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<refentry id="systemd.socket" xmlns:xi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude">
  <refentryinfo>
    <title>systemd.socket</title>
    <productname>systemd</productname>
  </refentryinfo>

  <refmeta>
    <refentrytitle>systemd.socket</refentrytitle>
    <manvolnum>5</manvolnum>
  </refmeta>

  <refnamediv>
    <refname>systemd.socket</refname>
    <refpurpose>Socket unit configuration</refpurpose>
  </refnamediv>

  <refsynopsisdiv>
    <para><filename><replaceable>socket</replaceable>.socket</filename></para>
  </refsynopsisdiv>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Description</title>

    <para>A unit configuration file whose name ends in
    <literal>.socket</literal> encodes information about an IPC or
    network socket or a file system FIFO controlled and supervised by
    systemd, for socket-based activation.</para>

    <para>This man page lists the configuration options specific to
    this unit type. See
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    for the common options of all unit configuration files. The common
    configuration items are configured in the generic [Unit] and
    [Install] sections. The socket specific configuration options are
    configured in the [Socket] section.</para>

    <para>Additional options are listed in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    which define the execution environment the
    <option>ExecStartPre=</option>, <option>ExecStartPost=</option>,
    <option>ExecStopPre=</option> and <option>ExecStopPost=</option>
    commands are executed in, and in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    which define the way the processes are terminated, and in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
    which configure resource control settings for the processes of the
    socket.</para>

    <para>For each socket unit, a matching service unit must exist,
    describing the service to start on incoming traffic on the socket
    (see
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    for more information about .service units). The name of the
    .service unit is by default the same as the name of the .socket
    unit, but can be altered with the <option>Service=</option> option
    described below. Depending on the setting of the
    <option>Accept=</option> option described below, this .service
    unit must either be named like the .socket unit, but with the
    suffix replaced, unless overridden with <option>Service=</option>;
    or it must be a template unit named the same way. Example: a
    socket file <filename>foo.socket</filename> needs a matching
    service <filename>foo.service</filename> if
    <option>Accept=no</option> is set. If
    <option>Accept=yes</option> is set, a service template
    <filename>foo@.service</filename> must exist from which services
    are instantiated for each incoming connection.</para>

    <para>No implicit <varname>WantedBy=</varname> or
    <varname>RequiredBy=</varname> dependency from the socket to the
    service is added. This means that the service may be started
    without the socket, in which case it must be able to open sockets
    by itself. To prevent this, an explicit
    <varname>Requires=</varname> dependency may be added.</para>

    <para>Socket units may be used to implement on-demand starting of
    services, as well as parallelized starting of services. See the
    blog stories linked at the end for an introduction.</para>

    <para>Note that the daemon software configured for socket activation with socket units needs to be able
    to accept sockets from systemd, either via systemd's native socket passing interface (see
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
    details about the precise protocol used and the order in which the file descriptors are passed) or via
    traditional <citerefentry
    project='freebsd'><refentrytitle>inetd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>-style
    socket passing (i.e. sockets passed in via standard input and output, using
    <varname>StandardInput=socket</varname> in the service file).</para>

    <para>All network sockets allocated through <filename>.socket</filename> units are allocated in the host's network
    namespace (see <citerefentry
    project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>network_namespaces</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>). This
    does not mean however that the service activated by a configured socket unit has to be part of the host's network
    namespace as well.  It is supported and even good practice to run services in their own network namespace (for
    example through <varname>PrivateNetwork=</varname>, see
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>), receiving only
    the sockets configured through socket-activation from the host's namespace. In such a set-up communication within
    the host's network namespace is only permitted through the activation sockets passed in while all sockets allocated
    from the service code itself will be associated with the service's own namespace, and thus possibly subject to a
    restrictive configuration.</para>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Automatic Dependencies</title>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Implicit Dependencies</title>

      <para>The following dependencies are implicitly added:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem><para>Socket units automatically gain a <varname>Before=</varname>
        dependency on the service units they activate.</para></listitem>

        <listitem><para>Socket units referring to file system paths (such as <constant>AF_UNIX</constant>
        sockets or FIFOs) implicitly gain <varname>Requires=</varname> and <varname>After=</varname>
        dependencies on all mount units necessary to access those paths.</para></listitem>

