path: root/man/machinectl.xml

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<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->

<refentry id="machinectl" conditional='ENABLE_MACHINED'
    xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">

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

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>machinectl</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>1</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>machinectl</refname>
    <refpurpose>Control the systemd machine manager</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

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

  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>

    <para><command>machinectl</command> may be used to introspect and
    control the state of the
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    virtual machine and container registration manager
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>

    <para><command>machinectl</command> may be used to execute
    operations on machines and images. Machines in this sense are
    considered running instances of:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem><para>Virtual Machines (VMs) that virtualize hardware
      to run full operating system (OS) instances (including their kernels)
      in a virtualized environment on top of the host OS.</para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>Containers that share the hardware and
      OS kernel with the host OS, in order to run
      OS userspace instances on top the host OS.</para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>The host system itself.</para></listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>Machines are identified by names that follow the same rules
    as UNIX and DNS hostnames. For details, see below.</para>

    <para>Machines are instantiated from disk or file system images that
    frequently — but not necessarily — carry the same name as machines running
    from them. Images in this sense may be:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem><para>Directory trees containing an OS, including the
      top-level directories <filename>/usr/</filename>,
      <filename>/etc/</filename>, and so on.</para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>btrfs subvolumes containing OS trees, similar to regular directory trees.</para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>Binary "raw" disk image files containing MBR or GPT partition tables and Linux file
      systems.</para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>Similarly, block devices containing MBR or GPT partition tables and file systems.</para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>The file system tree of the host OS itself.</para></listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>Images may be downloaded, imported and exported via the
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>importctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    tool.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Commands</title>

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

    <refsect2><title>Machine Commands</title>

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>list</command></term>

        <listitem><para>List currently running (online) virtual
        machines and containers. To enumerate machine images that can
        be started, use <command>list-images</command> (see
        below). Note that this command hides the special
        <literal>.host</literal> machine by default. Use the
        <option>--all</option> switch to show it.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>status</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>

        <listitem><para>Show runtime status information about
        one or more virtual machines and containers, followed by the
        most recent log data from the journal. This function is
        intended to generate human-readable output. If you are looking
        for computer-parsable output, use <command>show</command>
        instead. Note that the log data shown is reported by the
        virtual machine or container manager, and frequently contains
        console output of the machine, but not necessarily journal
        contents of the machine itself.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>show</command> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…]</term>

        <listitem><para>Show properties of one or more registered virtual machines or containers or the manager
        itself. If no argument is specified, properties of the manager will be shown. If a NAME is specified,
        properties of this virtual machine or container 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, and does not print the control group tree or journal entries. Use <command>status</command> if you
        are looking for formatted human-readable output.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>start</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>

        <listitem><para>Start a container as a system service, using
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
        This starts <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename>,
        instantiated for the specified machine name, similar to the
        effect of <command>systemctl start</command> on the service
        name. <command>systemd-nspawn</command> looks for a container
        image by the specified name in
        <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> (and other search
        paths, see below) and runs it. Use
        <command>list-images</command> (see below) for listing
        available container images to start.</para>

        <para>Note that
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        also interfaces with a variety of other container and VM
        managers, <command>systemd-nspawn</command> is just one
        implementation of it. Most of the commands available in
        <command>machinectl</command> may be used on containers or VMs
        controlled by other managers, not just
        <command>systemd-nspawn</command>. Starting VMs and container
        images on those managers requires manager-specific
        tools.</para>

        <para>To interactively start a container on the command line
        with full access to the container's console, please invoke
        <command>systemd-nspawn</command> directly. To stop a running
        container use <command>machinectl poweroff</command>.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>login</command> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>]</term>

        <listitem><para>Open an interactive terminal login session in
        a container or on the local host. If an argument is supplied,
        it refers to the container machine to connect to. If none is
        specified, or the container name is specified as the empty
        string, or the special machine name <literal>.host</literal>
        (see below) is specified, the connection is made to the local
        host instead. This will create a TTY connection to a specific
        container or the local host and asks for the execution of a
        getty on it. Note that this is only supported for containers
        running
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        as init system.</para>

        <para>This command will open a full login prompt on the
        container or the local host, which then asks for username and
        password. Use <command>shell</command> (see below) or
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-run</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        with the <option>--machine=</option> switch to directly invoke
        a single command, either interactively or in the
        background.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v209"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>shell</command> [[<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>@]<replaceable>NAME</replaceable> [<replaceable>PATH</replaceable> [<replaceable>ARGUMENTS</replaceable>…]]] </term>

