1<?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
2<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.5//EN"
3  "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
4<!-- SPDX-License-Identifier: LGPL-2.1-or-later -->
5
6<refentry id="systemd.journal-fields">
7
8  <refentryinfo>
9    <title>systemd.journal-fields</title>
10    <productname>systemd</productname>
11  </refentryinfo>
12
13  <refmeta>
14    <refentrytitle>systemd.journal-fields</refentrytitle>
15    <manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
16  </refmeta>
17
18  <refnamediv>
19    <refname>systemd.journal-fields</refname>
20    <refpurpose>Special journal fields</refpurpose>
21  </refnamediv>
22
23  <refsect1>
24    <title>Description</title>
25
26    <para>Entries in the journal (as written by
27    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-journald.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>)
28    resemble a UNIX process environment block in syntax but with fields that may include binary data.
29    Primarily, fields are formatted UTF-8 text strings, and binary encoding is used only where formatting as
30    UTF-8 text strings makes little sense. New fields may freely be defined by applications, but a few fields
31    have special meanings. All fields with special meanings are optional. In some cases, fields may appear
32    more than once per entry.</para>
33  </refsect1>
34
35  <refsect1>
36    <title>User Journal Fields</title>
37
38    <para>User fields are fields that are directly passed from clients
39    and stored in the journal.</para>
40
41    <variablelist class='journal-directives'>
42      <varlistentry>
43        <term><varname>MESSAGE=</varname></term>
44        <listitem>
45          <para>The human-readable message string for this entry. This
46          is supposed to be the primary text shown to the user. It is
47          usually not translated (but might be in some cases), and is
48          not supposed to be parsed for metadata.</para>
49        </listitem>
50      </varlistentry>
51
52      <varlistentry>
53        <term><varname>MESSAGE_ID=</varname></term>
54        <listitem>
55          <para>A 128-bit message identifier ID for recognizing certain message types, if this is desirable. This
56          should contain a 128-bit ID formatted as a lower-case hexadecimal string, without any separating dashes or
57          suchlike. This is recommended to be a UUID-compatible ID, but this is not enforced, and formatted
58          differently. Developers can generate a new ID for this purpose with <command>systemd-id128 new</command>.
59          </para>
60        </listitem>
61      </varlistentry>
62
63      <varlistentry>
64        <term><varname>PRIORITY=</varname></term>
65        <listitem>
66          <para>A priority value between 0 (<literal>emerg</literal>)
67          and 7 (<literal>debug</literal>) formatted as a decimal
68          string. This field is compatible with syslog's priority
69          concept.</para>
70        </listitem>
71      </varlistentry>
72
73      <varlistentry>
74        <term><varname>CODE_FILE=</varname></term>
75        <term><varname>CODE_LINE=</varname></term>
76        <term><varname>CODE_FUNC=</varname></term>
77        <listitem>
78          <para>The code location generating this message, if known.
79          Contains the source filename, the line number and the
80          function name.</para>
81        </listitem>
82      </varlistentry>
83
84      <varlistentry>
85        <term><varname>ERRNO=</varname></term>
86        <listitem>
87          <para>The low-level Unix error number causing this entry, if
88          any. Contains the numeric value of
89          <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>errno</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>
90          formatted as a decimal string.</para>
91        </listitem>
92      </varlistentry>
93
94      <varlistentry>
95        <term><varname>INVOCATION_ID=</varname></term>
96        <term><varname>USER_INVOCATION_ID=</varname></term>
97        <listitem>
98          <para>A randomized, unique 128-bit ID identifying each runtime cycle of the unit. This is different from
99          <varname>_SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID</varname> in that it is only used for messages coming from systemd code
100          (e.g. logs from the system/user manager or from forked processes performing systemd-related setup).</para>
101        </listitem>
102      </varlistentry>
103
104      <varlistentry>
105        <term><varname>SYSLOG_FACILITY=</varname></term>
106        <term><varname>SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER=</varname></term>
107        <term><varname>SYSLOG_PID=</varname></term>
108        <term><varname>SYSLOG_TIMESTAMP=</varname></term>
109        <listitem>
110          <para>Syslog compatibility fields containing the facility (formatted as
111          decimal string), the identifier string (i.e.  "tag"), the client PID, and
112          the timestamp as specified in the original datagram. (Note that the tag is
113          usually derived from glibc's
114          <varname>program_invocation_short_name</varname> variable, see
115          <citerefentry project='die-net'><refentrytitle>program_invocation_short_name</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.)</para>
116          <para>Note that the journal service does not validate the values of any structured
117          journal fields whose name is not prefixed with an underscore, and this includes any
118          syslog related fields such as these. Hence, applications that supply a facility, PID,
119          or log level are expected to do so properly formatted, i.e. as numeric integers formatted
120          as decimal strings.</para>
121        </listitem>
122      </varlistentry>
123
124      <varlistentry>
125        <term><varname>SYSLOG_RAW=</varname></term>
126        <listitem>
127          <para>The original contents of the syslog line as received in the syslog
128          datagram. This field is only included if the <varname>MESSAGE=</varname>
129          field was modified compared to the original payload or the timestamp could
130          not be located properly and is not included in
131          <varname>SYSLOG_TIMESTAMP=</varname>. Message truncation occurs when
132          the message contains leading or trailing whitespace (trailing and leading
133          whitespace is stripped), or it contains an embedded
134          <constant>NUL</constant> byte (the <constant>NUL</constant> byte and
135          anything after it is not included). Thus, the original syslog line is
136          either stored as <varname>SYSLOG_RAW=</varname> or it can be recreated
137          based on the stored priority and facility, timestamp, identifier, and the
138          message payload in <varname>MESSAGE=</varname>.
