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<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"

"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">

<refentry id="machinectl" conditional='ENABLE_MACHINED'

xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">

<refentryinfo>

<title>machinectl</title>

<productname>systemd</productname>

<authorgroup>

<author>

<contrib>Developer</contrib>

<firstname>Lennart</firstname>

<surname>Poettering</surname>

<email>lennart@poettering.net</email>

</author>

</authorgroup>

</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 host names, for details, see below. 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 are considered:</para>

<itemizedlist>

<listitem><para>Directory trees containing an OS, including its

top-level directories <filename>/usr</filename>,

<filename>/etc</filename>, and so on.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>btrfs subvolumes containing OS trees, similar to

normal directory trees.</para></listitem>

<listitem><para>Binary "raw" disk images containing MBR or GPT

partition tables and Linux file system partitions.</para></listitem>

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

</itemizedlist>

</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></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<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></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><option>-l</option></term>

<term><option>--full</option></term>

<listitem><para>Do not ellipsize process tree entries.</para>

</listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><option>--no-ask-password</option></term>

<listitem><para>Do not query the user for authentication for

privileged operations.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><option>--kill-who=</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></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><option>-s</option></term>

<term><option>--signal=</option></term>

<listitem><para>When used with <command>kill</command>, choose

which signal to send to selected processes. Must be one of the

well-known signal specifiers, such as

<constant>SIGTERM</constant>, <constant>SIGINT</constant> or

<constant>SIGSTOP</constant>. If omitted, defaults to

<constant>SIGTERM</constant>.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<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 this switch is not specified, defaults to

<literal>root</literal>. Note that this switch is not

supported for the <command>login</command> command (see

below).</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><option>--setenv=</option></term>

<listitem><para>When used with the <command>shell</command>

command, sets an environment variable to pass to the executed

shell. Takes a pair of environment variable name and value,

separated by <literal>=</literal> as argument. This switch

may be used multiple times to set multiple environment

variables. Note that this switch is not supported for the

<command>login</command> command (see

below).</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

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

<listitem><para>When used with <command>bind</command>, creates

the destination directory before applying the bind

mount.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

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

<listitem><para>When used with <command>bind</command>, applies

a read-only bind mount.</para></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>

</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></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><option>--verify=</option></term>

<listitem><para>When downloading a container or VM image,

specify whether the image shall be verified before it is made

available. Takes one of <literal>no</literal>,

<literal>checksum</literal> and <literal>signature</literal>.

If <literal>no</literal>, no verification is done. If

<literal>checksum</literal> is specified, the download is

checked for integrity after the transfer is complete, but no

signatures are verified. If <literal>signature</literal> is

specified, the checksum is verified and the images's signature

is checked against a local keyring of trustable vendors. It is

strongly recommended to set this option to

<literal>signature</literal> if the server and protocol

support this. Defaults to

<literal>signature</literal>.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

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

<listitem><para>When downloading a container or VM image, and

a local copy by the specified local machine name already

exists, delete it first and replace it by the newly downloaded

image.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><option>--format=</option></term>

<listitem><para>When used with the <option>export-tar</option>

or <option>export-raw</option> commands, specifies the

compression format to use for the resulting file. Takes one of

<literal>uncompressed</literal>, <literal>xz</literal>,

<literal>gzip</literal>, <literal>bzip2</literal>. By default,

the format is determined automatically from the image file

name passed.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

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

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

<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="help" />

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

</variablelist>

</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></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></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 an 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 cgroup tree or journal entries. Use

<command>status</command> if you are looking for formatted

human-readable output.</para></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>, see

below.</para></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></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 similar to <command>login</command> but

immediately invokes a user process. This command runs the

specified executable with the specified arguments, or

<filename>/bin/sh</filename> if none is specified. By default,

opens a <literal>root</literal> shell, but by using

<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>When using the <command>shell</command> command without

arguments, (thus invoking the executed shell or command on the

local host), it 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 and

well-defined state. It will be tracked in a new utmp, login,

audit, security and keyring session, 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>

may be used in place of the <command>shell</command> command,

and allows more detailed, low-level configuration of the

invoked unit. However, it is frequently more privileged than

the <command>shell</command> command.</para></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, similar to the effect of

<command>systemctl enable</command> or <command>systemctl

disable</command> on the service name.</para></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. 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></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.</para></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></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-who=</option> to select which

process to kill. Use <option>--signal=</option> to select the

signal to send.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

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

<listitem><para>Bind mounts a directory from the host into the

specified container. The first directory argument is the

source directory on the host, the second directory argument

is the destination 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.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><command>copy-to</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>PATH</replaceable> [<replaceable>PATH</replaceable>]</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></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><command>copy-from</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> <replaceable>PATH</replaceable> [<replaceable>PATH</replaceable>]</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 the destination path on the host.

If the destination path is omitted, the same as the source path

is used.</para></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></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></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 an 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></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 subvolume images with this command.

