The following commands are understood:
Unit Commands (Introspection and Modification)
list-units [PATTERN...]
List units that systemd currently has in memory. This
includes units that are either referenced directly or through
a dependency, units that are pinned by applications
programmatically, or units that were active in the past and
have failed. By default only units which are active, have
pending jobs, or have failed are shown; this can be changed
with option --all. If one or more PATTERNs are specified,
only units matching one of them are shown. The units that are
shown are additionally filtered by --type= and --state= if
those options are specified.
Produces output similar to
UNIT LOAD ACTIVE SUB DESCRIPTION
sys-module-fuse.device loaded active plugged /sys/module/fuse
-.mount loaded active mounted Root Mount
boot-efi.mount loaded active mounted /boot/efi
systemd-journald.service loaded active running Journal Service
systemd-logind.service loaded active running Login Service
● user@1000.service loaded failed failed User Manager for UID 1000
...
systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer loaded active waiting Daily Cleanup of Temporary Directories
LOAD = Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE = The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB = The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.
123 loaded units listed. Pass --all to see loaded but inactive units, too.
To show all installed unit files use 'systemctl list-unit-files'.
The header and the last unit of a given type are underlined
if the terminal supports that. A colored dot is shown next to
services which were masked, not found, or otherwise failed.
The LOAD column shows the load state, one of loaded,
not-found, bad-setting, error, masked. The ACTIVE columns
shows the general unit state, one of active, reloading,
inactive, failed, activating, deactivating. The SUB column
shows the unit-type-specific detailed state of the unit,
possible values vary by unit type. The list of possible LOAD,
ACTIVE, and SUB states is not constant and new systemd
releases may both add and remove values.
systemctl --state=help
command maybe be used to display the current set of possible
values.
This is the default command.
list-sockets [PATTERN...]
List socket units currently in memory, ordered by listening
address. If one or more PATTERNs are specified, only socket
units matching one of them are shown. Produces output similar
to
LISTEN UNIT ACTIVATES
/dev/initctl systemd-initctl.socket systemd-initctl.service
...
[::]:22 sshd.socket sshd.service
kobject-uevent 1 systemd-udevd-kernel.socket systemd-udevd.service
5 sockets listed.
Note: because the addresses might contains spaces, this
output is not suitable for programmatic consumption.
Also see --show-types, --all, and --state=.
list-timers [PATTERN...]
List timer units currently in memory, ordered by the time
they elapse next. If one or more PATTERNs are specified, only
units matching one of them are shown. Produces output similar
to
NEXT LEFT LAST PASSED UNIT ACTIVATES
n/a n/a Thu 2017-02-23 13:40:29 EST 3 days ago ureadahead-stop.timer ureadahead-stop.service
Sun 2017-02-26 18:55:42 EST 1min 14s left Thu 2017-02-23 13:54:44 EST 3 days ago systemd-tmpfiles-clean.timer systemd-tmpfiles-clean.service
Sun 2017-02-26 20:37:16 EST 1h 42min left Sun 2017-02-26 11:56:36 EST 6h ago apt-daily.timer apt-daily.service
Sun 2017-02-26 20:57:49 EST 2h 3min left Sun 2017-02-26 11:56:36 EST 6h ago snapd.refresh.timer snapd.refresh.service
NEXT shows the next time the timer will run.
LEFT shows how long till the next time the timer runs.
LAST shows the last time the timer ran.
PASSED shows how long has passed since the timer last ran.
UNIT shows the name of the timer
ACTIVATES shows the name the service the timer activates when
it runs.
Also see --all and --state=.
is-active PATTERN...
Check whether any of the specified units are active (i.e.
running). Returns an exit code 0 if at least one is active,
or non-zero otherwise. Unless --quiet is specified, this will
also print the current unit state to standard output.
is-failed PATTERN...
Check whether any of the specified units are in a "failed"
state. Returns an exit code 0 if at least one has failed,
non-zero otherwise. Unless --quiet is specified, this will
also print the current unit state to standard output.
status [PATTERN...|PID...]]