        <listitem><para>Socket units using the <varname>BindToDevice=</varname>
        setting automatically gain a <varname>BindsTo=</varname> and
        <varname>After=</varname> dependency on the device unit
        encapsulating the specified network interface.</para></listitem>
      </itemizedlist>

      <para>Additional implicit dependencies may be added as result of
      execution and resource control parameters as documented in
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
      and
      <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
    </refsect2>

    <refsect2>
      <title>Default Dependencies</title>

      <para>The following dependencies are added unless
      <varname>DefaultDependencies=no</varname> is set:</para>

      <itemizedlist>
        <listitem><para>Socket units automatically gain a
        <varname>Before=</varname> dependency on
        <filename>sockets.target</filename>.</para></listitem>

        <listitem><para>Socket units automatically gain a pair of
        <varname>After=</varname> and <varname>Requires=</varname>
        dependency on <filename>sysinit.target</filename>, and a pair of
        <varname>Before=</varname> and <varname>Conflicts=</varname>
        dependencies on <filename>shutdown.target</filename>. These
        dependencies ensure that the socket unit is started before normal
        services at boot, and is stopped on shutdown. Only sockets
        involved with early boot or late system shutdown should disable
        <varname>DefaultDependencies=</varname> option.</para></listitem>
      </itemizedlist>
    </refsect2>
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
    <title>Options</title>

    <para>Socket unit files may include [Unit] and [Install] sections, which are described in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
    </para>

    <para>Socket unit files must include a [Socket] section, which carries
    information about the socket or FIFO it supervises. A number of
    options that may be used in this section are shared with other
    unit types. These options are documented in
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
    and
    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
    The options specific to the [Socket] section of socket units are
    the following:</para>

    <variablelist class='unit-directives'>
      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenStream=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>ListenDatagram=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>ListenSequentialPacket=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies an address to listen on for a stream
        (<constant>SOCK_STREAM</constant>), datagram
        (<constant>SOCK_DGRAM</constant>), or sequential packet
        (<constant>SOCK_SEQPACKET</constant>) socket, respectively.
        The address can be written in various formats:</para>

        <para>If the address starts with a slash
        (<literal>/</literal>), it is read as file system socket in
        the <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> socket family.</para>

        <para>If the address starts with an at symbol
        (<literal>@</literal>), it is read as abstract namespace
        socket in the <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> family. The
        <literal>@</literal> is replaced with a
        <constant>NUL</constant> character before binding. For
        details, see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>unix</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>

        <para>If the address string is a single number, it is read as
        port number to listen on via IPv6. Depending on the value of
        <varname>BindIPv6Only=</varname> (see below) this might result
        in the service being available via both IPv6 and IPv4
        (default) or just via IPv6.
        </para>

        <para>If the address string is a string in the format
        <literal><replaceable>v.w.x.y</replaceable>:<replaceable>z</replaceable></literal>, it is interpreted
        as IPv4 address <replaceable>v.w.x.y</replaceable> and port <replaceable>z</replaceable>.</para>

        <para>If the address string is a string in the format
        <literal>[<replaceable>x</replaceable>]:<replaceable>y</replaceable></literal>, it is interpreted as
        IPv6 address <replaceable>x</replaceable> and port <replaceable>y</replaceable>. An optional
        interface scope (interface name or number) may be specified after a <literal>%</literal> symbol:
        <literal>[<replaceable>x</replaceable>]:<replaceable>y</replaceable>%<replaceable>dev</replaceable></literal>.
        Interface scopes are only useful with link-local addresses, because the kernel ignores them in other
        cases. Note that if an address is specified as IPv6, it might still make the service available via
        IPv4 too, depending on the <varname>BindIPv6Only=</varname> setting (see below).</para>

        <para>If the address string is a string in the format
        <literal>vsock:<replaceable>x</replaceable>:<replaceable>y</replaceable></literal>, it is read as CID
        <replaceable>x</replaceable> on a port <replaceable>y</replaceable> address in the
        <constant>AF_VSOCK</constant> family.  The CID is a unique 32-bit integer identifier in
        <constant>AF_VSOCK</constant> analogous to an IP address.  Specifying the CID is optional, and may be
        set to the empty string.</para>

        <para>Note that <constant>SOCK_SEQPACKET</constant> (i.e.
        <varname>ListenSequentialPacket=</varname>) is only available
        for <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> sockets.
        <constant>SOCK_STREAM</constant> (i.e.
        <varname>ListenStream=</varname>) when used for IP sockets
        refers to TCP sockets, <constant>SOCK_DGRAM</constant> (i.e.
        <varname>ListenDatagram=</varname>) to UDP.</para>

