SYSTEMD-GETTY-GENERATOR(8)

💖 NAME 💖

systemd-getty-generator — the generator that makes getty instances pop off on your console 🎀✨

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

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

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so bestie, systemd-getty-generator is a generator, and what it does is automatically instantiate serial-getty@.service on the kernel consoles — but only if those consoles can actually function as ttys and they're not already provided by the virtual console subsystem. no duplicates, we don't do that here 💅

it will also instantiate serial-getty@.service instances for virtualizer consoles, if it detects that execution is happening inside a virtualized environment 👀

and if it detects that we're running in a container environment, it switches it up instead: it enables console-getty.service for /dev/console, plus container-getty@.service instances for any additional container pseudo TTYs that the container manager asked for (see Container Interface[1] down in the NOTES, iykyk).

the whole point of this is to make sure the user gets shown a login prompt in the right place, no matter which environment the system booted up in. so for example, it's literally enough to redirect the kernel console with a kernel command line argument like console=, and boom — you get both the kernel messages and a getty prompt on a serial TTY 🫶 see The kernel's command-line parameters[2] for more info on that console= kernel parameter.

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

and if you want even more tea about configuring gettys, it's all in systemd for Administrators, Part XVI: Gettys on Serial Consoles (and Elsewhere)[3] ⭐

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👑 KERNEL COMMAND LINE 👑

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

• systemd.getty_auto= — this kernel command line option controls the execution mode of the generator. it takes an optional boolean argument. and since v258, it also takes a comma-separated list of special values: "credential", "container", "console", and "builtin" 🌈

here's the breakdown, bestie:

• when "credential" is specified, the two credentials getty.ttys.serial and getty.ttys.container will be parsed. see the System Credentials section below for the deets 💜
• 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 "builtin" 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, all four of the options above get enabled. when no, all options are disabled and no service will be enabled. when the kernel command line option is specified without an argument, it defaults to yes. the generator is enabled by default, and a false value may be used to disable it 🚫

added in version 250 ✨

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🎀 ENVIRONMENT 🎀

• $SYSTEMD_GETTY_AUTO — this environment variable controls the execution mode of the generator. it takes the same value as the systemd.getty_auto= kernel command line option 👯

added in version 250 ✨

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🍓 SYSTEM CREDENTIALS 🍓

• getty.auto — this system credential controls the execution mode of the generator. it takes the same value as the systemd.getty_auto= kernel command line option 💖

added in version 258 ✨

• getty.ttys.serial, getty.ttys.container — these system credentials let you 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 on (that's for getty.ttys.serial) and container-getty@.service on (that's for getty.ttys.container). any lines starting with a "#" will be ignored 🚫

added in version 254 ✨

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💫 SEE ALSO 💫

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

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🧚 NOTES 🧚

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

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and that's the whole page bestie, no cap 💅 this was SYSTEMD-GETTY-GENERATOR(8) from systemd 262.1 — go get your login prompts, you got this 👑🫶