        <listitem><para>Open an interactive shell session in a
        container or on the local host. The first argument refers to
        the container machine to connect to. If none is specified, or
        the machine name is specified as the empty string, or the
        special machine name <literal>.host</literal> (see below) is
        specified, the connection is made to the local host
        instead. This works similarly to <command>login</command>, but
        immediately invokes a user process. This command runs the
        specified executable with the specified arguments, or the
        default shell for the user if none is specified, or
        <filename>/bin/sh</filename> if no default shell is found. By default,
        <option>--uid=</option>, or by prefixing the machine name with
        a username and an <literal>@</literal> character, a different
        user may be selected. Use <option>--setenv=</option> to set
        environment variables for the executed process.</para>

        <para>Note that <command>machinectl shell</command> does not propagate the exit code/status of the invoked
        shell process. Use <command>systemd-run</command> instead if that information is required (see below).</para>

        <para>Using the <command>shell</command> command without arguments (thus invoking the executed shell
        or command on the local host), is in many ways similar to a <citerefentry
        project='die-net'><refentrytitle>su</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> session,
        but, unlike <command>su</command>, completely isolates the new session from the originating session,
        so that it shares no process or session properties and is in a clean well-defined state. It will be
        tracked in a new utmp, login, audit, security, and keyring sessions, and will not inherit any
        environment variables or resource limits, among other properties.</para>

        <para>Note that
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-run</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> with
        its <option>--machine=</option> switch may be used in place of the <command>machinectl
        shell</command> command, and allows non-interactive operation, more detailed and low-level
        configuration of the invoked unit, as well as access to runtime and exit code/status information of
        the invoked shell process. In particular, use <command>systemd-run</command>'s
        <option>--wait</option> switch to propagate exit status information of the invoked process. Use
        <command>systemd-run</command>'s <option>--pty</option> switch to acquire an interactive shell,
        similarly to <command>machinectl shell</command>. In general, <command>systemd-run</command> is
        preferable for scripting purposes. However, note that <command>systemd-run</command> might require
        higher privileges than <command>machinectl shell</command>.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v225"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>enable</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>
        <term><command>disable</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>

        <listitem><para>Enable or disable a container as a system service to start at system boot, using
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
        This enables or disables <filename>systemd-nspawn@.service</filename>, instantiated for the specified
        machine name, similarly to the effect of <command>systemctl enable</command> or <command>systemctl
        disable</command> on the service name.</para>

        <para>This command implicitly reloads the system manager configuration after completing the operation.
        Note that this command does not implicitly start or power off the containers that are being operated on.
        If this is desired, combine the command with the <option>--now</option> switch.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>poweroff</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>

        <listitem><para>Power off one or more containers. This will
        trigger a reboot by sending SIGRTMIN+4 to the container's init
        process, which causes systemd-compatible init systems to shut
        down cleanly. Use <command>stop</command> as alias for <command>poweroff</command>.
        This operation does not work on containers that do not run a
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>-compatible
        init system, such as sysvinit. Use
        <command>terminate</command> (see below) to immediately
        terminate a container or VM, without cleanly shutting it
        down.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v212"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>reboot</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>

        <listitem><para>Reboot one or more containers. This will
        trigger a reboot by sending SIGINT to the container's init
        process, which is roughly equivalent to pressing Ctrl+Alt+Del
        on a non-containerized system, and is compatible with
        containers running any system manager. Use <command>restart</command> as alias
        for <command>reboot</command>.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v209"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>terminate</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>

        <listitem><para>Immediately terminates a virtual machine or
        container, without cleanly shutting it down. This kills all
        processes of the virtual machine or container and deallocates
        all resources attached to that instance. Use
        <command>poweroff</command> to issue a clean shutdown
        request.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>kill</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>

        <listitem><para>Send a signal to one or more processes of the
        virtual machine or container. This means processes as seen by
        the host, not the processes inside the virtual machine or
        container. Use <option>--kill-whom=</option> to select which
        process to kill. Use <option>--signal=</option> to select the
        signal to send.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>bind</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>PATH</replaceable> [<replaceable>PATH</replaceable>]</term>