Note that cloning a container or VM image is optimized for

btrfs file systems, and might not be efficient on others, due

to file system limitations.</para>

<para>Note that this command leaves host name, 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></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></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></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></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. Also note that, if

<command>set-limit</command> is invoked without an image

parameter, and <filename>/var/lib/machines</filename> is

empty, and the directory is not located on btrfs, a btrfs

loopback file is implicitly created as

<filename>/var/lib/machines.raw</filename> with the given

size, and mounted to

<filename>/var/lib/machines</filename>. The size of the

loopback may later be readjusted with

<command>set-limit</command>, as well. If such a

loopback-mounted <filename>/var/lib/machines</filename>

directory is used, <command>set-limit</command> without an image

name alters both the quota setting within the file system as

well as the loopback file and file system size

itself.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

</variablelist></refsect2>

<refsect2><title>Image Transfer Commands</title><variablelist>

<varlistentry>

<term><command>pull-tar</command> <replaceable>URL</replaceable> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>]</term>

<listitem><para>Downloads a <filename>.tar</filename>

container image from the specified URL, and makes it available

under the specified local machine name. The URL must be of

type <literal>http://</literal> or

<literal>https://</literal>, and must refer to a

<filename>.tar</filename>, <filename>.tar.gz</filename>,

<filename>.tar.xz</filename> or <filename>.tar.bz2</filename>

archive file. If the local machine name is omitted, it

is automatically derived from the last component of the URL,

with its suffix removed.</para>

<para>The image is verified before it is made available,

unless <option>--verify=no</option> is specified. Verification

is done via SHA256SUMS and SHA256SUMS.gpg files that need to

be made available on the same web server, under the same URL

as the <filename>.tar</filename> file, but with the last

component (the filename) of the URL replaced. With

<option>--verify=checksum</option>, only the SHA256 checksum

for the file is verified, based on the

<filename>SHA256SUMS</filename> file. With

<option>--verify=signature</option>, the SHA256SUMS file is

first verified with detached GPG signature file

<filename>SHA256SUMS.gpg</filename>. The public key for this

verification step needs to be available in

<filename>/usr/lib/systemd/import-pubring.gpg</filename> or

<filename>/etc/systemd/import-pubring.gpg</filename>.</para>

<para>The container image will be downloaded and stored in a

read-only subvolume in

<filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename> that is named after

the specified URL and its HTTP etag. A writable snapshot is

then taken from this subvolume, and named after the specified

local name. This behavior ensures that creating multiple

container instances of the same URL is efficient, as multiple

downloads are not necessary. In order to create only the

read-only image, and avoid creating its writable snapshot,

specify <literal>-</literal> as local machine name.</para>

<para>Note that the read-only subvolume is prefixed with

<filename>.tar-</filename>, and is thus not shown by

<command>list-images</command>, unless <option>--all</option>

is passed.</para>

<para>Note that pressing C-c during execution of this command

will not abort the download. Use

<command>cancel-transfer</command>, described

below.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><command>pull-raw</command> <replaceable>URL</replaceable> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>]</term>

<listitem><para>Downloads a <filename>.raw</filename>

container or VM disk image from the specified URL, and makes

it available under the specified local machine name. The URL

must be of type <literal>http://</literal> or

<literal>https://</literal>. The container image must either

be a <filename>.qcow2</filename> or raw disk image, optionally

compressed as <filename>.gz</filename>,

<filename>.xz</filename>, or <filename>.bz2</filename>. If the

local machine name is omitted, it is automatically

derived from the last component of the URL, with its suffix

removed.</para>

<para>Image verification is identical for raw and tar images

(see above).</para>

<para>If the downloaded image is in

<filename>.qcow2</filename> format it is converted into a raw

image file before it is made available.</para>

<para>Downloaded images of this type will be placed as

read-only <filename>.raw</filename> file in

<filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>. A local, writable

(reflinked) copy is then made under the specified local

machine name. To omit creation of the local, writable copy

pass <literal>-</literal> as local machine name.</para>

<para>Similar to the behavior of <command>pull-tar</command>,

the read-only image is prefixed with

<filename>.raw-</filename>, and thus not shown by

<command>list-images</command>, unless <option>--all</option>

is passed.</para>

<para>Note that pressing C-c during execution of this command

will not abort the download. Use

<command>cancel-transfer</command>, described

below.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><command>import-tar</command> <replaceable>FILE</replaceable> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>]</term>

<term><command>import-raw</command> <replaceable>FILE</replaceable> [<replaceable>NAME</replaceable>]</term>

