systemctl – System service manager command

The systemctl command is a Linux utility used to control the system’s services. It is a systemd utility that manages the system’s services and allows you to start, stop, restart, enable, and disable them. It is a powerful tool that provides a simple and efficient way to manage services on Linux systems.

Overview

The systemctl command is used to manage the system’s services. It is used to start, stop, restart, enable, and disable services. The syntax for the systemctl command is as follows:

systemctl [OPTIONS] COMMAND [SERVICE]

The OPTIONS are optional parameters that can be passed to the systemctl command. The COMMAND is the action that you want to perform, and the SERVICE is the name of the service that you want to perform the action on.

Here are some examples of how to use the systemctl command:

To start a service:

systemctl start service_name

To stop a service:

systemctl stop service_name

To restart a service:

systemctl restart service_name

To enable a service to start at boot time:

systemctl enable service_name

To disable a service from starting at boot time:

systemctl disable service_name

To check the status of a service:

systemctl status service_name

Options

Here are the available options for the systemctl command:

Option	Description
-a or --all	Show all units, including inactive ones
-t or --type	Limit the output to a specific unit type
-p or --property	Show only specific properties of a unit
-h or --host	Operate on a remote host
-i or --ignore-dependencies	Ignore unit dependencies
-f or --force	Force the command to execute
-q or --quiet	Do not show any output
-n or --no-pager	Do not use a pager to display output

Troubleshooting Tips

Here are some common issues that you may encounter when using the systemctl command and how to troubleshoot them:

• If you get an error message saying that the service is not found, make sure that the service name is spelled correctly.
• If you get an error message saying that you do not have permission to perform the action, try using the sudo command to run the systemctl command as the root user.
• If you get an error message saying that the service failed to start or stop, check the service logs using the journalctl command to see if there are any error messages.

Notes

• The systemctl command is only available on systems that use systemd as their init system.
• The systemctl command is a powerful tool, so use it with caution to avoid accidentally stopping or disabling critical system services.