Show terse runtime status information about one or more
units, followed by most recent log data from the journal. If
no units are specified, show system status. If combined with
--all, also show the status of all units (subject to
limitations specified with -t). If a PID is passed, show
information about the unit the process belongs to.
This function is intended to generate human-readable output.
If you are looking for computer-parsable output, use show
instead. By default, this function only shows 10 lines of
output and ellipsizes lines to fit in the terminal window.
This can be changed with --lines and --full, see above. In
addition, journalctl --unit=NAME or journalctl
--user-unit=NAME use a similar filter for messages and might
be more convenient.
systemd implicitly loads units as necessary, so just running
the status will attempt to load a file. The command is thus
not useful for determining if something was already loaded or
not. The units may possibly also be quickly unloaded after
the operation is completed if there's no reason to keep it in
memory thereafter.
Example 1. Example output from systemctl status
$ systemctl status bluetooth
● bluetooth.service - Bluetooth service
Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
Active: active (running) since Wed 2017-01-04 13:54:04 EST; 1 weeks 0 days ago
Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
Main PID: 930 (bluetoothd)
Status: "Running"
Tasks: 1
Memory: 648.0K
CPU: 435ms
CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
└─930 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd
Jan 12 10:46:45 example.com bluetoothd[8900]: Not enough free handles to register service
Jan 12 10:46:45 example.com bluetoothd[8900]: Current Time Service could not be registered
Jan 12 10:46:45 example.com bluetoothd[8900]: gatt-time-server: Input/output error (5)
The dot ("●") uses color on supported terminals to summarize
the unit state at a glance. Along with its color, its shape
varies according to its state: "inactive" or "maintenance" is
a white circle ("○"), "active" is a green dot ("●"),
"deactivating" is a white dot, "failed" or "error" is a red
cross ("×"), and "reloading" is a green clockwise circle
arrow ("↻").
The "Loaded:" line in the output will show "loaded" if the
unit has been loaded into memory. Other possible values for
"Loaded:" include: "error" if there was a problem loading it,
"not-found" if no unit file was found for this unit,
"bad-setting" if an essential unit file setting could not be
parsed and "masked" if the unit file has been masked. Along
with showing the path to the unit file, this line will also
show the enablement state. Enabled commands start at boot.
See the full table of possible enablement states — including
the definition of "masked" — in the documentation for the
is-enabled command.
The "Active:" line shows active state. The value is usually
"active" or "inactive". Active could mean started, bound,
plugged in, etc depending on the unit type. The unit could
also be in process of changing states, reporting a state of
"activating" or "deactivating". A special "failed" state is
entered when the service failed in some way, such as a crash,
exiting with an error code or timing out. If the failed state
is entered the cause will be logged for later reference.
show [PATTERN...|JOB...]
Show properties of one or more units, jobs, or the manager
itself. If no argument is specified, properties of the
manager will be shown. If a unit name is specified,
properties of the unit are shown, and if a job ID is
specified, properties of the job are shown. By default, empty
properties are suppressed. Use --all to show those too. To
select specific properties to show, use --property=. This
command is intended to be used whenever computer-parsable
output is required. Use status if you are looking for
formatted human-readable output.
Many properties shown by systemctl show map directly to
configuration settings of the system and service manager and
its unit files. Note that the properties shown by the command
are generally more low-level, normalized versions of the
original configuration settings and expose runtime state in
addition to configuration. For example, properties shown for
service units include the service's current main process
identifier as "MainPID" (which is runtime state), and time
settings are always exposed as properties ending in the
"...USec" suffix even if a matching configuration options end
in "...Sec", because microseconds is the normalized time unit
used internally by the system and service manager.
For details about many of these properties, see the
documentation of the D-Bus interface backing these
properties, see org.freedesktop.systemd1(5).
cat PATTERN...
