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.

       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. 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.

       --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-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 2023-12-22.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2023-12-22.)  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 255                                         SYSTEMD-SYSUPDATE(8)

Pages that refer to this page: sysupdate.d(5)systemd.directives(7)systemd.index(7)