NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | EXIT STATUS | EXAMPLES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

SYSTEMD-RUN(1)                   systemd-run                  SYSTEMD-RUN(1)

NAME         top

       systemd-run - Run programs in transient scope units, service units,
       or timer-scheduled service units

SYNOPSIS         top

       systemd-run [OPTIONS...] COMMAND [ARGS...]
       systemd-run [OPTIONS...] [TIMER OPTIONS...] {COMMAND} [ARGS...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       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 a transient .timer unit, that activates a
       .service unit when elapsing.
       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 (unless --no-block or --wait are
       specified, see below).
       If a command is run as transient scope unit, it will be executed 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
       timer elapses. If the --unit= option is specified, the COMMAND may be
       omitted. In this case, systemd-run creates only a .timer unit that
       invokes the specified unit when elapsing.

OPTIONS         top

       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 (see above).
       --unit=
           Use this unit name instead of an automatically generated one.
       --property=, -p
           Sets a property on the scope or service unit that is created.
           This option takes an assignment in the same format as
           systemctl(1)'s set-property command.
       --description=
           Provide a description for the service, scope or timer 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 system.slice.
       --remain-after-exit
           After the service 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 specified 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 the command, the transient service connects its
           standard input and output to the terminal systemd-run is invoked
           on, via a pseudo TTY device. This allows running binaries that
           expect interactive user input as services, such as interactive
           command shells.
           Note that machinectl(1)'s shell command is usually a better
           alternative for requesting a new, interactive login session on
           the local host or a local container.
       --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 a monotonic timer relative to different starting points
           for starting the specified command. See OnActiveSec=, OnBootSec=,
           OnStartupSec=, OnUnitActiveSec= and OnUnitInactiveSec= in
           systemd.timer(5) for details. These options may not be combined
           with --scope or --pty.
       --on-calendar=
           Defines a calendar timer for starting the specified command. See
           OnCalendar= in systemd.timer(5). This option may not be combined
           with --scope or --pty.
       --timer-property=
           Sets a property on the timer unit that is created. This option is
           similar to --property= but applies to the transient timer unit
           rather than the transient service unit created. This option only
           has an effect in conjunction with --on-active=, --on-boot=,
           --on-startup=, --on-unit-active=, --on-unit-inactive= or
           --on-calendar=. This option takes an assignment in the same
           format as systemctl(1)'s set-property command.
       --no-block
           Do not synchronously wait for the unit start operation to finish.
           If this option is not specified, the start request for the
           transient unit 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. This option may not
           be combined with --wait.
       --wait
           Synchronously wait for the transient service to terminate. If
           this option is specified, the start request for the transient
           unit is verified, enqueued, and waited for. Subsequently the
           invoked unit is monitored, and it is waited until it is
           deactivated again (most likely because the specified command
           completed). On exit, terse information about the unit's runtime
           is shown, including total runtime (as well as CPU usage, if
           --property=CPUAccounting=1 was set) and the exit code and status
           of the main process. This output may be suppressed with --quiet.
           This option may not be combined with --no-block, --scope or the
           various timer options.
       --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
           Print a short help text and exit.
       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.
       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.

EXIT STATUS         top

       On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.

EXAMPLES         top

       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 behavior 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

SEE ALSO         top

       systemd(1), systemctl(1), systemd.unit(5), systemd.service(5),
       systemd.scope(5), systemd.slice(5), systemd.exec(5),
       systemd.resource-control(5), systemd.timer(5), systemd-mount(1),
       machinectl(1)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the systemd (systemd system and service manager)
       project.  Information about the project can be found at 
       ⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd⟩.  If you have a bug
       report for this manual page, see 
       ⟨http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/#bugreports⟩.  This
       page was obtained from the project's upstream Git repository 
       ⟨https://github.com/systemd/systemd.git⟩ on 2017-07-05.  If you dis‐
       cover any rendering problems in this HTML version of the page, or you
       believe there is a better or more up-to-date source for the page, or
       you have corrections or improvements to the information in this
       COLOPHON (which is not part of the original manual page), send a mail
       to man-pages@man7.org
systemd 234                                                   SYSTEMD-RUN(1)

Pages that refer to this page: machinectl(1)systemd-mount(1)logind.conf(5)systemd.scope(5)systemd.directives(7)systemd.index(7)