---
name: "systemd-machine-id-commit.service"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "systemd"
version: "262.1-1"
release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/systemd-machine-id-commit.service"
---

# systemd-machine-id-commit.service(8)

Commit a transient machine ID to disk

## NAME

systemd-machine-id-commit.service - Commit a transient machine ID to disk

## SYNOPSIS

systemd-machine-id-commit.service

## DESCRIPTION

systemd-machine-id-commit.service is an early boot service responsible for committing transient /etc/machine-id files to a writable disk file system. See [**machine-id**(5)](/machine-id/5.md) for more information about machine IDs.

This service is started after local-fs.target in case /etc/machine-id is a mount point of its own (usually from a memory file system such as "tmpfs") and /etc is writable. The service will invoke **systemd-machine-id-setup --commit**, which writes the current transient machine ID to disk and unmount the /etc/machine-id file in a race-free manner to ensure that file is always valid and accessible for other processes. See [**systemd-machine-id-setup**(1)](/systemd-machine-id-setup/1.md) for details.

The main use case of this service are systems where /etc/machine-id is read-only and initially not initialized. In this case, the system manager will generate a transient machine ID file on a memory file system, and mount it over /etc/machine-id, during the early boot phase. This service is then invoked in a later boot phase, as soon as /etc/ has been remounted writable and the ID may thus be committed to disk to make it permanent.

## SEE ALSO

[**systemd**(1)](/systemd/1.md), [**systemd-machine-id-setup**(1)](/systemd-machine-id-setup/1.md), [**machine-id**(5)](/machine-id/5.md), [**systemd-firstboot**(1)](/systemd-firstboot/1.md)