139          </para>
140        </listitem>
141      </varlistentry>
142
143      <varlistentry>
144        <term><varname>DOCUMENTATION=</varname></term>
145        <listitem>
146          <para>A documentation URL with further information about the topic of the log message. Tools such
147          as <command>journalctl</command> will include a hyperlink to an URL specified this way in their
148          output. Should be an <literal>http://</literal>, <literal>https://</literal>,
149          <literal>file:/</literal>, <literal>man:</literal> or <literal>info:</literal> URL.</para>
150        </listitem>
151      </varlistentry>
152
153      <varlistentry>
154        <term><varname>TID=</varname></term>
155        <listitem>
156          <para>The numeric thread ID (TID) the log message originates from.</para>
157        </listitem>
158      </varlistentry>
159
160      <varlistentry>
161        <term><varname>UNIT=</varname></term>
162        <term><varname>USER_UNIT=</varname></term>
163        <listitem>
164          <para>The name of a unit. Used by the system and user managers when logging about specific
165          units.</para>
166
167          <para>When <option>--unit=<replaceable>name</replaceable></option> or
168          <option>--user-unit=<replaceable>name</replaceable></option> are used with
169          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>journalctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>, a
170          match pattern that includes <literal>UNIT=<replaceable>name</replaceable>.service</literal> or
171          <literal>USER_UNIT=<replaceable>name</replaceable>.service</literal> will be generated.</para>
172        </listitem>
173      </varlistentry>
174    </variablelist>
175  </refsect1>
176
177  <refsect1>
178    <title>Trusted Journal Fields</title>
179
180    <para>Fields prefixed with an underscore are trusted fields, i.e.
181    fields that are implicitly added by the journal and cannot be
182    altered by client code.</para>
183
184    <variablelist class='journal-directives'>
185      <varlistentry>
186        <term><varname>_PID=</varname></term>
187        <term><varname>_UID=</varname></term>
188        <term><varname>_GID=</varname></term>
189        <listitem>
190          <para>The process, user, and group ID of the process the
191          journal entry originates from formatted as a decimal
192          string. Note that entries obtained via <literal>stdout</literal> or
193          <literal>stderr</literal> of forked processes will contain credentials valid for a parent
194          process (that initiated the connection to <command>systemd-journald</command>).</para>
195        </listitem>
196      </varlistentry>
197
198      <varlistentry>
199        <term><varname>_COMM=</varname></term>
200        <term><varname>_EXE=</varname></term>
201        <term><varname>_CMDLINE=</varname></term>
202        <listitem>
203          <para>The name, the executable path, and the command line of
204          the process the journal entry originates from.</para>
205        </listitem>
206      </varlistentry>
207
208      <varlistentry>
209        <term><varname>_CAP_EFFECTIVE=</varname></term>
210        <listitem>
211          <para>The effective
212          <citerefentry project='man-pages'><refentrytitle>capabilities</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
213          of the process the journal entry originates from.</para>
214        </listitem>
215      </varlistentry>
216
217      <varlistentry>
218        <term><varname>_AUDIT_SESSION=</varname></term>
219        <term><varname>_AUDIT_LOGINUID=</varname></term>
220        <listitem>
221          <para>The session and login UID of the process the journal
222          entry originates from, as maintained by the kernel audit
223          subsystem.</para>
224        </listitem>
225      </varlistentry>
226
227      <varlistentry>
228        <term><varname>_SYSTEMD_CGROUP=</varname></term>
229        <term><varname>_SYSTEMD_SLICE=</varname></term>
230        <term><varname>_SYSTEMD_UNIT=</varname></term>
231        <term><varname>_SYSTEMD_USER_UNIT=</varname></term>
232        <term><varname>_SYSTEMD_USER_SLICE=</varname></term>
233        <term><varname>_SYSTEMD_SESSION=</varname></term>
234        <term><varname>_SYSTEMD_OWNER_UID=</varname></term>
235
236        <listitem>
237          <para>The control group path in the systemd hierarchy, the systemd slice unit name, the systemd
238          unit name, the unit name in the systemd user manager (if any), the systemd session ID (if any), and
239          the owner UID of the systemd user unit or systemd session (if any) of the process the journal entry
240          originates from.</para>
241        </listitem>
242      </varlistentry>
243
244      <varlistentry>
245        <term><varname>_SELINUX_CONTEXT=</varname></term>
246        <listitem>
247          <para>The SELinux security context (label) of the process
248          the journal entry originates from.</para>
