<
title>Description</
title>
<
para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
<
filename>.socket</
filename> encodes information about
an IPC or network socket or a file system FIFO
controlled and supervised by systemd, for socket-based
<
para>This man page lists the configuration options
specific to this unit type. See
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.unit</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for the common options of all unit configuration
files. The common configuration items are configured
in the generic [Unit] and [Install] sections. The
socket specific configuration options are configured
in the [Socket] section.</
para>
<
para>Additional options are listed in
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.exec</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>,
which define the execution environment the
<
option>ExecStartPre=</
option>,
<
option>ExecStartPost=</
option>,
<
option>ExecStopPre=</
option> and
<
option>ExecStoptPost=</
option> commands are executed
<
para>For each socket file a matching service file
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.service</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details) must exist, describing the service to
start on incoming traffic on the socket. Depending on
the setting of <
option>Accept=</
option> (see below),
this must either be named like the socket unit, but
with the suffix replaced; or it must be a template
file named the same way. Example: a socket file
<
option>Accept=false</
option> is set. If
<
option>Accept=true</
option> is set a service template
file <
filename>foo@.service</
filename> must exist from
which services are instantiated for each incoming
<
para>Unless <
varname>DefaultDependencies=</
varname>
is set to <
option>false</
option>, socket units will
implicitly have dependencies of type
<
varname>Requires=</
varname> and
<
varname>After=</
varname> on
dependencies of type <
varname>Conflicts=</
varname> and
<
varname>Before=</
varname> on
that socket units pull in basic system
initialization, and are terminated cleanly prior to
system shutdown. Only sockets involved with early
boot or late system shutdown should disable this
<
para>Socket units may be used to implement on-demand
starting of services, as well as parallelized starting
<
para>Socket files must include a [Socket] section,
which carries information about the socket or FIFO it
supervises. A number of options that may be used in
this section are shared with other unit types. These
options are documented in
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.exec</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>. The
options specific to the [Socket] section of socket
units are the following:</
para>
<
term><
varname>ListenStream=</
varname></
term>
<
term><
varname>ListenDatagram=</
varname></
term>
<
term><
varname>ListenSequentialPacket=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Specifies an address
to listen on for a stream
(SOCK_STREAM), datagram (SOCK_DGRAM)
(SOCK_SEQPACKET) socket. The address
can be written in various formats:</
para>
<
para>If the address starts with a
slash (/), it is read as file system
socket in the AF_UNIX socket
<
para>If the address starts with an
ampersand (@) it is read as abstract
namespace socket in the AF_UNIX
family. The @ is replaced with a NUL
character before binding. For details
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>unix</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>.</
para>
<
para>If the address string is a
single number it is read as port
number to listen on for both IPv4 and
<
para>If the address string is a
string in the format
v.w.x.y:z it is
read as IPv4 specifier for listening
<
para>If the address string is a
string in the format [x]:y it is read
as IPv6 address x on a port y.</
para>
<
para>Note that SOCK_SEQPACKET
(
i.e. <
varname>ListenSequentialPacket=</
varname>)
is only available for AF_UNIX
(
i.e. <
varname>ListenStream=</
varname>)
when used for IP sockets refers to TCP
(
i.e. <
varname>ListenDatagram=</
varname>)
<
para>These options may be specified
more than once in which case incoming
traffic on any of the sockets will trigger
service activation, and all listed
sockets will be passed to the service,
regardless whether there is incoming
traffic on them or not.</
para>
<
para>If an IP address is used here, it
is often desirable to listen on it
before the interface it is configured
on is up and running, and even
regardless whether it will be up and
running ever at all. To deal with this it is
<
varname>FreeBind=</
varname> option
described below.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>ListenFIFO=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Specifies a file
system FIFO to listen on. This expects
an absolute file system path as
argument. Behaviour otherwise is very
<
varname>ListenDatagram=</
varname>
directive above.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>BindIPv6Only=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes a one of
<
option>default</
option>,
<
option>ipv6-only</
option>. Controls
the IPV6_V6ONLY socket option (see
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>ipv6</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
<
option>both</
option>, IPv6 sockets
bound will be accessible via both IPv4
<
option>ipv6-only</
option>, they will
be accessible via IPv6 only. If
<
option>default</
option> (which is the
default, surprise!) the system wide
default setting is used, as controlled
<
term><
varname>Backlog=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes an unsigned
integer argument. Specifies the number
of connections to queue that have not
been accepted yet. This setting
matters only for stream and sequential
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>listen</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>2</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details. Defaults to SOMAXCONN
<
term><
varname>BindToDevice=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Specifies a network
interface name to bind this socket
to. If set traffic will only be
accepted from the specified network
interfaces. This controls the
SO_BINDTODEVICE socket option (see
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>socket</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details). If this option is used,
an automatic dependency from this
socket unit on the network interface
(<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.device</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
is created.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>DirectoryMode=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>If listening on a file
system socket of FIFO, the parent
directories are automatically created
if needed. This option specifies the
file system access mode used when
creating these directories. Takes an
<
term><
varname>SocketMode=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>If listening on a file
system socket of FIFO, this option
specifies the file system access mode
used when creating the file
node. Takes an access mode in octal
<
term><
varname>Accept=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes a boolean
argument. If true, a service instance
is spawned for each incoming
connection and only the connection
socket is passed to it. If false, all
