SYSTEMD.DEVICE(5) systemd.device SYSTEMD.DEVICE(5)
NAME
systemd.device - Device unit configuration
SYNOPSIS
device.device
DESCRIPTION
A unit configuration file whose name ends in ".device" encodes
information about a device unit as exposed in the sysfs/udev(7) device
tree.
This unit type has no specific options. See systemd.unit(5) for the
common options of all unit configuration files. The common
configuration items are configured in the generic "[Unit]" and
"[Install]" sections. A separate "[Device]" section does not exist,
since no device-specific options may be configured.
systemd will dynamically create device units for all kernel devices
that are marked with the "systemd" udev tag (by default all block and
network devices, and a few others). This may be used to define
dependencies between devices and other units. To tag a udev device, use
"TAG+="systemd"" in the udev rules file, see udev(7) for details.
Device units are named after the /sys and /dev paths they control.
Example: the device /dev/sda5 is exposed in systemd as dev-sda5.device.
For details about the escaping logic used to convert a file system path
to a unit name see systemd.unit(5).
Device units will be reloaded by systemd whenever the corresponding
device generates a "changed" event. Other units can use
ReloadPropagatedFrom= to react to that event
AUTOMATIC DEPENDENCIES
Implicit Dependencies
Many unit types automatically acquire dependencies on device units of
devices they require. For example, .socket unit acquire dependencies on
the device units of the network interface specified in BindToDevice=.
Similar, swap and mount units acquire dependencies on the units
encapsulating their backing block devices.
Default Dependencies
There are no default dependencies for device units.
THE UDEV DATABASE
Unit settings of device units may either be configured via unit files,
or directly from the udev database. The following udev device
properties are understood by the service manager:
SYSTEMD_WANTS=, SYSTEMD_USER_WANTS=
Adds dependencies of type Wants= from the device unit to the
specified units. SYSTEMD_WANTS= is read by the system service
manager, SYSTEMD_USER_WANTS= by user service manager instances.
These properties may be used to activate arbitrary units when a
specific device becomes available.
Note that this and the other udev device properties are not taken
into account unless the device is tagged with the "systemd" tag in
the udev database, because otherwise the device is not exposed as a
systemd unit (see above).
Note that systemd will only act on Wants= dependencies when a
device first becomes active. It will not act on them if they are
added to devices that are already active. Use SYSTEMD_READY= (see
below) to configure when a udev device shall be considered active,
and thus when to trigger the dependencies.
The specified property value should be a space-separated list of
valid unit names. If a unit template name is specified (that is, a
unit name containing an "@" character indicating a unit name to use
for multiple instantiation, but with an empty instance name
following the "@"), it will be automatically instantiated by the
device's "sysfs" path (that is: the path is escaped and inserted as
instance name into the template unit name). This is useful in order
to instantiate a specific template unit once for each device that
appears and matches specific properties.
SYSTEMD_ALIAS=
Adds an additional alias name to the device unit. This must be an
absolute path that is automatically transformed into a unit name.
(See above.)
SYSTEMD_READY=
If set to 0, systemd will consider this device unplugged even if it
shows up in the udev tree. If this property is unset or set to 1,
the device will be considered plugged if it is visible in the udev
tree.
This option is useful for devices that initially show up in an
uninitialized state in the tree, and for which a "changed" event is
generated the moment they are fully set up. Note that
SYSTEMD_WANTS= (see above) is not acted on as long as
SYSTEMD_READY=0 is set for a device.
ID_MODEL_FROM_DATABASE=, ID_MODEL=
If set, this property is used as description string for the device
unit.
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), systemctl(1), systemd.unit(5), udev(7),
systemd.directives(7)
systemd 239 SYSTEMD.DEVICE(5)