249        </listitem>
250      </varlistentry>
251
252      <varlistentry>
253        <term><varname>_SOURCE_REALTIME_TIMESTAMP=</varname></term>
254        <listitem>
255          <para>The earliest trusted timestamp of the message, if any
256          is known that is different from the reception time of the
257          journal. This is the time in microseconds since the epoch
258          UTC, formatted as a decimal string.</para>
259        </listitem>
260      </varlistentry>
261
262      <varlistentry>
263        <term><varname>_BOOT_ID=</varname></term>
264        <listitem>
265          <para>The kernel boot ID for the boot the message was
266          generated in, formatted as a 128-bit hexadecimal
267          string.</para>
268        </listitem>
269      </varlistentry>
270
271      <varlistentry>
272        <term><varname>_MACHINE_ID=</varname></term>
273        <listitem>
274          <para>The machine ID of the originating host, as available
275          in
276          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-id</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>.</para>
277        </listitem>
278      </varlistentry>
279
280      <varlistentry>
281        <term><varname>_SYSTEMD_INVOCATION_ID=</varname></term>
282        <listitem>
283          <para>The invocation ID for the runtime cycle of the unit
284          the message was generated in, as available to processes
285          of the unit in <varname>$INVOCATION_ID</varname> (see
286          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.exec</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>).</para>
287        </listitem>
288      </varlistentry>
289
290      <varlistentry>
291        <term><varname>_HOSTNAME=</varname></term>
292        <listitem>
293          <para>The name of the originating host.</para>
294        </listitem>
295      </varlistentry>
296
297      <varlistentry>
298        <term><varname>_TRANSPORT=</varname></term>
299        <listitem>
300          <para>How the entry was received by the journal service.
301          Valid transports are:
302          </para>
303          <variablelist>
304            <varlistentry>
305              <term>
306                <option>audit</option>
307              </term>
308              <listitem>
309                <para>for those read from the kernel audit subsystem
310                </para>
311              </listitem>
312            </varlistentry>
313
314            <varlistentry>
315              <term>
316                <option>driver</option>
317              </term>
318              <listitem>
319                <para>for internally generated messages
320                </para>
321              </listitem>
322            </varlistentry>
323
324            <varlistentry>
325              <term>
326                <option>syslog</option>
327              </term>
328              <listitem>
329                <para>for those received via the local syslog socket
330                with the syslog protocol
331                </para>
332              </listitem>
333            </varlistentry>
334
335            <varlistentry>
336              <term>
337                <option>journal</option>
338              </term>
339              <listitem>
340                <para>for those received via the native journal
341                protocol
342                </para>
343              </listitem>
344            </varlistentry>
345
346            <varlistentry>
347              <term>
348                <option>stdout</option>
349              </term>
350              <listitem>
351                <para>for those read from a service's standard output
352                or error output
353                </para>
354              </listitem>
355            </varlistentry>
356
357            <varlistentry>
358              <term>
359                <option>kernel</option>
360              </term>
361              <listitem>
362                <para>for those read from the kernel
363                </para>
364              </listitem>
365            </varlistentry>
366          </variablelist>
367        </listitem>
368      </varlistentry>
369      <varlistentry>
370        <term><varname>_STREAM_ID=</varname></term>
371        <listitem>
372          <para>Only applies to <literal>_TRANSPORT=stdout</literal> records: specifies a randomized 128bit ID assigned
373          to the stream connection when it was first created. This ID is useful to reconstruct individual log streams
374          from the log records: all log records carrying the same stream ID originate from the same stream.</para>
375        </listitem>
376      </varlistentry>
377      <varlistentry>
378        <term><varname>_LINE_BREAK=</varname></term>
379        <listitem>
380          <para>Only applies to <literal>_TRANSPORT=stdout</literal> records: indicates that the log message
381          in the standard output/error stream was not terminated with a normal newline character
