SYSTEMD-STORAGE-BLOCK(8)

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, listen up — this is systemd-storage-block@.service, plus its lil socket buddy systemd-storage-block.socket, and the whole fam just goes by systemd-storage-block for short. what do they DO tho? they're a storage provider that takes your local block devices and serves them up as storage volumes. iconic behaviour, no cap. ✨

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

systemd-storage-block@.service

systemd-storage-block.socket

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so systemd-storage-block@.service is a system service that implements the io.systemd.StorageProvider Varlink interface — and what that means, bestie, is it's out here exposing the system's block devices (we're talking disks, partitions, and device-mapper nodes) as storage volumes that other programs can legit just... acquire. as file descriptors. the way that works is so clean, i'm obsessed. 💅

it's socket-activated via systemd-storage-block.socket, which sits there listening on the AF_UNIX socket:

/run/systemd/io.systemd.StorageProvider/block

and the socket directory /run/systemd/io.systemd.StorageProvider/ is the well-known location where storage providers register themselves — it's giving main character energy, it's giving "everyone knows where to find me". if you wanna enumerate them, go peep storagectl(1), that's the tool for it. 🔍

also!! if you want the complementary one, check out systemd-storage-fs@.service(8) — that's the sibling implementation that exposes regular files and directories from a backing file system instead. two providers, one vibe. 🫶

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👑 VOLUMES 👑

the volumes that get exposed through the provider are identified by an absolute path — and it must begin with /dev/ — like, as a kernel block device node. examples being /dev/sda or /dev/disk/by-id/.... 🎀

bestie, real talk: volume names that are not normalized, or that do not begin with /dev/? yeah, they are NOT accepted. periodt. don't even try it. 💀

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✨ OPTIONS ✨

here's what it understands, and honestly there's not much, it's very low-maintenance:

• -h, --help — prints a short help text and then dips. that's it. that's the whole thing. 💖
• --version — prints a short version string and exits. cute, quick, done. 🌈

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🎀 FILES 🎀

• /run/systemd/io.systemd.StorageProvider/block — this is the AF_UNIX socket the service listens on. it's the canonical location for the "block" storage provider, and it gets enumerated by storagectl providers. the one true address, fr fr. 💜

added in version 261. ⭐

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• systemd(1)
• storagectl(1)
• systemd-storage-fs@.service(8)

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📝 NOTES 📝

1. Varlink https://varlink.org/

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okay bestie that's the whole page 💖 this was systemd-storage-block@.service from the systemd manual, version 262.1, and you read it in the systemd-storage-block@.service(8) section. slay, go configure something iconic, mwah 🎀✨💅