shell of an account that already exists.
Use mkpasswd(1) for generating UNIX password hashes from the command
line.
EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), sysusers.d(5), Users, Groups, UIDs and GIDs on systemd
systems[2], systemd.exec(5), mkpasswd(1)
NOTES
1. Discoverable Partitions Specification
https://uapi-group.org/specifications/specs/discoverable_partitions_specification
2. Users, Groups, UIDs and GIDs on systemd systems
https://systemd.io/UIDS-GIDS
systemd 257.9 SYSTEMD-SYSUSERS(8)
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