this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2026
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Does it follow me after Linux install?
Well, there is
/etc/machine-idon Linux...Just want to point out that
/etc/machine-idis unique to systemd systems. AlpineLinux, for example, doesn't generate this file on install.We tossed systemd out the window on our Debian. Stuff broke when we removed /etc/machine-id.
Turns out dbus ALSO uses it, but if it's not in /etc, it makes its own at /var/lib/dbus/machine-id (which was symlinked to /etc/machine-id on our system).
So we just wrote 00000000000000000000000000000000 to it instead. 🙃
-- Frost
What happens if you erase it though? System32 moment?
Honestly not sure. I wouldn't be surprised if it breaks something with D-Bus based on skimming the man pages, but I've never dug into it. Its not exposed in containers I run though, and I haven't run into anything that broke there as a result... 🤷️
You can check the man pages for this file, but in short it gets regenerated. It's used to determine whether this is the first boot or not.