systemd-sysupdate(8) — Linux manual page

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

SYSTEMD-SYSUPDATE(8)        systemd-sysupdate        SYSTEMD-SYSUPDATE(8)

NAME         top

       systemd-sysupdate, systemd-sysupdate.service, systemd-
       sysupdate.timer, systemd-sysupdate-reboot.service, systemd-
       sysupdate-reboot.timer - Automatically Update OS or Other
       Resources

SYNOPSIS         top


       systemd-sysupdate [OPTIONS...]

       systemd-sysupdate.service

DESCRIPTION         top

       systemd-sysupdate atomically updates the host OS, container
       images, portable service images or other sources, based on the
       transfer configuration files described in sysupdate.d(5).

       This tool implements file, directory, or partition based update
       schemes, supporting multiple parallel installed versions of
       specific resources in an A/B (or even: A/B/C, A/B/C/D/, ...)
       style. A/B updating means that when one version of a resource is
       currently being used, the next version can be downloaded,
       unpacked, and prepared in an entirely separate location,
       independently of the first, and — once complete — be activated,
       swapping the roles so that it becomes the used one and the
       previously used one becomes the one that is replaced by the next
       update, and so on. The resources to update are defined in transfer
       files, one for each resource to be updated. For example, resources
       that may be updated with this tool could be: a root file system
       partition, a matching Verity partition plus one kernel image. The
       combination of the three would be considered a complete OS update.

       The tool updates partitions, files or directory trees always in
       whole, and operates with at least two versions of each of these
       resources: the current version, plus the next version: the one
       that is being updated to, and which is initially incomplete as the
       downloaded data is written to it; plus optionally more versions.
       Once the download of a newer version is complete it becomes the
       current version, releasing the version previously considered
       current for deletion/replacement/updating.

       When installing new versions the tool will directly download,
       decompress, unpack and write the new version into the destination.
       This is done in a robust fashion so that an incomplete download
       can be recognized on next invocation, and flushed out before a new
       attempt is initiated.

       Note that when writing updates to a partition, the partition has
       to exist already, as systemd-sysupdate will not automatically
       create new partitions. Use a tool such as systemd-repart(8) to
       automatically create additional partitions to be used with
       systemd-sysupdate on boot.

       The tool can both be used on the running OS, to update the OS in
       "online" state from within itself, and on "offline" disk images,
       to update them from the outside based on transfer files embedded
       in the disk images. For the latter, see --image= below. The latter
       is particularly interesting to update container images or portable
       service images.

       The systemd-sysupdate.service system service will automatically
       update the host OS based on the installed transfer files. It is
       triggered in regular intervals via systemd-sysupdate.timer. The
       systemd-sysupdate-reboot.service will automatically reboot the
       system after a new version is installed. It is triggered via
       systemd-sysupdate-reboot.timer. The two services are separate from
       each other as it is typically advisable to download updates
       regularly while the system is up, but delay reboots until the
       appropriate time (i.e. typically at night). The two sets of
       service/timer units may be enabled separately.

       For details about transfer files and examples see sysupdate.d(5).

COMMAND         top

       The following commands are understood:

       list [VERSION]
           If invoked without an argument, enumerates downloadable and
           installed versions, and shows a summarizing table with the
           discovered versions and their properties, including whether
           there's a newer candidate version to update to. If a version
           argument is specified, shows details about the specific
           version, including the individual files that need to be
           transferred to acquire the version.

           If no command is explicitly specified this command is implied.

           Added in version 251.

       features [FEATURE]
           If invoked without an argument, enumerates optional features
           and shows a summarizing table, including which features are
           enabled or disabled. If a feature argument is specified, shows
           details about the specific feature, including the transfers
           that are controlled by the feature.

           Added in version 257.

       check-new
           Checks if there's a new version available. This internally
           enumerates downloadable and installed versions and returns
           exit status 0 if there's a new version to update to, non-zero
           otherwise. If there is a new version to update to, its version
           identifier is written to standard output.

           Added in version 251.

       update [VERSION]
           Installs (updates to) the specified version, or if none is
           specified to the newest version available. If the version is
           already installed or no newer version available, no operation
           is executed.

           If a new version to install/update to is found, old installed
           versions are deleted until at least one new version can be
           installed, as configured via InstanceMax= in sysupdate.d(5),
           or via the available partition slots of the right type. This
           implicit operation can also be invoked explicitly via the
           vacuum command described below.

           Added in version 251.

       vacuum
           Deletes old installed versions until the limits configured via
           InstanceMax= in sysupdate.d(5) are met again. Normally, it
           should not be necessary to invoke this command explicitly,
           since it is implicitly invoked whenever a new update is
           initiated.

           Added in version 251.

       pending
           Checks whether a newer version of the OS is installed than the
           one currently running. Returns zero if so, non-zero otherwise.
           This compares the newest installed version's identifier with
           the OS image version as reported by the IMAGE_VERSION= field
           in /etc/os-release. If the former is newer than the latter, an
           update was apparently completed but not activated (i.e.
           rebooted into) yet.

