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---
title: Known Environment Variables
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category: Interfaces
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layout: default
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---
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# Known Environment Variables
A number of systemd components take additional runtime parameters via
environment variables. Many of these environment variables are not supported at
the same level as command line switches and other interfaces are: we don't
document them in the man pages and we make no stability guarantees for
them. While they generally are unlikely to be dropped any time soon again, we
do not want to guarantee that they stay around for good either.
Below is an (incomprehensive) list of the environment variables understood by
the various tools. Note that this list only covers environment variables not
documented in the proper man pages.
All tools:
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* `$SYSTEMD_OFFLINE=[0|1]` — if set to `1` , then `systemctl` will
refrain from talking to PID 1; this has the same effect as the historical
detection of `chroot()` . Setting this variable to `0` instead has a similar
effect as `SYSTEMD_IGNORE_CHROOT=1` ; i.e. tools will try to
communicate with PID 1 even if a `chroot()` environment is detected.
You almost certainly want to set this to `1` if you maintain a package build system
or similar and are trying to use a modern container system and not plain
`chroot()` .
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* `$SYSTEMD_IGNORE_CHROOT=1` — if set, don't check whether being invoked in a
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`chroot()` environment. This is particularly relevant for systemctl, as it
will not alter its behaviour for `chroot()` environments if set. Normally it
refrains from talking to PID 1 in such a case; turning most operations such
as `start` into no-ops. If that's what's explicitly desired, you might
consider setting `SYSTEMD_OFFLINE=1` .
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* `$SD_EVENT_PROFILE_DELAYS=1` — if set, the sd-event event loop implementation
will print latency information at runtime.
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* `$SYSTEMD_PROC_CMDLINE` — if set, the contents are used as the kernel command
line instead of the actual one in /proc/cmdline. This is useful for
debugging, in order to test generators and other code against specific kernel
command lines.
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* `$SYSTEMD_FSTAB` — if set, use this path instead of /etc/fstab. Only useful
for debugging.
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* `$SYSTEMD_CRYPTTAB` — if set, use this path instead of /etc/crypttab. Only
useful for debugging. Currently only supported by systemd-cryptsetup-generator.
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* `$SYSTEMD_EFI_OPTIONS` — if set, used instead of the string in the
SystemdOptions EFI variable. Analogous to `$SYSTEMD_PROC_CMDLINE` .
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* `$SYSTEMD_IN_INITRD` — takes a boolean. If set, overrides initrd detection.
This is useful for debugging and testing initrd-only programs in the main
system.
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* `$SYSTEMD_BUS_TIMEOUT=SECS` — specifies the maximum time to wait for method call
completion. If no time unit is specified, assumes seconds. The usual other units
are understood, too (us, ms, s, min, h, d, w, month, y). If it is not set or set
to 0, then the built-in default is used.
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* `$SYSTEMD_MEMPOOL=0` — if set, the internal memory caching logic employed by
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hash tables is turned off, and libc malloc() is used for all allocations.
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* `$SYSTEMD_EMOJI=0` — if set, tools such as "systemd-analyze security" will
not output graphical smiley emojis, but ASCII alternatives instead. Note that
this only controls use of Unicode emoji glyphs, and has no effect on other
Unicode glyphs.
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* `$RUNTIME_DIRECTORY` — various tools use this variable to locate the
appropriate path under /run. This variable is also set by the manager when
RuntimeDirectory= is used, see systemd.exec(5).
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systemctl:
* `$SYSTEMCTL_FORCE_BUS=1` — if set, do not connect to PID1's private D-Bus
listener, and instead always connect through the dbus-daemon D-bus broker.
* `$SYSTEMCTL_INSTALL_CLIENT_SIDE=1` — if set, enable or disable unit files on
the client side, instead of asking PID 1 to do this.
* `$SYSTEMCTL_SKIP_SYSV=1` — if set, do not call out to SysV compatibility hooks.
systemd-nspawn:
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* `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_UNIFIED_HIERARCHY=1` — if set, force nspawn into unified
cgroup hierarchy mode.