        <para>These options may be specified more than once, in which
        case incoming traffic on any of the sockets will trigger
        service activation, and all listed sockets will be passed to
        the service, regardless of whether there is incoming traffic
        on them or not. If the empty string is assigned to any of
        these options, the list of addresses to listen on is reset,
        all prior uses of any of these options will have no
        effect.</para>

        <para>It is also possible to have more than one socket unit
        for the same service when using <varname>Service=</varname>,
        and the service will receive all the sockets configured in all
        the socket units. Sockets configured in one unit are passed in
        the order of configuration, but no ordering between socket
        units is specified.</para>

        <para>If an IP address is used here, it is often desirable to
        listen on it before the interface it is configured on is up
        and running, and even regardless of whether it will be up and
        running at any point. To deal with this, it is recommended to
        set the <varname>FreeBind=</varname> option described
        below.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenFIFO=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a file system FIFO (see <citerefentry
        project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>fifo</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details) to listen on.  This expects an absolute file system path as argument.  Behavior otherwise is
        very similar to the <varname>ListenDatagram=</varname> directive above.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenSpecial=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a special file in the file system to
        listen on. This expects an absolute file system path as
        argument. Behavior otherwise is very similar to the
        <varname>ListenFIFO=</varname> directive above. Use this to
        open character device nodes as well as special files in
        <filename>/proc/</filename> and
        <filename>/sys/</filename>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenNetlink=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a Netlink family to create a socket
        for to listen on. This expects a short string referring to the
        <constant>AF_NETLINK</constant> family name (such as
        <varname>audit</varname> or <varname>kobject-uevent</varname>)
        as argument, optionally suffixed by a whitespace followed by a
        multicast group integer. Behavior otherwise is very similar to
        the <varname>ListenDatagram=</varname> directive
        above.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenMessageQueue=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a POSIX message queue name to listen on (see <citerefentry
        project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>mq_overview</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details). This expects a valid message queue name (i.e. beginning with
        <literal>/</literal>). Behavior otherwise is very similar to the <varname>ListenFIFO=</varname>
        directive above. On Linux message queue descriptors are actually file descriptors and can be
        inherited between processes.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ListenUSBFunction=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a <ulink
        url="https://docs.kernel.org/usb/functionfs.html">USB
        FunctionFS</ulink> endpoints location to listen on, for
        implementation of USB gadget functions. This expects an
        absolute file system path of a FunctionFS mount point as the argument.
        Behavior otherwise is very similar to the <varname>ListenFIFO=</varname>
        directive above. Use this to open the FunctionFS endpoint
        <filename>ep0</filename>. When using this option, the
        activated service has to have the
        <varname>USBFunctionDescriptors=</varname> and
        <varname>USBFunctionStrings=</varname> options set.
        </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SocketProtocol=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes one of <option>udplite</option>
        or <option>sctp</option>. The socket will use the UDP-Lite
        (<constant>IPPROTO_UDPLITE</constant>) or SCTP
        (<constant>IPPROTO_SCTP</constant>) protocol, respectively.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>BindIPv6Only=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes one of <option>default</option>,
        <option>both</option> or <option>ipv6-only</option>. Controls
        the IPV6_V6ONLY socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>ipv6</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details). If <option>both</option>, IPv6 sockets bound
        will be accessible via both IPv4 and IPv6. If
        <option>ipv6-only</option>, they will be accessible via IPv6
        only. If <option>default</option> (which is the default,
        surprise!), the system wide default setting is used, as
        controlled by
        <filename>/proc/sys/net/ipv6/bindv6only</filename>, which in
        turn defaults to the equivalent of
        <option>both</option>.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Backlog=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an unsigned 32-bit integer argument. Specifies the number of connections to
        queue that have not been accepted yet. This setting matters only for stream and sequential packet
        sockets. See
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>listen</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details. Note that this value is silently capped by the <literal>net.core.somaxconn</literal> sysctl,
        which typically defaults to 4096. By default this is set to 4294967295, so that the sysctl takes full
        effect.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>BindToDevice=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies a network interface name to bind this socket to. If set, traffic will only
        be accepted from the specified network interfaces. This controls the
        <constant>SO_BINDTODEVICE</constant> socket option (see <citerefentry
        project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details). If this option is used, an implicit dependency from this socket unit on the network
        interface device unit is created
        (see <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.device</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
        Note that setting this parameter might result in additional dependencies to be added to the unit (see
        above).</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SocketUser=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SocketGroup=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>Takes a UNIX user/group name. When specified, all <constant>AF_UNIX</constant>
        sockets and FIFO nodes in the file system are owned by the specified user and group. If unset (the
        default), the nodes are owned by the root user/group (if run in system context) or the invoking
        user/group (if run in user context).  If only a user is specified but no group, then the group is
        derived from the user's default group.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SocketMode=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>If listening on a file system socket or FIFO,
        this option specifies the file system access mode used when
        creating the file node. Takes an access mode in octal
        notation. Defaults to 0666.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>DirectoryMode=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>If listening on a file system socket or FIFO,
        the parent directories are automatically created if needed.
        This option specifies the file system access mode used when
        creating these directories. Takes an access mode in octal
        notation. Defaults to 0755.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Accept=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If yes, a service instance is spawned for each incoming
        connection and only the connection socket is passed to it. If no, all listening sockets themselves
        are passed to the started service unit, and only one service unit is spawned for all connections
        (also see above). This value is ignored for datagram sockets and FIFOs where a single service unit
        unconditionally handles all incoming traffic. Defaults to <option>no</option>. For performance
        reasons, it is recommended to write new daemons only in a way that is suitable for
        <option>Accept=no</option>. A daemon listening on an <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> socket may, but
        does not need to, call
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>close</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> on the
        received socket before exiting. However, it must not unlink the socket from a file system. It should
        not invoke
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>shutdown</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry> on
        sockets it got with <varname>Accept=no</varname>, but it may do so for sockets it got with
        <varname>Accept=yes</varname> set. Setting <varname>Accept=yes</varname> is mostly useful to allow
        daemons designed for usage with <citerefentry
        project='freebsd'><refentrytitle>inetd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> to work
        unmodified with systemd socket activation.</para>