           Added in version 251.

       reboot
           Similar to the pending command but immediately reboots in case
           a newer version of the OS has been installed than the one
           currently running. This operation can be done implicitly
           together with the update command, after a completed update via
           the --reboot switch, see below. This command will execute no
           operation (and return success) if no update has been
           installed, and thus the system was not rebooted.

           Added in version 251.

       components
           Lists components that can be updated. This enumerates the
           /etc/sysupdate.*.d/, /run/sysupdate.*.d/ and
           /usr/lib/sysupdate.*.d/ directories that contain transfer
           files. This command is useful to list possible parameters for
           --component= (see below).

           Added in version 251.

       -h, --help
           Print a short help text and exit.

       --version
           Print a short version string and exit.

OPTIONS         top

       The following options are understood:

       --component=, -C
           Selects the component to update. Takes a component name as
           argument. This has the effect of slightly altering the search
           logic for transfer files. If this switch is not used, the
           transfer files are loaded from /etc/sysupdate.d/*.conf,
           /run/sysupdate.d/*.conf and /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/*.conf. If
           this switch is used, the specified component name is used to
           alter the directories to look in to be
           /etc/sysupdate.component.d/*.conf,
           /run/sysupdate.component.d/*.conf and
           /usr/lib/sysupdate.component.d/*.conf, each time with the
           component string replaced with the specified component name.

           Use the components command to list available components to
           update. This enumerates the directories matching this naming
           rule.

           Components may be used to define a separate set of transfer
           files for different components of the OS that shall be updated
           separately. Do not use this concept for resources that shall
           always be updated together in a synchronous fashion. Simply
           define multiple transfer files within the same sysupdate.d/
           directory for these cases.

           This option may not be combined with --definitions=.

           Added in version 251.

       --definitions=
           A path to a directory. If specified, the transfer *.conf files
           are read from this directory instead of
           /usr/lib/sysupdate.d/*.conf, /etc/sysupdate.d/*.conf, and
           /run/sysupdate.d/*.conf.

           This option may not be combined with --component=.

           Added in version 251.

       --root=
           Takes a path to a directory to use as root file system when
           searching for sysupdate.d/*.conf files.

           Added in version 251.

       --image=
           Takes a path to a disk image file or device to mount and use
           in a similar fashion to --root=, see above. If this is used
           and partition resources are updated this is done inside the
           specified disk image.

           Added in version 251.

       --image-policy=policy
           Takes an image policy string as argument, as per
           systemd.image-policy(7). The policy is enforced when operating
           on the disk image specified via --image=, see above. If not
           specified, defaults to the "*" policy, i.e. all recognized
           file systems in the image are used.

       --instances-max=, -m
           Takes a decimal integer greater than or equal to 2 while
           updating or 1 while vacuuming. Controls how many versions to
           keep at any time. This option may also be configured inside
           the transfer files, via the InstancesMax= setting, see
           sysupdate.d(5) for details.

           Added in version 251.

       --sync=
           Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. This may be used to
           specify whether the newly updated resource versions shall be
           synchronized to disk when appropriate (i.e. after the download
           is complete, before it is finalized, and again after
           finalization). This should not be turned off, except to
           improve runtime performance in testing environments.

           Added in version 251.

       --verify=
           Takes a boolean argument, defaults to yes. Controls whether to
           cryptographically verify downloads. Do not turn this off,
           except in testing environments.

           Added in version 251.

       --reboot
           When used in combination with the update command and a new
           version is installed, automatically reboots the system
           immediately afterwards.

           Added in version 251.

       --offline
           Prevents fetching metadata from the network (i.e.
           SHA256SUMS). This is most useful when used in combination with
           the list command, to query locally installed versions.

           Added in version 257.

       --transfer-source=
           Takes a path as its argument. When specified, all transfer
           sources configured with PathRelativeTo=explicit will be
           interpreted relative to the specified path.

           Added in version 257.

       --no-pager
           Do not pipe output into a pager.

       --no-legend
           Do not print the legend, i.e. column headers and the footer
           with hints.

       --json=MODE
           Shows output formatted as JSON. Expects one of "short" (for
           the shortest possible output without any redundant whitespace
           or line breaks), "pretty" (for a pretty version of the same,
           with indentation and line breaks) or "off" (to turn off JSON
           output, the default).

EXIT STATUS         top

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

SEE ALSO         top

       systemd(1), sysupdate.d(5), systemd-sysupdated.service(8),
       systemd-repart(8)

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 2025-02-02.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-02-02.)  If you discover 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 258~devel                                    SYSTEMD-SYSUPDATE(8)

Pages that refer to this page: updatectl(1)org.freedesktop.sysupdate1(5)sysupdate.d(5)sysupdate.features(5)systemd.directives(7)systemd.index(7)systemd.v(7)systemd-sysupdated.service(8)