listening sockets themselves are
passed to the started service unit,
and only one service unit is spawned
for all connections (also see
above). This value is ignored for
datagram sockets and FIFOs where
a single service unit unconditionally
handles all incoming traffic. Defaults
to <
option>false</
option>. For
performance reasons, it is recommended
to write new daemons only in a way
<
option>Accept=false</
option>. This
option is mostly useful to allow
daemons designed for usage with
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>inetd</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>8</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>,
to work unmodified with systemd socket
activation.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>MaxConnections=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>The maximum number of
connections to simultaneously run
services instances for, when
<
option>Accept=true</
option> is
set. If more concurrent connections
are coming in, they will be refused
until at least one existing connection
is terminated. This setting has no
effect for sockets configured with
<
option>Accept=no</
option> or datagram
<
term><
varname>KeepAlive=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes a boolean
argument. If true, the
TCP/
IP stack
will send a keep alive message after
2h (depending on the configuration of
for all TCP streams accepted on this
socket. This controls the SO_KEEPALIVE
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>socket</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
Keepalive HOWTO</
ulink> for details.)
<
option>false</
option>.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>Priority=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes an integer
argument controlling the priority for
all traffic sent from this
socket. This controls the SO_PRIORITY
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>socket</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details.).</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>ReceiveBuffer=</
varname></
term>
<
term><
varname>SendBuffer=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes an integer
argument controlling the receive
resp. send buffer sizes of this
socket. This controls the SO_RCVBUF
resp. SO_SNDBUF socket options (see
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>socket</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details.).</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>IPTOS=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes an integer
argument controlling the IP
Type-Of-Service field for packets
generated from this socket. This
controls the IP_TOS socket option (see
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>ip</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details.). Either a numeric string
or one of <
option>low-delay</
option>,
<
option>throughput</
option>,
<
option>reliability</
option> or
<
option>low-cost</
option> may be
specified.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>IPTTL=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes an integer
argument controlling the IPv4
packets generated from this
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>ip</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>ipv6</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>7</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details.)</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>Mark=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes an integer
value. Controls the firewall mark of
packets generated by this socket. This
can be used in the firewall logic to
filter packets from this socket. This
sets the SO_MARK socket option. See
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>iptables</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>8</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>PipeSize=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes an integer
value. Controls the pipe buffer size
of FIFOs configured in this socket
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>fcntl</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>2</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>FreeBind=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes a boolean
value. Controls whether the socket can
addresses. This is useful to configure
sockets listening on specific IP
addresses before those IP addresses
are successfully configured on a
network interface. This sets the
IP_FREEBIND socket option. For
robustness reasons it is recommended
to use this option whenever you bind a
address. Defaults to <
option>false</
option>.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>ExecStartPre=</
varname></
term>
<
term><
varname>ExecStartPost=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Takes a command line,
which is executed before (resp. after)
bound. The first token of the command
line must be an absolute file name,
then followed by arguments for the
process. If specified more than once,
all commands are executed one after
the other, fully serialized. The use of
these settings is optional.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>ExecStopPre=</
varname></
term>
<
term><
varname>ExecStopPost=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Additional commands
that are executed before (resp. after)
and removed. If specified more than
once, all commands are executed one
after the other, fully serialized. The use of
these settings is optional.</
para></
listitem>
<
term><
varname>TimeoutSec=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Configures the time to
wait for the commands specified in
<
varname>ExecStartPre=</
varname>,
<
varname>ExecStartPost=</
varname>,
<
varname>ExecStopPre=</
varname> and
<
varname>ExecStopPost=</
varname> to
finish. If a command does not exit
within the configured time, the socket
will be considered failed and be shut
down again. All commands still running,
will be terminated forcibly via
SIGTERM, and after another delay of
this time with SIGKILL. (See
<
option>KillMode=</
option> below.)
Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or
a time span value such as "5min
20s". Pass 0 to disable the timeout
<
term><
varname>KillMode=</
varname></
term>
<
listitem><
para>Specifies how
processes of this socket unit shall be
<
option>control-group</
option>,
<
option>process-group</
option>,
<
option>process</
option>,
<
option>none</
option>.</
para>
<
para>This option is mostly equivalent
to the <
option>KillMode=</
option>
option of service files. See
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.service</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>
for details.</
para></
listitem>
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>systemd</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>1</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>,
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>systemctl</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>8</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>,
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.unit</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>,
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.exec</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>,
<
citerefentry><
refentrytitle>
systemd.service</
refentrytitle><
manvolnum>5</
manvolnum></
citerefentry>