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* `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_API_VFS_WRITABLE=1` — if set, make /sys and /proc/sys and
friends writable in the container. If set to "network", leave only
/proc/sys/net writable.
* `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_CONTAINER_SERVICE=…` — override the "service" name nspawn
uses to register with machined. If unset defaults to "nspawn", but with this
variable may be set to any other value.
* `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_USE_CGNS=0` — if set, do not use cgroup namespacing, even if
it is available.
* `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_LOCK=0` — if set, do not lock container images when running.
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* `$SYSTEMD_NSPAWN_TMPFS_TMP=0` — if set, do not overmount /tmp in the
container with a tmpfs, but leave the directory from the image in place.
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systemd-logind:
* `$SYSTEMD_BYPASS_HIBERNATION_MEMORY_CHECK=1` — if set, report that
hibernation is available even if the swap devices do not provide enough room
for it.
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systemd-udevd:
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* `$NET_NAMING_SCHEME=` – if set, takes a network naming scheme (i.e. one of
meson: make net.naming-scheme= default configurable
This is useful for distributions, where the stability of interface names should
be preseved after an upgrade of systemd. So when some specific release of the
distro is made available, systemd defaults to the latest & greatest naming
scheme, and subsequent updates set the same default. This default may still
be overriden through the kernel and env var options.
A special value "latest" is also allowed. Without a specific name, it is harder
to verride from meson. In case of 'combo' options, meson reads the default
during the initial configuration, and "remembers" this choice. When systemd is
updated, old build/ directories could keep the old default, which would be
annoying. Hence, "latest" is introduced to make it explicit, yet follow the
upstream. This is actually useful for the user too, because it may be used
as an override, without having to actually specify a version.
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"v238", "v239", "v240"…, or the special value "latest") as parameter. If
specified udev's net_id builtin will follow the specified naming scheme when
determining stable network interface names. This may be used to revert to
naming schemes of older udev versions, in order to provide more stable naming
across updates. This environment variable takes precedence over the kernel
command line option `net.naming-scheme=` , except if the value is prefixed
with `:` in which case the kernel command line option takes precedence, if it
is specified as well.
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* `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_FIRMWARE_SETUP` — if set overrides systemd-logind's
built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot into the firmware. Takes a
boolean. If set to false the functionality is turned off entirely. If set to
true instead of requesting a reboot into the firmware setup UI through EFI a
file `/run/systemd/reboot-to-firmware-setup` is created whenever this is
requested. This file may be checked for by services run during system
shutdown in order to request the appropriate operation from the firmware in
an alternative fashion.
* `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_BOOT_LOADER_MENU` — similar to the above, allows
overriding of systemd-logind's built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot into
the boot loader menu. Takes a boolean. If set to false the functionality is
turned off entirely. If set to true instead of requesting a reboot into the
boot loader menu through EFI a file `/run/systemd/reboot-to-boot-loader-menu`
is created whenever this is requested. The file contains the requested boot
loader menu timeout in µs, formatted in ASCII decimals, or zero in case no
time-out is requested. This file may be checked for by services run during
system shutdown in order to request the appropriate operation from the boot
loader in an alternative fashion.
* `$SYSTEMD_REBOOT_TO_BOOT_LOADER_ENTRY` — similar to the above, allows
overriding of systemd-logind's built-in EFI logic of requesting a reboot into
a specific boot loader entry. Takes a boolean. If set to false the
functionality is turned off entirely. If set to true instead of requesting a
reboot into a specific boot loader entry through EFI a file
`/run/systemd/reboot-to-boot-loader-entry` is created whenever this is
requested. The file contains the requested boot loader entry identifier. This
file may be checked for by services run during system shutdown in order to
request the appropriate operation from the boot loader in an alternative
fashion. Note that by default only boot loader entries which follow the [Boot
Loader Specification](https://systemd.io/BOOT_LOADER_SPECIFICATION) and are
placed in the ESP or the Extended Boot Loader partition may be selected this
way. However, if a directory `/run/boot-loader-entries/` exists, the entries
are loaded from there instead. The directory should contain the usual
directory hierarchy mandated by the Boot Loader Specification, i.e. the entry
drop-ins should be placed in
`/run/boot-loader-entries/loader/entries/*.conf` , and the files referenced by
the drop-ins (including the kernels and initrds) somewhere else below
`/run/boot-loader-entries/` . Note that all these files may be (and are
supposed to be) symlinks. systemd-logind will load these files on-demand,
these files can hence be updated (ideally atomically) whenever the boot
loader configuration changes. A foreign boot loader installer script should
hence synthesize drop-in snippets and symlinks for all boot entries at boot
or whenever they change if it wants to integrate with systemd-logind's APIs.