        <listitem><para>Bind mounts a file or directory from the host into the specified container. The first path
        argument is the source file or directory on the host, the second path argument is the destination file or
        directory in the container. When the latter is omitted, the destination path in the container is the same as
        the source path on the host. When combined with the <option>--read-only</option> switch, a ready-only bind
        mount is created. When combined with the <option>--mkdir</option> switch, the destination path is first created
        before the mount is applied. Note that this option is currently only supported for
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry> containers,
        and only if user namespacing (<option>--private-users</option>) is not used. This command supports bind
        mounting directories, regular files, device nodes, <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> socket nodes, as well as
        FIFOs.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>copy-to</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>PATH</replaceable> [<replaceable>PATH</replaceable>] <option>--force</option></term>

        <listitem><para>Copies files or directories from the host
        system into a running container. Takes a container name,
        followed by the source path on the host and the destination
        path in the container. If the destination path is omitted, the
        same as the source path is used.</para>

        <para>If host and container share the same user and group namespace, file ownership by numeric user ID and
        group ID is preserved for the copy, otherwise all files and directories in the copy will be owned by the root
        user and group (UID/GID 0).</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>copy-from</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>PATH</replaceable> [<replaceable>PATH</replaceable>] <option>--force</option></term>

        <listitem><para>Copies files or directories from a container
        into the host system. Takes a container name, followed by the
        source path in the container and the destination path on the host.
        If the destination path is omitted, the same as the source path
        is used.</para>

        <para>If host and container share the same user and group namespace, file ownership by numeric user ID and
        group ID is preserved for the copy, otherwise all files and directories in the copy will be owned by the root
        user and group (UID/GID 0).</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>
    </variablelist></refsect2>

    <refsect2><title>Image Commands</title>

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>list-images</command></term>

        <listitem><para>Show a list of locally installed container and
        VM images. This enumerates all raw disk images and container
        directories and subvolumes in
        <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> (and other search
        paths, see below). Use <command>start</command> (see above) to
        run a container off one of the listed images. Note that, by
        default, containers whose name begins with a dot
        (<literal>.</literal>) are not shown. To show these too,
        specify <option>--all</option>. Note that a special image
        <literal>.host</literal> always implicitly exists and refers
        to the image the host itself is booted from.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>image-status</command> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…]</term>

        <listitem><para>Show terse status information about one or
        more container or VM images. This function is intended to
        generate human-readable output. Use
        <command>show-image</command> (see below) to generate
        computer-parsable output instead.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>show-image</command> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…]</term>

        <listitem><para>Show properties of one or more registered
        virtual machine or container images, or the manager itself. If
        no argument is specified, properties of the manager will be
        shown. If a NAME is specified, properties of this virtual
        machine or container image 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>image-status</command> if you are looking for
        formatted human-readable output.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>edit</command> <replaceable>NAME|FILE</replaceable></term>

        <listitem><para>Edit the settings file of the specified machines. For the format of the settings
        file, refer to
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>systemd.nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
        If an existing settings file of the given machine can't be found, <command>edit</command>
        automatically create a new settings file from scratch under
        <filename>/etc/systemd/nspawn/</filename>.
        </para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v254"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>cat</command> <replaceable>NAME|FILE</replaceable></term>

        <listitem><para>Show the settings file of the specified machines.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v254"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>clone</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable></term>

        <listitem><para>Clones a container or VM image. The arguments specify the name of the image to clone and the
        name of the newly cloned image. Note that plain directory container images are cloned into btrfs subvolume
        images with this command, if the underlying file system supports this.  Note that cloning a container or VM
        image is optimized for file systems that support copy-on-write, and might not be efficient on others, due to
        file system limitations.</para>

        <para>Note that this command leaves hostname, machine ID and
        all other settings that could identify the instance
        unmodified. The original image and the cloned copy will hence
        share these credentials, and it might be necessary to manually
        change them in the copy.</para>

        <para>If combined with the <option>--read-only</option> switch a read-only cloned image is
        created.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>rename</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable></term>

        <listitem><para>Renames a container or VM image. The
        arguments specify the name of the image to rename and the new
        name of the image.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>read-only</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> [<replaceable>BOOL</replaceable>]</term>

        <listitem><para>Marks or (unmarks) a container or VM image
        read-only. Takes a VM or container image name, followed by a
        boolean as arguments. If the boolean is omitted, positive is
        implied, i.e. the image is marked read-only.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>remove</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>…</term>

        <listitem><para>Removes one or more container or VM images.
        The special image <literal>.host</literal>, which refers to
        the host's own directory tree, may not be
        removed.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>set-limit</command> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>] <replaceable>BYTES</replaceable></term>