<listitem><para>Imports a TAR or RAW container or VM image,

and places it under the specified name in

<filename>/var/lib/machines/</filename>. When

<command>import-tar</command> is used, the file specified as

the first argument should be a tar archive, possibly compressed

with xz, gzip or bzip2. It will then be unpacked into its own

subvolume in <filename>/var/lib/machines</filename>. When

<command>import-raw</command> is used, the file should be a

qcow2 or raw disk image, possibly compressed with xz, gzip or

bzip2. If the second argument (the resulting image name) is

not specified, it is automatically derived from the file

name. If the file name is passed as <literal>-</literal>, the

image is read from standard input, in which case the second

argument is mandatory.</para>

<para>Similar as with <command>pull-tar</command>,

<command>pull-raw</command> the file system

<filename>/var/lib/machines.raw</filename> is increased in

size of necessary and appropriate. Optionally, the

<option>--read-only</option> switch may be used to create a

read-only container or VM image. No cryptographic validation

is done when importing the images.</para>

<para>Much like image downloads, ongoing imports may be listed

with <command>list-transfers</command> and aborted with

<command>cancel-transfer</command>.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><command>export-tar</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> [<replaceable>FILE</replaceable>]</term>

<term><command>export-raw</command> <replaceable>NAME</replaceable> [<replaceable>FILE</replaceable>]</term>

<listitem><para>Exports a TAR or RAW container or VM image and

stores it in the specified file. The first parameter should be

a VM or container image name. The second parameter should be a

file path the TAR or RAW image is written to. If the path ends

in <literal>.gz</literal>, the file is compressed with gzip, if

it ends in <literal>.xz</literal>, with xz, and if it ends in

<literal>.bz2</literal>, with bzip2. If the path ends in

neither, the file is left uncompressed. If the second argument

is missing, the image is written to standard output. The

compression may also be explicitly selected with the

<option>--format=</option> switch. This is in particular

useful if the second parameter is left unspecified.</para>

<para>Much like image downloads and imports, ongoing exports

may be listed with <command>list-transfers</command> and

aborted with

<command>cancel-transfer</command>.</para>

<para>Note that, currently, only directory and subvolume images

may be exported as TAR images, and only raw disk images as RAW

images.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><command>list-transfers</command></term>

<listitem><para>Shows a list of container or VM image

downloads, imports and exports that are currently in

progress.</para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

<varlistentry>

<term><command>cancel-transfers</command> <replaceable>ID</replaceable>...</term>

<listitem><para>Aborts a download, import or export of the

container or VM image with the specified ID. To list ongoing

transfers and their IDs, use

<command>list-transfers</command>. </para></listitem>

</varlistentry>

</variablelist></refsect2>

</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 host names

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 many image operations are only supported,

efficient or atomic on btrfs file systems. Due to this, if the

<command>pull-tar</command>, <command>pull-raw</command>,

<command>import-tar</command>, <command>import-raw</command> and

<command>set-limit</command> commands notice that

<filename>/var/lib/machines</filename> is empty and not located on

btrfs, they will implicitly set up a loopback file

<filename>/var/lib/machines.raw</filename> containing a btrfs file

system that is mounted to

<filename>/var/lib/machines</filename>. The size of this loopback

file may be controlled dynamically with

<command>set-limit</command>.</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>

<example>

<title>Download an Ubuntu image and open a shell in it</title>

<programlisting># machinectl pull-tar https://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/trusty/current/trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-root.tar.gz

# systemd-nspawn -M trusty-server-cloudimg-amd64-root</programlisting>

<para>This downloads and verifies the specified

<filename>.tar</filename> image, and then uses

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>

to open a shell in it.</para>

</example>

<example>

<title>Download a Fedora image, set a root password in it, start

it as service</title>

<programlisting># machinectl pull-raw --verify=no http://ftp.halifax.rwth-aachen.de/fedora/linux/releases/21/Cloud/Images/x86_64/Fedora-Cloud-Base-20141203-21.x86_64.raw.xz

# systemd-nspawn -M Fedora-Cloud-Base-20141203-21

# passwd

# exit

# machinectl start Fedora-Cloud-Base-20141203-21

# machinectl login Fedora-Cloud-Base-20141203-21</programlisting>

<para>This downloads the specified <filename>.raw</filename>

image with verification disabled. Then, a shell is opened in it

and a root password is set. Afterwards the shell is left, and

the machine started as system service. With the last command a

login prompt into the container is requested.</para>

</example>

<example>

<title>Exports a container image as tar file</title>

<programlisting># machinectl export-tar fedora myfedora.tar.xz</programlisting>

<para>Exports the container <literal>fedora</literal> as an

xz-compressed tar file <filename>myfedora.tar.xz</filename> into the

current directory.</para>

</example>

<example>

<title>Create a new shell session</title>

<programlisting># machinectl shell --uid=lennart</programlisting>

<para>This creates a new shell session on the local host for

the user ID <literal>lennart</literal>, in a <citerefentry

project='die-net'><refentrytitle>su</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>-like

fashion.</para>

</example>

</refsect1>

<refsect1>

<title>Exit status</title>

<para>On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code

otherwise.</para>

</refsect1>

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

<refsect1>

<title>See Also</title>

<para>

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-machined.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-nspawn</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.special</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>tar</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>xz</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>gzip</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,

<citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>bzip2</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>

</para>

</refsect1>

</refentry>