S6-RC-REPO-SYNC(8)

💅 S6-RC-REPO-SYNC(8) — the system manager's manual, but make it cute

okay so bestie, you're looking at s6-rc-repo-sync, section 8 of the manual, and honestly? it's giving glow-up for your s6-rc repository ✨ let's get into it.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

s6-rc-repo-sync — synchronize an s6-rc repository 🫶

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⭐ SYNOPSIS ⭐

s6-rc-repo-sync [-v verbosity] [-r repo] [-h fdhuser]

that's it, that's the whole vibe. three little options, no cap 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so s6-rc-repo-sync synchronizes an s6-rc-repo(7). and what does that mean, you ask? two things, bestie: it makes an up-to-date reference database, and it makes sure that all defined sets include all the services in the repository's stores — and only them. literally nothing extra, nothing missing. the way that consistency ate 💀

here's the flow, step by step:

• it looks at all the services defined in the repository's stores, and compiles them into a reference database.
• then it looks at all the sets and synchronizes them with the services in all the stores:
  • existing services are preserved as they are — if it ain't broke, don't touch it 🙈
  • if a service doesn't appear in the stores, it is removed from all sets — bye bestie 👋
  • if a new service is defined in the stores, it is added to all sets. and which set? depends on the flags, queen:
    • services with the essential flag are added to the always rx 👑
    • services with the recommended flag are added to the active rx ✨
    • others are added to the usable rx 🎀

it exits 0. slay. periodt.

🧚 Notes 🧚

• you should call s6-rc-repo-sync when the contents of the stores have changed — for instance when the package manager has added packages that define new services. that's your cue, babes 🔥

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💜 OPTIONS 💜

• -v verbosity, --verbosity=verbosity — be more or less verbose. default is 1, which means error messages and warnings get written to stderr. 0 means only error messages get written. 2 or more adds informational messages. and the option is also passed to commands that s6-rc-repo-sync may call, such as s6-rc-compile(8), so their verbosity gets similarly adjusted. teamwork makes the dream work 🫶
• -r repo, --repository=repo — use the repository in repo, which must exist. default is /var/lib/s6-rc/repository. 🍓
• -h fdhuser, --fdholder-user=fdhuser — okay so you can safely ignore this option and forget about it, fr fr. but iykyk, here's what it does: it ensures that if a supervision tree is started as root on a compiled database produced by this command, the fd-holder daemon in that supervision tree runs as fdhuser rather than root. and ngl, it is okay to run that daemon as root. so like. lowkey optional 🌈

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🎀 EXIT STATUS 🎀

• 0 — Success. main character energy 👑
• 1 — Failure. either the services in the listed stores do not make a consistent reference database, or some set is inconsistent. with a nonzero verbosity, the error messages from s6-rc-compile(8) will be displayed and detail exactly what went wrong. it's giving receipts 💅
• 100 — Incorrect usage. wrong vibe, try again 🙈
• 111 — System call failed. this usually signals an issue with the underlying operating system. not us, not our problem 😭

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• s6-rc-repo(7)
• s6-rc-compile(8)

this man page is ported from the authoritative documentation at: https://skarnet.org/software/s6-rc/s6-rc-repo-sync.html — go read the source, bestie, it's iconic ⭐

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🫶 AUTHORS 🫶

• Laurent Bercot
• Carlos Eduardo <carana2099@gmail.com> (man page port) 💖

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and that's the whole page, bestie — this one came to you from the Debian crew, dated January 24, 2026, and yes she's still serving S6-RC-REPO-SYNC(8) realness. go sync something and have the best day 💅✨🌸