Show backing files of one or more units. Prints the
"fragment" and "drop-ins" (source files) of units. Each file
is preceded by a comment which includes the file name. Note
that this shows the contents of the backing files on disk,
which may not match the system manager's understanding of
these units if any unit files were updated on disk and the
daemon-reload command wasn't issued since.
help PATTERN...|PID...
Show manual pages for one or more units, if available. If a
PID is given, the manual pages for the unit the process
belongs to are shown.
list-dependencies [UNIT...]
Shows units required and wanted by the specified units. This
recursively lists units following the Requires=, Requisite=,
ConsistsOf=, Wants=, BindsTo= dependencies. If no units are
specified, default.target is implied.
By default, only target units are recursively expanded. When
--all is passed, all other units are recursively expanded as
well.
Options --reverse, --after, --before may be used to change
what types of dependencies are shown.
Note that this command only lists units currently loaded into
memory by the service manager. In particular, this command is
not suitable to get a comprehensive list at all reverse
dependencies on a specific unit, as it won't list the
dependencies declared by units currently not loaded.
start PATTERN...
Start (activate) one or more units specified on the command
line.
Note that unit glob patterns expand to names of units
currently in memory. Units which are not active and are not
in a failed state usually are not in memory, and will not be
matched by any pattern. In addition, in case of instantiated
units, systemd is often unaware of the instance name until
the instance has been started. Therefore, using glob patterns
with start has limited usefulness. Also, secondary alias
names of units are not considered.
Option --all may be used to also operate on inactive units
which are referenced by other loaded units. Note that this is
not the same as operating on "all" possible units, because as
the previous paragraph describes, such a list is ill-defined.
Nevertheless, systemctl start --all GLOB may be useful if all
the units that should match the pattern are pulled in by some
target which is known to be loaded.
stop PATTERN...
Stop (deactivate) one or more units specified on the command
line.
This command will fail if the unit does not exist or if
stopping of the unit is prohibited (see RefuseManualStop= in
systemd.unit(5)). It will not fail if any of the commands
configured to stop the unit (ExecStop=, etc.) fail, because
the manager will still forcibly terminate the unit.
reload PATTERN...
Asks all units listed on the command line to reload their
configuration. Note that this will reload the
service-specific configuration, not the unit configuration
file of systemd. If you want systemd to reload the
configuration file of a unit, use the daemon-reload command.
In other words: for the example case of Apache, this will
reload Apache's httpd.conf in the web server, not the
apache.service systemd unit file.
This command should not be confused with the daemon-reload
command.
restart PATTERN...
Stop and then start one or more units specified on the
command line. If the units are not running yet, they will be
started.
Note that restarting a unit with this command does not
necessarily flush out all of the unit's resources before it
is started again. For example, the per-service file
descriptor storage facility (see FileDescriptorStoreMax= in
systemd.service(5)) will remain intact as long as the unit
has a job pending, and is only cleared when the unit is fully
stopped and no jobs are pending anymore. If it is intended
that the file descriptor store is flushed out, too, during a
restart operation an explicit systemctl stop command followed
by systemctl start should be issued.
try-restart PATTERN...
Stop and then start one or more units specified on the
command line if the units are running. This does nothing if
units are not running.
reload-or-restart PATTERN...
Reload one or more units if they support it. If not, stop and
then start them instead. If the units are not running yet,
they will be started.
try-reload-or-restart PATTERN...
Reload one or more units if they support it. If not, stop and
then start them instead. This does nothing if the units are
not running.
isolate UNIT
Start the unit specified on the command line and its
dependencies and stop all others, unless they have
IgnoreOnIsolate=yes (see systemd.unit(5)). If a unit name
with no extension is given, an extension of ".target" will be
assumed.
This command is dangerous, since it will immediately stop
processes that are not enabled in the new target, possibly
including the graphical environment or terminal you are
currently using.
Note that this is allowed only on units where AllowIsolate=
is enabled. See systemd.unit(5) for details.
kill PATTERN...
