systemd-run — Run programs in transient scope or service or timer units
systemd-run
[OPTIONS...] COMMAND
[ARGS...]
systemd-run
[OPTIONS...] [TIMER OPTIONS...] {COMMAND
} [ARGS...]
systemd-run may be used to create and
start a transient .service
or
.scope
unit and run the specified
COMMAND
in it. It may also be used to
create and start transient .timer
units.
If a command is run as transient service unit, it will be started and managed by the service manager like any other service, and thus shows up in the output of systemctl list-units like any other unit. It will run in a clean and detached execution environment, with the service manager as its parent process. In this mode, systemd-run will start the service asynchronously in the background and return after the command has begun execution.
If a command is run as transient scope unit, it will be
started by systemd-run itself as parent process
and will thus inherit the execution environment of the
caller. However, the processes of the command are managed by the
service manager similar to normal services, and will show up in
the output of systemctl list-units. Execution
in this case is synchronous, and will return only when the command
finishes. This mode is enabled via the --scope
switch (see below).
If a command is run with timer options such as
--on-calendar=
(see below), a transient timer
unit is created alongside the service unit for the specified
command. Only the transient timer unit is started immediately, the
transient service unit will be started when the transient timer
elapses. If the --unit=
is specified, the
COMMAND
may be omitted. In this case,
systemd-run only creates a
.timer
unit that invokes the specified unit
when elapsing.
The following options are understood:
--no-ask-password
¶Do not query the user for authentication for privileged operations.
--scope
¶Create a transient .scope
unit instead of
the default transient .service
unit.
--unit=
¶Use this unit name instead of an automatically generated one.
--property=
, -p
¶Sets a unit property for the scope or service unit that is created. This takes an assignment in the same format as systemctl(1)'s set-property command.
--description=
¶Provide a description for the service or scope
unit. If not specified, the command itself will be used as a
description. See Description=
in
systemd.unit(5).
--slice=
¶Make the new .service
or
.scope
unit part of the specified slice,
instead of the system.slice
.
--remain-after-exit
¶After the service or scope process has
terminated, keep the service around until it is explicitly
stopped. This is useful to collect runtime information about
the service after it finished running. Also see
RemainAfterExit=
in
systemd.service(5).
--send-sighup
¶When terminating the scope or service unit,
send a SIGHUP immediately after SIGTERM. This is useful to
indicate to shells and shell-like processes that the
connection has been severed. Also see
SendSIGHUP=
in
systemd.kill(5).
--service-type=
¶Sets the service type. Also see
Type=
in
systemd.service(5). This
option has no effect in conjunction with
--scope
. Defaults to
simple
.
--uid=
, --gid=
¶Runs the service process under the UNIX user
and group. Also see User=
and
Group=
in
systemd.exec(5).
--nice=
¶Runs the service process with the specified
nice level. Also see Nice=
in
systemd.exec(5).
-E NAME
=VALUE
, --setenv=NAME
=VALUE
¶Runs the service process with the specified environment variable set.
Also see Environment=
in
systemd.exec(5).
--pty
, -t
¶When invoking a command, the service connects its standard input and output to the invoking tty via a pseudo TTY device. This allows invoking binaries as services that expect interactive user input, such as interactive command shells.
--quiet
, -q
¶Suppresses additional informational output
while running. This is particularly useful in combination with
--pty
when it will suppress the initial
message explaining how to terminate the TTY connection.
--on-active=
, --on-boot=
, --on-startup=
, --on-unit-active=
, --on-unit-inactive=
¶Defines monotonic timers relative to different
starting points. Also see OnActiveSec=
,
OnBootSec=
,
OnStartupSec=
,
OnUnitActiveSec=
and
OnUnitInactiveSec=
in
systemd.timer(5). This
options have no effect in conjunction with
--scope
.
--on-calendar=
¶Defines realtime (i.e. wallclock) timers with
calendar event expressions. Also see
OnCalendar=
in
systemd.timer(5). This
option has no effect in conjunction with
--scope
.
--timer-property=
¶Sets a timer unit property for the timer unit
that is created. It is similar with
--property
but only for created timer
unit. This option only has effect in conjunction with
--on-active=
, --on-boot=
,
--on-startup=
,
--on-unit-active=
,
--on-unit-inactive=
,
--on-calendar=
. This takes an assignment in
the same format as
systemctl(1)'s
set-property command.
