machine-tags: optionally support key/value pairs as machine tags

Other systems (kubernetes…) allow tagging machines with key/value pairs.
Let's extend our allowed syntax slightly to allow that too. Thankfully,
we enforced a pretty strict ruleset on machine tags, hence we can
introduce this without breaking compatibility.

This basically allows tags to contain "=". If so, then the left-hand
side of it must be unique among machine tags.

When matching against a machine tag, we apply the same rules as before.
This means, that if people want to check if a tag with value applies
they can do:

    ConditionMachineTag=foo=bar

If they just want to check if "foo=" is set to anything, they can use
the usual glob matching:

    ConditionMachineTag=foo=*
This commit is contained in:
Lennart Poettering
2026-06-19 23:05:36 +02:00
parent 4552dce3b5
commit 9afeae5e8a
4 changed files with 83 additions and 9 deletions
+5 -2
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@@ -189,8 +189,11 @@
purposes, for example to identify the role a machine plays in a deployment, the fleet or
organizational unit it belongs to, or any other administrator-defined attribute. Each individual tag
must be 1…255 characters long and consist only of ASCII alphanumeric characters,
<literal>-</literal> and <literal>.</literal>. The tags are stored in the <varname>TAGS=</varname>
field of <filename>/etc/machine-info</filename>; see
<literal>-</literal>, <literal>.</literal> and <literal>=</literal>. A tag may optionally be
parameterized with a value, in the form
<literal><replaceable>key</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>, in which case the
same key may not be assigned more than one distinct value. The tags are stored in the
<varname>TAGS=</varname> field of <filename>/etc/machine-info</filename>; see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-info</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry> for
details. They may also be matched against with the
<varname>ConditionMachineTag=</varname>/<varname>AssertMachineTag=</varname> unit settings, see
+17 -2
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@@ -149,7 +149,22 @@
<literal>TAGS=webserver:frontend:berlin</literal>.</para>
<para>Each individual tag must be 1…255 characters long and may consist only of the ASCII
alphanumeric characters, <literal>-</literal> and <literal>.</literal>.</para>
alphanumeric characters, <literal>-</literal>, <literal>.</literal> and <literal>=</literal>. The
first character may not be <literal>-</literal>, <literal>.</literal> or <literal>=</literal>, and
the last character may not be <literal>-</literal> or <literal>.</literal> (unless it takes the
parameterized form, see below).</para>
<para>A tag may optionally be parameterized with a value, in the form
<literal><replaceable>key</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>. The first
<literal>=</literal> separates the key from the value; any further <literal>=</literal> characters
are part of the value. The key (the part before the first <literal>=</literal>) follows the same
restrictions as an unparameterized tag, in particular it may not be empty and may not end in
<literal>-</literal> or <literal>.</literal>. The value (the part after the first
<literal>=</literal>) may be empty and is otherwise unrestricted within the allowed character set.
Example: <literal>TAGS=role=webserver:env=production:berlin</literal>. The same key may not be
assigned more than one distinct value: <literal>role=webserver:role=database</literal> is refused
(but a key may coexist with the corresponding unparameterized tag, e.g.
<literal>role:role=webserver</literal>).</para>
<para>The configured tags may be matched against with the
<varname>ConditionMachineTag=</varname> and <varname>AssertMachineTag=</varname> unit settings, see
@@ -217,7 +232,7 @@
ICON_NAME=computer-tablet
CHASSIS=tablet
DEPLOYMENT=production
TAGS=demo:berlin</programlisting>
TAGS=demo:berlin:role=webserver</programlisting>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
+11
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@@ -2083,6 +2083,17 @@
negated by prepending an exclamation mark, in which case it is satisfied if none of the configured
tags matches.</para>
<para>Tags may be parameterized with a value in the form
<literal><replaceable>key</replaceable>=<replaceable>value</replaceable></literal>; the
<literal>=</literal> and the value are part of the tag and thus part of the string the pattern is
matched against. Hence <literal>ConditionMachineTag=role=webserver</literal> matches the tag
<literal>role=webserver</literal> exactly, <literal>ConditionMachineTag=role=*</literal> matches any
value assigned to the <literal>role</literal> key, and <literal>ConditionMachineTag=role</literal>
(without <literal>=</literal>) does <emphasis>not</emphasis> match <literal>role=webserver</literal>.
See
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>machine-info</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for the precise syntax of machine tags.</para>
<xi:include href="version-info.xml" xpointer="v261"/>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>