Send a signal to one or more processes of the unit. Use
--kill-who= to select which process to kill. Use --signal= to
select the signal to send.
clean PATTERN...
Remove the configuration, state, cache, logs or runtime data
of the specified units. Use --what= to select which kind of
resource to remove. For service units this may be used to
remove the directories configured with
ConfigurationDirectory=, StateDirectory=, CacheDirectory=,
LogsDirectory= and RuntimeDirectory=, see systemd.exec(5) for
details. For timer units this may be used to clear out the
persistent timestamp data if Persistent= is used and
--what=state is selected, see systemd.timer(5). This command
only applies to units that use either of these settings. If
--what= is not specified, both the cache and runtime data are
removed (as these two types of data are generally redundant
and reproducible on the next invocation of the unit).
freeze PATTERN...
Freeze one or more units specified on the command line using
cgroup freezer
Freezing the unit will cause all processes contained within
the cgroup corresponding to the unit to be suspended. Being
suspended means that unit's processes won't be scheduled to
run on CPU until thawed. Note that this command is supported
only on systems that use unified cgroup hierarchy. Unit is
automatically thawed just before we execute a job against the
unit, e.g. before the unit is stopped.
thaw PATTERN...
Thaw (unfreeze) one or more units specified on the command
line.
This is the inverse operation to the freeze command and
resumes the execution of processes in the unit's cgroup.
set-property UNIT PROPERTY=VALUE...
Set the specified unit properties at runtime where this is
supported. This allows changing configuration parameter
properties such as resource control settings at runtime. Not
all properties may be changed at runtime, but many resource
control settings (primarily those in
systemd.resource-control(5)) may. The changes are applied
immediately, and stored on disk for future boots, unless
--runtime is passed, in which case the settings only apply
until the next reboot. The syntax of the property assignment
follows closely the syntax of assignments in unit files.
Example: systemctl set-property foobar.service CPUWeight=200
If the specified unit appears to be inactive, the changes
will be only stored on disk as described previously hence
they will be effective when the unit will be started.
Note that this command allows changing multiple properties at
the same time, which is preferable over setting them
individually.
Example: systemctl set-property foobar.service CPUWeight=200
MemoryMax=2G IPAccounting=yes
Like with unit file configuration settings, assigning an
empty setting usually resets a property to its defaults.
Example: systemctl set-property avahi-daemon.service
IPAddressDeny=
bind UNIT PATH [PATH]
Bind-mounts a file or directory from the host into the
specified unit's mount namespace. The first path argument is
the source file or directory on the host, the second path
argument is the destination file or directory in the unit's
mount namespace. When the latter is omitted, the destination
path in the unit's mount namespace is the same as the source
path on the host. When combined with the --read-only switch,
a ready-only bind mount is created. When combined with the
--mkdir switch, the destination path is first created before
the mount is applied.
Note that this option is currently only supported for units
that run within a mount namespace (e.g.: with RootImage=,
PrivateMounts=, etc.). This command supports bind-mounting
directories, regular files, device nodes, AF_UNIX socket
nodes, as well as FIFOs. The bind mount is ephemeral, and it
is undone as soon as the current unit process exists. Note
that the namespace mentioned here, where the bind mount will
be added to, is the one where the main service process runs.
Other processes (those exececuted by ExecReload=,
ExecStartPre=, etc.) run in distinct namespaces.
mount-image UNIT IMAGE [PATH [PARTITION_NAME:MOUNT_OPTIONS]]
Mounts an image from the host into the specified unit's mount
namespace. The first path argument is the source image on the
host, the second path argument is the destination directory
in the unit's mount namespace (i.e. inside
RootImage=/RootDirectory=). The following argument, if any,
is interpreted as a colon-separated tuple of partition name
and comma-separated list of mount options for that partition.
The format is the same as the service MountImages= setting.
When combined with the --read-only switch, a ready-only mount
is created. When combined with the --mkdir switch, the
destination path is first created before the mount is
applied.