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installed systemd tests:
* `$SYSTEMD_TEST_DATA` — override the location of test data. This is useful if
a test executable is moved to an arbitrary location.
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nss-systemd:
* `$SYSTEMD_NSS_BYPASS_SYNTHETIC=1` — if set, `nss-systemd` won't synthesize
user/group records for the `root` and `nobody` users if they are missing from
`/etc/passwd` .
* `$SYSTEMD_NSS_DYNAMIC_BYPASS=1` — if set, `nss-systemd` won't return
user/group records for dynamically registered service users (i.e. users
registered through `DynamicUser=1` ).
* `$SYSTEMD_NSS_BYPASS_BUS=1` — if set, `nss-systemd` won't use D-Bus to do
dynamic user lookups. This is primarily useful to make `nss-systemd` work
safely from within `dbus-daemon` .
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systemd-timedated:
* `$SYSTEMD_TIMEDATED_NTP_SERVICES=…` — colon-separated list of unit names of
NTP client services. If set, `timedatectl set-ntp on` enables and starts the
first existing unit listed in the environment variable, and
`timedatectl set-ntp off` disables and stops all listed units.
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systemd-sulogin-shell:
* `$SYSTEMD_SULOGIN_FORCE=1` — This skips asking for the root password if the
root password is not available (such as when the root account is locked).
See `sulogin(8)` for more details.
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bootctl and other tools that access the EFI System Partition (ESP):
* `$SYSTEMD_RELAX_ESP_CHECKS=1` — if set, the ESP validation checks are
relaxed. Specifically, validation checks that ensure the specified ESP path
is a FAT file system are turned off, as are checks that the path is located
on a GPT partition with the correct type UUID.
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* `$SYSTEMD_ESP_PATH=…` — override the path to the EFI System Partition. This
may be used to override ESP path auto detection, and redirect any accesses to
the ESP to the specified directory. Not that unlike with bootctl's --path=
switch only very superficial validation of the specified path is done when
this environment variable is used.
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systemd itself:
* `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_UNIT` — set for all NSS and PAM module invocations that
are done by the service manager on behalf of a specific unit, in child
processes that are later (after execve()) going to become unit
processes. Contains the full unit name (e.g. "foobar.service"). NSS and PAM
modules can use this information to determine in which context and on whose
behalf they are being called, which may be useful to avoid deadlocks, for
example to bypass IPC calls to the very service that is about to be
started. Note that NSS and PAM modules should be careful to only rely on this
data when invoked privileged, or possibly only when getppid() returns 1, as
setting environment variables is of course possible in any even unprivileged
contexts.
* `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_SCOPE` — closely related to `$SYSTEMD_ACTIVATION_UNIT` ,
it is either set to `system` or `user` depending on whether the NSS/PAM
module is called by systemd in `--system` or `--user` mode.
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systemd-remount-fs:
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* `$SYSTEMD_REMOUNT_ROOT_RW=1` — if set and no entry for the root directory
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exists in /etc/fstab (this file always takes precedence), then the root
directory is remounted writable. This is primarily used by
systemd-gpt-auto-generator to ensure the root partition is mounted writable
in accordance to the GPT partition flags.
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systemd-firstboot and localectl:
* `SYSTEMD_LIST_NON_UTF8_LOCALES=1` – if set non-UTF-8 locales are listed among
the installed ones. By default non-UTF-8 locales are suppressed from the
selection, since we are living in the 21st century.