382          (<literal>\n</literal>, i.e. ASCII 10). Specifically, when set this field is one of
383          <option>nul</option> (in case the line was terminated by a <constant>NUL</constant> byte), <option>line-max</option> (in
384          case the maximum log line length was reached, as configured with <varname>LineMax=</varname> in
385          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>journald.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>),
386          <option>eof</option> (if this was the last log record of a stream and the stream ended without a
387          final newline character), or <option>pid-change</option> (if the process which generated the log
388          output changed in the middle of a line). Note that this record is not generated when a normal
389          newline character was used for marking the log line end.</para>
390        </listitem>
391      </varlistentry>
392      <varlistentry>
393        <term><varname>_NAMESPACE=</varname></term>
394
395        <listitem><para>If this file was written by a <command>systemd-journald</command> instance managing a
396        journal namespace that is not the default, this field contains the namespace identifier. See
397        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-journald.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>
398        for details about journal namespaces.</para>
399        </listitem>
400      </varlistentry>
401    </variablelist>
402  </refsect1>
403
404  <refsect1>
405    <title>Kernel Journal Fields</title>
406
407    <para>Kernel fields are fields that are used by messages
408    originating in the kernel and stored in the journal.</para>
409
410    <variablelist class='journal-directives'>
411      <varlistentry>
412        <term><varname>_KERNEL_DEVICE=</varname></term>
413        <listitem>
414          <para>The kernel device name. If the entry is associated to a block device, contains the major and
415          minor numbers of the device node, separated by <literal>:</literal> and prefixed by
416          <literal>b</literal>. Similarly for character devices, but prefixed by <literal>c</literal>. For
417          network devices, this is the interface index prefixed by <literal>n</literal>. For all other
418          devices, this is the subsystem name prefixed by <literal>+</literal>, followed by
419          <literal>:</literal>, followed by the kernel device name.</para>
420        </listitem>
421      </varlistentry>
422      <varlistentry>
423        <term><varname>_KERNEL_SUBSYSTEM=</varname></term>
424        <listitem>
425          <para>The kernel subsystem name.</para>
426        </listitem>
427      </varlistentry>
428      <varlistentry>
429        <term><varname>_UDEV_SYSNAME=</varname></term>
430        <listitem>
431          <para>The kernel device name as it shows up in the device
432          tree below <filename>/sys/</filename>.</para>
433        </listitem>
434      </varlistentry>
435      <varlistentry>
436        <term><varname>_UDEV_DEVNODE=</varname></term>
437        <listitem>
438          <para>The device node path of this device in
439          <filename>/dev/</filename>.</para>
440        </listitem>
441      </varlistentry>
442      <varlistentry>
443        <term><varname>_UDEV_DEVLINK=</varname></term>
444        <listitem>
445          <para>Additional symlink names pointing to the device node
446          in <filename>/dev/</filename>. This field is frequently set
447          more than once per entry.</para>
448        </listitem>
449      </varlistentry>
450    </variablelist>
451  </refsect1>
452
453  <refsect1>
454    <title>Fields to log on behalf of a different program</title>
455
456    <para>Fields in this section are used by programs to specify that
457    they are logging on behalf of another program or unit.
458    </para>
459
460    <para>Fields used by the <command>systemd-coredump</command>
461    coredump kernel helper:
462    </para>
463
464    <variablelist class='journal-directives'>
465      <varlistentry>
466        <term><varname>COREDUMP_UNIT=</varname></term>
467        <term><varname>COREDUMP_USER_UNIT=</varname></term>
468        <listitem>
469          <para>Used to annotate messages containing coredumps from
470          system and session units. See
471          <citerefentry><refentrytitle>coredumpctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
472          </para>
473        </listitem>
474      </varlistentry>
475    </variablelist>
476
477    <para>Privileged programs (currently UID 0) may attach
478    <varname>OBJECT_PID=</varname> to a message. This will instruct
479    <command>systemd-journald</command> to attach additional fields on
480    behalf of the caller:</para>
481
482    <variablelist class='journal-directives'>
483      <varlistentry>
484        <term><varname>OBJECT_PID=<replaceable>PID</replaceable></varname></term>
485        <listitem>
486          <para>PID of the program that this message pertains to.
