Man page - rpi-systemd-config(1)

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Package: rpi-systemd-config
apt-get install rpi-systemd-config

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rpi-systemd-config(1)

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rpi-systemd-config

Manual

RPI-SYSTEMD-CONFIG

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
ARGUMENTS
OPTIONS
CONFIGURATION FILE LOOKUP
OUTPUT FORMAT
EXAMPLES
EXIT STATUS
COMPARISON WITH SYSTEMD-ANALYZE
LIMITATIONS
SEE ALSO
NOTES

NAME

rpi-systemd-config - Query systemd configuration files

SYNOPSIS

rpi-systemd-config [ --version ] NAME [ VARIABLE KEY ]...

DESCRIPTION

rpi-systemd-config extracts values from systemd configuration files and outputs shell variable assignments. It uses systemd’s own configuration parsing logic, following the same precedence rules and drop-in directory support as systemd itself.

Supports both Debian Bookworm (systemd 252) and Debian Trixie (systemd 257).

The tool searches configuration files using systemd’s standard directory hierarchy and supports drop-in configuration files as described in systemd.unit (5).

ARGUMENTS

NAME

Configuration file name relative to the systemd configuration prefix (e.g., systemd/system.conf , systemd/logind.conf ).

VARIABLE KEY

Pairs of shell variable names and configuration keys. Each KEY must be in the format section::key .

OPTIONS

-v , --version

Show version information and exit.

-h , --help

Show help message and exit.

CONFIGURATION FILE LOOKUP

rpi-systemd-config follows systemd’s standard lookup order:

	1.		/etc/ _NAME_ - Local administrator configuration
	2.		/run/ _NAME_ - Runtime configuration
	3.		/usr/local/lib/ _NAME_ - Local package configuration
	4.		/usr/lib/ _NAME_ - Distribution package configuration

Drop-in files from corresponding .d directories are processed following the same precedence rules.

OUTPUT FORMAT

For each configuration entry found, outputs a shell variable assignment:

VARIABLE='value'

Values are properly escaped for shell consumption. Missing entries produce no output.

EXAMPLES

Use in shell scripts:

#!/bin/bash
eval "$(rpi-systemd-config systemd/system.conf \
DEFAULT_TIMEOUT Manager::DefaultTimeoutStopSec \
DEFAULT_RESTART Manager::DefaultRestartSec)"

if [ -n "${DEFAULT_TIMEOUT:-}" ]; then
echo "System default timeout is configured: $DEFAULT_TIMEOUT"
else
echo "Using systemd built-in default timeout"
fi

EXIT STATUS

Exits with status 0 on success. Missing configuration entries do not cause non-zero exit status.

COMPARISON WITH SYSTEMD-ANALYZE

systemd-analyze cat-config shows complete file contents with comments, whilst rpi-systemd-config extracts specific values for programmatic use:

$ rpi-systemd-config systemd/system.conf TIMEOUT Manager::DefaultTimeoutStopSec
TIMEOUT='30s'

LIMITATIONS

	•		Only supports configuration files that use systemd’s standard configuration parser
	•		Requires access to systemd’s internal shared library
	•		Supports systemd versions 252 and 257
	•		Value parsing : Uses systemd’s generic string parser (config_parse_string) only. Does not perform specialized validation or parsing that systemd uses internally (such as config_parse_bool, config_parse_hw_addr, config_parse_percent, etc.). Values are returned as raw strings exactly as they appear in configuration files, without type validation or conversion.

NOTES

rpi-systemd-config uses systemd’s own configuration parsing functions to ensure compatibility. The output format is designed for consumption by shell eval statements, similar to apt-config (8).