systemd-getty-generator(8) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | KERNEL COMMAND LINE | ENVIRONMENT | SYSTEM CREDENTIALS | SEE ALSO | NOTES | COLOPHON

SYSTEMD-...GENERATOR(8)  systemd-getty-generator  SYSTEMD-...GENERATOR(8)

NAME         top

       systemd-getty-generator - Generator for enabling getty instances
       on the console

SYNOPSIS         top

       /usr/lib/systemd/system-generators/systemd-getty-generator

DESCRIPTION         top

       systemd-getty-generator is a generator that automatically
       instantiates serial-getty@.service on the kernel consoles, if they
       can function as ttys and are not provided by the virtual console
       subsystem. It will also instantiate serial-getty@.service
       instances for virtualizer consoles, if execution in a virtualized
       environment is detected. If execution in a container environment
       is detected, it will instead enable console-getty.service for
       /dev/console, and container-getty@.service instances for
       additional container pseudo TTYs as requested by the container
       manager (see Container Interface[1]). This should ensure that the
       user is shown a login prompt at the right place, regardless of
       which environment the system is started in. For example, it is
       sufficient to redirect the kernel console with a kernel command
       line argument such as console= to get both kernel messages and a
       getty prompt on a serial TTY. See The kernel's command-line
       parameters[2] for more information on the console= kernel
       parameter.

       systemd-getty-generator implements systemd.generator(7).

       Further information about configuration of gettys can be found in
       systemd for Administrators, Part XVI: Gettys on Serial Consoles
       (and Elsewhere)[3].

KERNEL COMMAND LINE         top

       systemd-getty-generator understands the following
       kernel-command-line(7) parameters:

       systemd.getty_auto=
           This kernel command line option may be used to control the
           execution mode of the generator. Takes an optional boolean
           argument. Since v258, this also takes comma-separated list of
           special values: "credential", "container", "console", and
           "builtin".

           When "credential" is specified, the two credentials
           getty.ttys.serial and getty.ttys.container will be parsed. See
           System Credentials section below for more details.

           When "container" is specified, console-getty.service and
           container-getty@.service will be enabled when the system is
           running in a container. This option will be ignored when the
           system is not in a container.

           When "console" is specified, serial-getty@.service for active
           kernel consoles will be enabled. This option will be ignored
           when the system is running in a container.

           When "builtins" is specified, serial-getty@.service for
           available virtualizer consoles will be enabled. This option
           will be ignored when the system is running in a container.

           When yes, the above four options will be enabled. When no, all
           options are disabled and no service will be enabled. When the
           kernel command line option is specified without an argument,
           defaults to yes. The generator is enabled by default, and a
           false value may be used to disable it.

           Added in version 250.

ENVIRONMENT         top

       $SYSTEMD_GETTY_AUTO
           This environment variable may be used to control the execution
           mode of the generator. Takes the same value as
           systemd.getty_auto= kernel command line option.

           Added in version 250.

SYSTEM CREDENTIALS         top

       getty.auto
           The system credential may be used to control the execution
           mode of the generator. Takes the same value as
           systemd.getty_auto= kernel command line option.

           Added in version 258.

       getty.ttys.serial, getty.ttys.container
           These system credentials may be used to spawn additional login
           prompts on selected TTYs. The two credentials should contain a
           newline-separated list of TTY names to spawn instances of
           serial-getty@.service (in case of getty.ttys.serial) and
           container-getty@.service (in case of getty.ttys.container) on.
           Any lines starting with a "#" will be ignored.

           Added in version 254.

SEE ALSO         top

       systemd(1), kernel-command-line(7), systemd.system-credentials(7),
       agetty(8)

NOTES         top

        1. Container
               Interface
           https://systemd.io/CONTAINER_INTERFACE

        2. The kernel's command-line parameters
           https://docs.kernel.org/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html

        3. systemd for Administrators, Part XVI: Gettys on Serial
           Consoles (and Elsewhere)
           https://0pointer.de/blog/projects/serial-console.html

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 2025-08-11.  (At that
       time, the date of the most recent commit that was found in the
       repository was 2025-08-11.)  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~rc2                                   SYSTEMD-...GENERATOR(8)

Pages that refer to this page: kernel-command-line(7)systemd.directives(7)systemd.generator(7)systemd.index(7)systemd.system-credentials(7)