487          </para>
488        </listitem>
489      </varlistentry>
490
491      <varlistentry>
492        <term><varname>OBJECT_UID=</varname></term>
493        <term><varname>OBJECT_GID=</varname></term>
494        <term><varname>OBJECT_COMM=</varname></term>
495        <term><varname>OBJECT_EXE=</varname></term>
496        <term><varname>OBJECT_CMDLINE=</varname></term>
497        <term><varname>OBJECT_AUDIT_SESSION=</varname></term>
498        <term><varname>OBJECT_AUDIT_LOGINUID=</varname></term>
499        <term><varname>OBJECT_SYSTEMD_CGROUP=</varname></term>
500        <term><varname>OBJECT_SYSTEMD_SESSION=</varname></term>
501        <term><varname>OBJECT_SYSTEMD_OWNER_UID=</varname></term>
502        <term><varname>OBJECT_SYSTEMD_UNIT=</varname></term>
503        <term><varname>OBJECT_SYSTEMD_USER_UNIT=</varname></term>
504        <listitem>
505          <para>These are additional fields added automatically by
506          <command>systemd-journald</command>. Their meaning is the
507          same as
508          <varname>_UID=</varname>,
509          <varname>_GID=</varname>,
510          <varname>_COMM=</varname>,
511          <varname>_EXE=</varname>,
512          <varname>_CMDLINE=</varname>,
513          <varname>_AUDIT_SESSION=</varname>,
514          <varname>_AUDIT_LOGINUID=</varname>,
515          <varname>_SYSTEMD_CGROUP=</varname>,
516          <varname>_SYSTEMD_SESSION=</varname>,
517          <varname>_SYSTEMD_UNIT=</varname>,
518          <varname>_SYSTEMD_USER_UNIT=</varname>, and
519          <varname>_SYSTEMD_OWNER_UID=</varname>
520          as described above, except that the process identified by
521          <replaceable>PID</replaceable> is described, instead of the
522          process which logged the message.</para>
523        </listitem>
524      </varlistentry>
525    </variablelist>
526
527  </refsect1>
528
529  <refsect1>
530    <title>Address Fields</title>
531
532    <para>During serialization into external formats, such as the
533    <ulink url="https://systemd.io/JOURNAL_EXPORT_FORMATS#journal-export-format">Journal Export Format</ulink>
534    or the
535    <ulink url="https://systemd.io/JOURNAL_EXPORT_FORMATS#journal-json-format">Journal JSON Format</ulink>,
536    the addresses of journal entries are
537    serialized into fields prefixed with double underscores. Note that
538    these are not proper fields when stored in the journal but for
539    addressing metadata of entries. They cannot be written as part of
540    structured log entries via calls such as
541    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_journal_send</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
542    They may also not be used as matches for
543    <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd_journal_add_match</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>.
544    </para>
545
546    <variablelist class='journal-directives'>
547      <varlistentry>
548        <term><varname>__CURSOR=</varname></term>
549        <listitem>
550          <para>The cursor for the entry. A cursor is an opaque text
551          string that uniquely describes the position of an entry in
552          the journal and is portable across machines, platforms and
553          journal files.
554          </para>
555        </listitem>
556      </varlistentry>
557
558      <varlistentry>
559        <term><varname>__REALTIME_TIMESTAMP=</varname></term>
560        <listitem>
561          <para>The wallclock time
562          (<constant>CLOCK_REALTIME</constant>) at the point in time
563          the entry was received by the journal, in microseconds since
564          the epoch UTC, formatted as a decimal string. This has
565          different properties from
566          <literal>_SOURCE_REALTIME_TIMESTAMP=</literal>, as it is
567          usually a bit later but more likely to be monotonic.
568          </para>
569        </listitem>
570      </varlistentry>
571
572      <varlistentry>
573        <term><varname>__MONOTONIC_TIMESTAMP=</varname></term>
574        <listitem>
575          <para>The monotonic time
576          (<constant>CLOCK_MONOTONIC</constant>) at the point in time
577          the entry was received by the journal in microseconds,
578          formatted as a decimal string. To be useful as an address
579          for the entry, this should be combined with the boot ID in
580          <literal>_BOOT_ID=</literal>.
581          </para>
582        </listitem>
583      </varlistentry>
584    </variablelist>
585  </refsect1>
586
587  <refsect1>
588      <title>See Also</title>
589      <para>
590        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
591        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd-journald.service</refentrytitle><manvolnum>8</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
592        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>journalctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
593        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>journald.conf</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
594        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>sd-journal</refentrytitle><manvolnum>3</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
595        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>coredumpctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
596        <citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
597      </para>
598  </refsect1>
599
600</refentry>
601