        <para>Note that depending on this setting the services activated by units of this type are either
        regular services (in case of <varname>Accept=</varname><option>no</option>) or instances of templated
        services (in case of <varname>Accept=</varname><option>yes</option>). See the Description section
        above for a more detailed discussion of the naming rules of triggered services.</para>

        <para>For IPv4 and IPv6 connections, the <varname>REMOTE_ADDR</varname> environment variable will
        contain the remote IP address, and <varname>REMOTE_PORT</varname> will contain the remote port. This
        is the same as the format used by CGI. For <constant>SOCK_RAW</constant>, the port is the IP
        protocol.</para>

        <para>It is recommended to set <varname>CollectMode=inactive-or-failed</varname> for service
        instances activated via <varname>Accept=yes</varname>, to ensure that failed connection services are
        cleaned up and released from memory, and do not accumulate.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Writable=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. May only be used in
        conjunction with <varname>ListenSpecial=</varname>. If true,
        the specified special file is opened in read-write mode, if
        false, in read-only mode. Defaults to false.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>FlushPending=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. May only be used when
        <option>Accept=no</option>. If yes, the socket's buffers are cleared after the
        triggered service exited. This causes any pending data to be
        flushed and any pending incoming connections to be rejected. If no, the
        socket's buffers won't be cleared, permitting the service to handle any
        pending connections after restart, which is the usually expected behaviour.
        Defaults to <option>no</option>.
        </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>MaxConnections=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>The maximum number of connections to
        simultaneously run services instances for, when
        <option>Accept=yes</option> is set. If more concurrent
        connections are coming in, they will be refused until at least
        one existing connection is terminated. This setting has no
        effect on sockets configured with
        <option>Accept=no</option> or datagram sockets. Defaults to
        64.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>MaxConnectionsPerSource=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>The maximum number of connections for a service per source IP address.
        This is very similar to the <varname>MaxConnections=</varname> directive
        above. Disabled by default.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