        <listitem><para>Sets the maximum size in bytes that a specific
        container or VM image, or all images, may grow up to on disk
        (disk quota). Takes either one or two parameters. The first,
        optional parameter refers to a container or VM image name. If
        specified, the size limit of the specified image is changed. If
        omitted, the overall size limit of the sum of all images stored
        locally is changed. The final argument specifies the size
        limit in bytes, possibly suffixed by the usual K, M, G, T
        units. If the size limit shall be disabled, specify
        <literal>-</literal> as size.</para>

        <para>Note that per-container size limits are only supported on btrfs file systems.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v220"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><command>clean</command></term>

        <listitem><para>Remove hidden VM or container images (or all). This command removes all hidden machine images
        from <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>, i.e. those whose name begins with a dot. Use <command>machinectl
        list-images --all</command> to see a list of all machine images, including the hidden ones.</para>

        <para>When combined with the <option>--all</option> switch removes all images, not just hidden ones. This
        command effectively empties <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>.</para>

        <para>Note that commands such as <command>importctl pull-tar</command> or <command>importctl
        pull-raw</command> usually create hidden, read-only, unmodified machine images from the downloaded image first,
        before cloning a writable working copy of it, in order to avoid duplicate downloads in case of images that are
        reused multiple times. Use <command>machinectl clean</command> to remove old, hidden images created this
        way.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v230"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist></refsect2>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Options</title>

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

    <variablelist>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-p</option></term>
        <term><option>--property=</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When showing machine or image properties,
        limit the output to certain properties as specified by the
        argument. If not specified, all set properties are shown. The
        argument should be a property name, such as
        <literal>Name</literal>. If specified more than once, all
        properties with the specified names are
        shown.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

       <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--value</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When printing properties with <command>show</command>, only print the value,
        and skip the property name and <literal>=</literal>.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v230"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <xi:include href="timedatectl.xml" xpointer="option-P"/>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-a</option></term>
        <term><option>--all</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When showing machine or image properties, show
        all properties regardless of whether they are set or
        not.</para>

        <para>When listing VM or container images, do not suppress
        images beginning in a dot character
        (<literal>.</literal>).</para>

        <para>When cleaning VM or container images, remove all images, not just hidden ones.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-l</option></term>
        <term><option>--full</option></term>

        <listitem><para>Do not ellipsize process tree entries or table. This implies
        <option>--max-addresses=full</option>.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--kill-whom=</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When used with <command>kill</command>, choose
        which processes to kill. Must be one of
        <option>leader</option>, or <option>all</option> to select
        whether to kill only the leader process of the machine or all
        processes of the machine. If omitted, defaults to
        <option>all</option>.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v206"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="signal" />

      <varlistentry>
         <term><option>--uid=</option></term>

         <listitem><para>When used with the <command>shell</command> command, chooses the user ID to
         open the interactive shell session as. If the argument to the <command>shell</command>
         command also specifies a user name, this option is ignored. If the name is not specified
         in either way, <literal>root</literal> will be used by default. Note that this switch is
         not supported for the <command>login</command> command (see below).</para>

         <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v225"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-E <replaceable>NAME</replaceable>[=<replaceable>VALUE</replaceable>]</option></term>
        <term><option>--setenv=<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>[=<replaceable>VALUE</replaceable>]</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When used with the <command>shell</command> command, sets an environment variable for
        the executed shell. This option may be used more than once to set multiple variables. When
        <literal>=</literal> and <replaceable>VALUE</replaceable> are omitted, the value of the variable with
        the same name in the program environment will be used.</para>

        <para>Note that this option is not supported for the <command>login</command> command.
        </para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v230"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--mkdir</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When used with <command>bind</command>, creates the destination file or directory before
        applying the bind mount. Note that even though the name of this option suggests that it is suitable only for
        directories, this option also creates the destination file node to mount over if the object to mount is not
        a directory, but a regular file, device node, socket or FIFO.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--read-only</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When used with <command>bind</command>, creates a read-only bind mount.</para>

        <para>When used with <command>clone</command> a read-only container or VM image is created.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-n</option></term>
        <term><option>--lines=</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When used with <command>status</command>,
        controls the number of journal lines to show, counting from
        the most recent ones. Takes a positive integer argument.
        Defaults to 10.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-o</option></term>
        <term><option>--output=</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When used with <command>status</command>,
        controls the formatting of the journal entries that are shown.
        For the available choices, see
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>journalctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
        Defaults to <literal>short</literal>.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--runner=</option><option>nspawn</option>|<option>vmspawn</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When operating on machines choose whether to use
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        or
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-vmspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
        By default
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        is used.
        </para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v256"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-V</option></term>

