SYSTEMD.SYNTAX(7) systemd.syntax SYSTEMD.SYNTAX(7)
NAME
systemd.syntax - General syntax of systemd configuration files
INTRODUCTION
This page describes the basic principles of configuration files used by
systemd(1) and related programs for:
o systemd unit files, see systemd.unit(5), systemd.service(5),
systemd.socket(5), systemd.device(5), systemd.mount(5),
systemd.automount(5), systemd.swap(5), systemd.target(5),
systemd.path(5), systemd.timer(5), systemd.slice(5),
systemd.scope(5)
o daemon config files, see systemd-system.conf(5), systemd-
user.conf(5), logind.conf(5), journald.conf(5), journal-
remote.conf(5), journal-upload.conf(5), systemd-sleep.conf(5),
timesyncd.conf(5)
The syntax is inspired by XDG Desktop Entry Specification[1] .desktop
files, which are in turn inspired by Microsoft Windows .ini files.
Each file is a plain text file divided into sections, with
configuration entries in the style key=value. Empty lines and lines
starting with "#" or ";" are ignored, which may be used for commenting.
Lines ending in a backslash are concatenated with the following line
while reading and the backslash is replaced by a space character. This
may be used to wrap long lines. The limit on line length is very large
(currently 1 MB), but it is recommended to avoid such long lines and
use multiple directives, variable substitution, or other mechanism as
appropriate for the given file type.
Example 1.
[Section A]
KeyOne=value 1
KeyTwo=value 2
# a comment
[Section B]
Setting="something" "some thing" "..."
KeyTwo=value 2 \
value 2 continued
Various settings are allowed to be specified more than once, in which
case the interpretation depends on the setting. Often, multiple
settings form a list, and setting to an empty value "resets", which
means that previous assignments are ignored. When this is allowed, it
is mentioned in the description of the setting. Note that using
multiple assignments to the same value makes the file incompatible with
parsers for the XDG .desktop file format.
NOTES
1. XDG Desktop Entry Specification
http://standards.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/
systemd 239 SYSTEMD.SYNTAX(7)