       <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>KeepAlive=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If true, the TCP/IP stack will send a keep alive message
        after 2h (depending on the configuration of
        <filename>/proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_keepalive_time</filename>) for all TCP streams accepted on this
        socket. This controls the <constant>SO_KEEPALIVE</constant> socket option (see <citerefentry
        project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> and
        the <ulink url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/">TCP Keepalive
        HOWTO</ulink> for details.) Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>KeepAliveTimeSec=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes time (in seconds) as argument. The connection needs to remain
        idle before TCP starts sending keepalive probes. This controls the TCP_KEEPIDLE
        socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        and the <ulink
        url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/">TCP
        Keepalive HOWTO</ulink> for details.)
        Default value is 7200 seconds (2 hours).</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>KeepAliveIntervalSec=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes time (in seconds) as argument between individual keepalive probes, if the
        socket option <constant>SO_KEEPALIVE</constant> has been set on this socket. This controls the
        <constant>TCP_KEEPINTVL</constant> socket option (see <citerefentry
        project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> and
        the <ulink url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/">TCP Keepalive
        HOWTO</ulink> for details.) Default value is 75 seconds.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>KeepAliveProbes=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer as argument. It is the number of
        unacknowledged probes to send before considering the
        connection dead and notifying the application layer. This
        controls the TCP_KEEPCNT socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        and the <ulink
        url="http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/html_single/TCP-Keepalive-HOWTO/">TCP
        Keepalive HOWTO</ulink> for details.) Default value is
        9.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>NoDelay=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. TCP Nagle's
        algorithm works by combining a number of small outgoing
        messages, and sending them all at once. This controls the
        TCP_NODELAY socket option (see
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>tcp</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
        Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Priority=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer argument controlling the priority for all traffic sent from this
        socket. This controls the <constant>SO_PRIORITY</constant> socket option (see <citerefentry
        project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details.).</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>DeferAcceptSec=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>Takes time (in seconds) as argument. If set,
        the listening process will be awakened only when data arrives
        on the socket, and not immediately when connection is
        established. When this option is set, the
        <constant>TCP_DEFER_ACCEPT</constant> socket option will be
        used (see
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>tcp</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>),
        and the kernel will ignore initial ACK packets without any
        data. The argument specifies the approximate amount of time
        the kernel should wait for incoming data before falling back
        to the normal behavior of honoring empty ACK packets. This
        option is beneficial for protocols where the client sends the
        data first (e.g. HTTP, in contrast to SMTP), because the
        server process will not be woken up unnecessarily before it
        can take any action.
        </para>

        <para>If the client also uses the
        <constant>TCP_DEFER_ACCEPT</constant> option, the latency of
        the initial connection may be reduced, because the kernel will
        send data in the final packet establishing the connection (the
        third packet in the "three-way handshake").</para>