        <listitem><para><option>-V</option> is a shorthand for <option>--runner=vmspawn</option>.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v256"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--now</option></term>

        <listitem>
          <para>When used with <command>enable</command> or <command>disable</command>,
          the containers will also be started or powered off. The start or poweroff
          operation is only carried out when the respective enable or disable
          operation has been successful.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v253"/>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--force</option></term>

        <listitem><para>Replace target file when copying files.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v219"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>--max-addresses=</option></term>

        <listitem><para>When used with the <option>list-machines</option> command, limits the number of IP
        addresses shown for every machine. Defaults to 1. All addresses can be requested with
        <literal>all</literal>. If the limit is 0, the address column is not shown. Otherwise, if the machine
        has more addresses than shown, <literal>…</literal> follows the last address.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v232"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-q</option></term>
        <term><option>--quiet</option></term>

        <listitem><para>Suppresses additional informational output while running.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v236"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <xi:include href="user-system-options.xml" xpointer="host" />

      <varlistentry>
        <term><option>-M</option></term>
        <term><option>--machine=</option></term>

        <listitem><para>Connect to
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        running in a local container, to perform the specified operation within
        the container.</para>

        <xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v235"/></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="no-pager" />
      <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="no-legend" />
      <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="no-ask-password" />
      <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="help" />
      <xi:include href="standard-options.xml" xpointer="version" />
    </variablelist>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Machine and Image Names</title>

    <para>The <command>machinectl</command> tool operates on machines
    and images whose names must be chosen following strict
    rules. Machine names must be suitable for use as hostnames
    following a conservative subset of DNS and UNIX/Linux
    semantics. Specifically, they must consist of one or more
    non-empty label strings, separated by dots. No leading or trailing
    dots are allowed. No sequences of multiple dots are allowed. The
    label strings may only consist of alphanumeric characters as well
    as the dash and underscore. The maximum length of a machine name
    is 64 characters.</para>

    <para>A special machine with the name <literal>.host</literal>
    refers to the running host system itself. This is useful for execution
    operations or inspecting the host system as well. Note that
    <command>machinectl list</command> will not show this special
    machine unless the <option>--all</option> switch is specified.</para>

    <para>Requirements on image names are less strict, however, they must be
    valid UTF-8, must be suitable as file names (hence not be the
    single or double dot, and not include a slash), and may not
    contain control characters. Since many operations search for an
    image by the name of a requested machine, it is recommended to name
    images in the same strict fashion as machines.</para>

    <para>A special image with the name <literal>.host</literal>
    refers to the image of the running host system. It hence
    conceptually maps to the special <literal>.host</literal> machine
    name described above. Note that <command>machinectl
    list-images</command> will not show this special image either, unless
    <option>--all</option> is specified.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Files and Directories</title>

    <para>Machine images are preferably stored in
    <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>, but are also searched for
    in <filename>/usr/local/lib/machines/</filename> and
    <filename>/usr/lib/machines/</filename>. For compatibility reasons,
    the directory <filename>/var/lib/container/</filename> is
    searched, too. Note that images stored below
    <filename>/usr/</filename> are always considered read-only. It is
    possible to symlink machines images from other directories into
    <filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> to make them available for
    control with <command>machinectl</command>.</para>

    <para>Note that some image operations are only supported, efficient or atomic on btrfs file systems.</para>

    <para>Disk images are understood by
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    and <command>machinectl</command> in three formats:</para>

    <itemizedlist>
      <listitem><para>A simple directory tree, containing the files
      and directories of the container to boot.</para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>Subvolumes (on btrfs file systems), which are
      similar to the simple directories, described above. However,
      they have additional benefits, such as efficient cloning and
      quota reporting.</para></listitem>

      <listitem><para>"Raw" disk images, i.e. binary images of disks
      with a GPT or MBR partition table. Images of this type are
      regular files with the suffix
      <literal>.raw</literal>.</para></listitem>
    </itemizedlist>

    <para>See
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    for more information on image formats, in particular its
    <option>--directory=</option> and <option>--image=</option>
    options.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Examples</title>

    <xi:include href="importctl.xml" xpointer="example-import-raw" />

  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Exit status</title>

    <para>On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code
    otherwise.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <xi:include href="common-variables.xml" />

  <refsect1>
    <title>See Also</title>
    <para><simplelist type="inline">
      <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry><refentrytitle>importctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>tar</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>xz</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>gzip</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
      <member><citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>bzip2</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry></member>
    </simplelist></para>
  </refsect1>

</refentry>