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GEREAL.CONF(5) File Formats GEREAL.CONF(5)

NAME

gereal.conf - configuration file for the gereal serial console manager

SYNOPSIS

/etc/gereal/gereal.conf

DESCRIPTION

gereal.conf is a YAML configuration file describing serial console sessions managed by gereal(8).

The file defines global defaults and a list of individual sessions. For each session, a systemd service is generated automatically by gereal-generator(8).

FILE FORMAT

The configuration file is written in YAML and consists of two top-level keys:

A mapping of default values applied to all sessions unless overridden.

A list of session definitions.

Both sections can contain the same keys. A key given in the defaults section constitutes the default value for a key that is not given in the configuration of a certain section.

Each entry in sessions describes one serial console session.

The following keys are supported:

Baud rate for the serial connection. Mandatory.

Path to the serial device (for example, /dev/ttyUSB0). Mandatory.

Boolean value indicating whether the session should be enabled automatically at boot. Default: False.

Group under which the session runs. Mandatory.

Logical name of the session. This is used to construct the systemd unit name and screen session name. Mandatory.

Optional path to a screen configuration file for this session. Default: /etc/gereal/gereal-<name> if the file exists, otherwise /etc/gereal/screenrc

User account under which the session runs. Mandatory.

EXAMPLE

defaults:


  baudrate: 115200


  user: _gereal


  group: dialout
sessions:


  - name: router


    device: /dev/ttyUSB0


    baudrate: 9600


    enable: true

NOTES

After modifying gereal.conf, a systemctl daemon-reload is required to regenerate systemd units.

If the configured user or group does not exist, the corresponding systemd service will not be generated.

SEE ALSO

gerealctl(1), screen(1), systemd.generator(7), systemctl(1)

AUTHOR

Marc Haber <mh+debian-packages@zugschlus.de>

January 2026 gereal