        <para>Disabled by default.</para>
        </listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ReceiveBuffer=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SendBuffer=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer argument controlling the receive or send buffer sizes of this
        socket, respectively.  This controls the <constant>SO_RCVBUF</constant> and
        <constant>SO_SNDBUF</constant> socket options (see <citerefentry
        project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details.). The usual suffixes K, M, G are supported and are understood to the base of
        1024.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>IPTOS=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer argument controlling the IP Type-Of-Service field for packets
        generated from this socket.  This controls the <constant>IP_TOS</constant> socket option (see
        <citerefentry
        project='die-net'><refentrytitle>ip</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details.). Either a numeric string or one of <option>low-delay</option>, <option>throughput</option>,
        <option>reliability</option> or <option>low-cost</option> may be specified.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>IPTTL=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer argument controlling the IPv4 Time-To-Live/IPv6 Hop-Count field for
        packets generated from this socket. This sets the
        <constant>IP_TTL</constant>/<constant>IPV6_UNICAST_HOPS</constant> socket options (see <citerefentry
        project='die-net'><refentrytitle>ip</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> and
        <citerefentry
        project='die-net'><refentrytitle>ipv6</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details.)</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Mark=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes an integer value. Controls the firewall mark of packets generated by this
        socket. This can be used in the firewall logic to filter packets from this socket. This sets the
        <constant>SO_MARK</constant> socket option. See <citerefentry
        project='die-net'><refentrytitle>iptables</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ReusePort=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. If true, allows multiple
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>bind</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>s to this TCP
        or UDP port. This controls the <constant>SO_REUSEPORT</constant> socket option. See <citerefentry
        project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>socket</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
        details.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SmackLabel=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SmackLabelIPIn=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>SmackLabelIPOut=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a string value. Controls the extended
        attributes <literal>security.SMACK64</literal>,
        <literal>security.SMACK64IPIN</literal> and
        <literal>security.SMACK64IPOUT</literal>, respectively, i.e.
        the security label of the FIFO, or the security label for the
        incoming or outgoing connections of the socket, respectively.
        See <ulink
        url="https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/LSM/Smack.html">Smack</ulink>
        for details.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>SELinuxContextFromNet=</varname></term>
         <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. When true, systemd
         will attempt to figure out the SELinux label used for the
         instantiated service from the information handed by the peer
         over the network. Note that only the security level is used
         from the information provided by the peer. Other parts of the
         resulting SELinux context originate from either the target
         binary that is effectively triggered by socket unit or from
         the value of the <varname>SELinuxContext=</varname> option.
         This configuration option applies only when activated service
         is passed in single socket file descriptor, i.e. service
         instances that have standard input connected to a socket or
         services triggered by exactly one socket unit. Also note
         that this option is useful only when MLS/MCS SELinux policy
         is deployed. Defaults to
         <literal>false</literal>. </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PipeSize=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a size in bytes. Controls the pipe
        buffer size of FIFOs configured in this socket unit. See
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>fcntl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>2</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details. The usual suffixes K, M, G are supported and are
        understood to the base of 1024.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>MessageQueueMaxMessages=</varname>,
        <varname>MessageQueueMessageSize=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>These two settings take integer values and
        control the mq_maxmsg field or the mq_msgsize field,
        respectively, when creating the message queue. Note that
        either none or both of these variables need to be set. See
        <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>mq_setattr</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        for details.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>FreeBind=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. Controls whether the socket can be bound to non-local IP
        addresses. This is useful to configure sockets listening on specific IP addresses before those IP
        addresses are successfully configured on a network interface. This sets the
        <constant>IP_FREEBIND</constant>/<constant>IPV6_FREEBIND</constant> socket option. For robustness
        reasons it is recommended to use this option whenever you bind a socket to a specific IP
        address. Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Transparent=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. Controls the
        <constant>IP_TRANSPARENT</constant>/<constant>IPV6_TRANSPARENT</constant> socket option. Defaults to
        <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Broadcast=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. This controls the <constant>SO_BROADCAST</constant> socket
        option, which allows broadcast datagrams to be sent from this socket. Defaults to
        <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PassCredentials=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. This controls the <constant>SO_PASSCRED</constant> socket
        option, which allows <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> sockets to receive the credentials of the sending
        process in an ancillary message. Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PassSecurity=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. This controls the <constant>SO_PASSSEC</constant> socket
        option, which allows <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> sockets to receive the security context of the
        sending process in an ancillary message.  Defaults to <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>PassPacketInfo=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean value. This controls the <constant>IP_PKTINFO</constant>,
        <constant>IPV6_RECVPKTINFO</constant>, <constant>NETLINK_PKTINFO</constant> or
        <constant>PACKET_AUXDATA</constant> socket options, which enable reception of additional per-packet
        metadata as ancillary message, on <constant>AF_INET</constant>, <constant>AF_INET6</constant>,
        <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> and <constant>AF_PACKET</constant> sockets.  Defaults to
        <option>false</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Timestamping=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes one of <literal>off</literal>, <literal>us</literal> (alias:
        <literal>usec</literal>, <literal>μs</literal>) or <literal>ns</literal> (alias:
        <literal>nsec</literal>). This controls the <constant>SO_TIMESTAMP</constant> or
        <constant>SO_TIMESTAMPNS</constant> socket options, and enables whether ingress network traffic shall
        carry timestamping metadata. Defaults to <option>off</option>.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>TCPCongestion=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a string value. Controls the TCP congestion algorithm used by this
        socket. Should be one of <literal>westwood</literal>, <literal>veno</literal>,
        <literal>cubic</literal>, <literal>lp</literal> or any other available algorithm supported by the IP
        stack. This setting applies only to stream sockets.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ExecStartPre=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>ExecStartPost=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes one or more command lines, which are
        executed before or after the listening sockets/FIFOs are
        created and bound, respectively. The first token of the
        command line must be an absolute filename, then followed by
        arguments for the process. Multiple command lines may be
        specified following the same scheme as used for
        <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> of service unit
        files.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>ExecStopPre=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>ExecStopPost=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Additional commands that are executed before
        or after the listening sockets/FIFOs are closed and removed,
        respectively. Multiple command lines may be specified
        following the same scheme as used for
        <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname> of service unit
        files.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>TimeoutSec=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Configures the time to wait for the commands
        specified in <varname>ExecStartPre=</varname>,
        <varname>ExecStartPost=</varname>,
        <varname>ExecStopPre=</varname> and
        <varname>ExecStopPost=</varname> to finish. If a command does
        not exit within the configured time, the socket will be
        considered failed and be shut down again. All commands still
        running will be terminated forcibly via
        <constant>SIGTERM</constant>, and after another delay of this
        time with <constant>SIGKILL</constant>. (See
        <option>KillMode=</option> in
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.)
        Takes a unit-less value in seconds, or a time span value such
        as "5min 20s". Pass <literal>0</literal> to disable the
        timeout logic. Defaults to
        <varname>DefaultTimeoutStartSec=</varname> from the manager
        configuration file (see
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).
        </para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Service=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Specifies the service unit name to activate on
        incoming traffic. This setting is only allowed for sockets
        with <varname>Accept=no</varname>. It defaults to the service
        that bears the same name as the socket (with the suffix
        replaced). In most cases, it should not be necessary to use
        this option. Note that setting this parameter might result in
        additional dependencies to be added to the unit (see
        above).</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>RemoveOnStop=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a boolean argument. If enabled, any file nodes created by this socket unit are
        removed when it is stopped. This applies to <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> sockets in the file system,
        POSIX message queues, FIFOs, as well as any symlinks to them configured with
        <varname>Symlinks=</varname>. Normally, it should not be necessary to use this option, and is not
        recommended as services might continue to run after the socket unit has been terminated and it should
        still be possible to communicate with them via their file system node. Defaults to
        off.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>Symlinks=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Takes a list of file system paths. The specified paths will be created as symlinks to the
        <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> socket path or FIFO path of this socket unit. If this setting is used, only one
        <constant>AF_UNIX</constant> socket in the file system or one FIFO may be configured for the socket unit. Use
        this option to manage one or more symlinked alias names for a socket, binding their lifecycle together. Note
        that if creation of a symlink fails this is not considered fatal for the socket unit, and the socket unit may
        still start. If an empty string is assigned, the list of paths is reset. Defaults to an empty
        list.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>FileDescriptorName=</varname></term>
        <listitem><para>Assigns a name to all file descriptors this
        socket unit encapsulates. This is useful to help activated
        services identify specific file descriptors, if multiple fds
        are passed. Services may use the
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds_with_names</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
        call to acquire the names configured for the received file
        descriptors. Names may contain any ASCII character, but must
        exclude control characters and <literal>:</literal>, and must
        be at most 255 characters in length. If this setting is not
        used, the file descriptor name defaults to the name of the
        socket unit, including its <filename>.socket</filename>
        suffix.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