--no-block
¶Do not synchronously wait for the requested operation to finish. If this is not specified, the job will be verified, enqueued and systemd-run will wait until the unit's start-up is completed. By passing this argument, it is only verified and enqueued.
--user
¶Talk to the service manager of the calling user, rather than the service manager of the system.
--system
¶Talk to the service manager of the system. This is the implied default.
-H
, --host=
¶Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a
username and hostname separated by "@
", to
connect to. The hostname may optionally be suffixed by a
container name, separated by ":
", which
connects directly to a specific container on the specified
host. This will use SSH to talk to the remote machine manager
instance. Container names may be enumerated with
machinectl -H
HOST
.
-M
, --machine=
¶Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to connect to.
-h
, --help
¶--version
¶All command line arguments after the first non-option argument become part of the command line of the launched process. If a command is run as service unit, its first argument needs to be an absolute binary path.
Example 1. Logging environment variables provided by systemd to services
# systemd-run env Running as unit: run-19945.service # journalctl -u run-19945.service Sep 08 07:37:21 bupkis systemd[1]: Starting /usr/bin/env... Sep 08 07:37:21 bupkis systemd[1]: Started /usr/bin/env. Sep 08 07:37:21 bupkis env[19948]: PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin Sep 08 07:37:21 bupkis env[19948]: LANG=en_US.UTF-8 Sep 08 07:37:21 bupkis env[19948]: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-3.11.0-0.rc5.git6.2.fc20.x86_64
Example 2. Limiting resources available to a command
# systemd-run -p BlockIOWeight=10 updatedb
This command invokes the
updatedb(8)
tool, but lowers the block I/O weight for it to 10. See
systemd.resource-control(5)
for more information on the BlockIOWeight=
property.
Example 3. Running commands at a specified time
The following command will touch a file after 30 seconds.
# date; systemd-run --on-active=30 --timer-property=AccuracySec=100ms /bin/touch /tmp/foo Mon Dec 8 20:44:24 KST 2014 Running as unit: run-71.timer Will run service as unit: run-71.service # journalctl -b -u run-71.timer -- Logs begin at Fri 2014-12-05 19:09:21 KST, end at Mon 2014-12-08 20:44:54 KST. -- Dec 08 20:44:38 container systemd[1]: Starting /bin/touch /tmp/foo. Dec 08 20:44:38 container systemd[1]: Started /bin/touch /tmp/foo. # journalctl -b -u run-71.service -- Logs begin at Fri 2014-12-05 19:09:21 KST, end at Mon 2014-12-08 20:44:54 KST. -- Dec 08 20:44:48 container systemd[1]: Starting /bin/touch /tmp/foo... Dec 08 20:44:48 container systemd[1]: Started /bin/touch /tmp/foo.
Example 4. Allowing access to the tty
The following command invokes /bin/bash
as a service
passing its standard input, output and error to the calling TTY.
# systemd-run -t --send-sighup /bin/bash
Example 5. Start screen as a user service
$ systemd-run --scope --user screen Running scope as unit run-r14b0047ab6df45bfb45e7786cc839e76.scope. $ screen -ls There is a screen on: 492..laptop (Detached) 1 Socket in /var/run/screen/S-fatima.
This starts the screen process as a child of the
systemd --user process that was started by
user@.service
, in a scope unit. A
systemd.scope(5)
unit is used instead of a
systemd.service(5)
unit, because screen will exit when detaching from the terminal,
and a service unit would be terminated. Running screen
as a user unit has the advantage that it is not part of the session scope.
If KillUserProcesses=yes
is configured in
logind.conf(5),
the default, the session scope will be terminated when the user logs
out of that session.
The user@.service
is started automatically
when the user first logs in, and stays around as long as at least one
login session is open. After the user logs out of the last session,
user@.service
and all services underneath it
are terminated. This behaviour is the default, when "lingering" is
not enabled for that user. Enabling lingering means that
user@.service
is started automatically during
boot, even if the user is not logged in, and that the service is
not terminated when the user logs out.
Enabling lingering allows the user to run processes without being logged in, for example to allow screen to persist after the user logs out, even if the session scope is terminated. In the default configuration, users can enable lingering for themselves:
$ loginctl enable-linger