      <varlistentry>
        <term><varname>TriggerLimitIntervalSec=</varname></term>
        <term><varname>TriggerLimitBurst=</varname></term>

        <listitem><para>Configures a limit on how often this socket unit may be activated within a specific time
        interval. The <varname>TriggerLimitIntervalSec=</varname> may be used to configure the length of the time
        interval in the usual time units <literal>us</literal>, <literal>ms</literal>, <literal>s</literal>,
        <literal>min</literal>, <literal>h</literal>, … and defaults to 2s (See
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry> for details on
        the various time units understood). The <varname>TriggerLimitBurst=</varname> setting takes a positive integer
        value and specifies the number of permitted activations per time interval, and defaults to 200 for
        <varname>Accept=yes</varname> sockets (thus by default permitting 200 activations per 2s), and 20 otherwise (20
        activations per 2s). Set either to 0 to disable any form of trigger rate limiting. If the limit is hit, the
        socket unit is placed into a failure mode, and will not be connectible anymore until restarted. Note that this
        limit is enforced before the service activation is enqueued.</para></listitem>
      </varlistentry>

    </variablelist>

    <xi:include href="systemd.service.xml" xpointer="shared-unit-options" />
  </refsect1>

  <refsect1>
      <title>See Also</title>
      <para>
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-system.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.kill</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.resource-control</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_listen_fds_with_names</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
      </para>
      <para>
        For more extensive descriptions see the "systemd for Developers" series:
        <ulink url="https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activation.html">Socket Activation</ulink>,
        <ulink url="https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activation2.html">Socket Activation, part II</ulink>,
        <ulink url="https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/inetd.html">Converting inetd Services</ulink>,
        <ulink url="https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/socket-activated-containers.html">Socket Activated Internet Services and OS Containers</ulink>.
      </para>
  </refsect1>

</refentry>