Note that this option is currently only supported for units
that run within a mount namespace (i.e. with RootImage=,
PrivateMounts=, etc.). Note that the namespace mentioned here
where the image mount will be added to, is the one where the
main service process runs. Note that the namespace mentioned
here, where the bind mount will be added to, is the one where
the main service process runs. Other processes (those
exececuted by ExecReload=, ExecStartPre=, etc.) run in
distinct namespaces.
Example:
systemctl mount-image foo.service /tmp/img.raw /var/lib/image root:ro,nosuid
systemctl mount-image --mkdir bar.service /tmp/img.raw /var/lib/baz/img
service-log-level SERVICE [LEVEL]
If the LEVEL argument is not given, print the current log
level as reported by service SERVICE.
If the optional argument LEVEL is provided, then change the
current log level of the service to LEVEL. The log level
should be a typical syslog log level, i.e. a value in the
range 0...7 or one of the strings emerg, alert, crit, err,
warning, notice, info, debug; see syslog(3) for details.
The service must have the appropriate BusName=destination
property and also implement the generic
org.freedesktop.LogControl1(5) interface. (systemctl will use
the generic D-Bus protocol to access the
org.freedesktop.LogControl1.LogLevel interface for the D-Bus
name destination.)
service-log-target SERVICE [TARGET]
If the TARGET argument is not given, print the current log
target as reported by service SERVICE.
If the optional argument TARGET is provided, then change the
current log target of the service to TARGET. The log target
should be one of the strings console (for log output to the
service's standard error stream), kmsg (for log output to the
kernel log buffer), journal (for log output to
systemd-journald.service(8) using the native journal
protocol), syslog (for log output to the classic syslog
socket /dev/log), null (for no log output whatsoever) or auto
(for an automatically determined choice, typically equivalent
to console if the service is invoked interactively, and
journal or syslog otherwise).
For most services, only a small subset of log targets make
sense. In particular, most "normal" services should only
implement console, journal, and null. Anything else is only
appropriate for low-level services that are active in very
early boot before proper logging is established.
The service must have the appropriate BusName=destination
property and also implement the generic
org.freedesktop.LogControl1(5) interface. (systemctl will use
the generic D-Bus protocol to access the
org.freedesktop.LogControl1.LogLevel interface for the D-Bus
name destination.)
reset-failed [PATTERN...]
Reset the "failed" state of the specified units, or if no
unit name is passed, reset the state of all units. When a
unit fails in some way (i.e. process exiting with non-zero
error code, terminating abnormally or timing out), it will
automatically enter the "failed" state and its exit code and
status is recorded for introspection by the administrator
until the service is stopped/re-started or reset with this
command.
In addition to resetting the "failed" state of a unit it also
resets various other per-unit properties: the start rate
limit counter of all unit types is reset to zero, as is the
restart counter of service units. Thus, if a unit's start
limit (as configured with
StartLimitIntervalSec=/StartLimitBurst=) is hit and the unit
refuses to be started again, use this command to make it
startable again.
Unit File Commands
list-unit-files [PATTERN...]
List unit files installed on the system, in combination with
their enablement state (as reported by is-enabled). If one or
more PATTERNs are specified, only unit files whose name
matches one of them are shown (patterns matching unit file
system paths are not supported).
enable UNIT..., enable PATH...
Enable one or more units or unit instances. This will create
a set of symlinks, as encoded in the [Install] sections of
the indicated unit files. After the symlinks have been
created, the system manager configuration is reloaded (in a
way equivalent to daemon-reload), in order to ensure the
changes are taken into account immediately. Note that this
does not have the effect of also starting any of the units
being enabled. If this is desired, combine this command with
the --now switch, or invoke start with appropriate arguments
later. Note that in case of unit instance enablement (i.e.
enablement of units of the form foo@bar.service), symlinks
named the same as instances are created in the unit
configuration directory, however they point to the single
template unit file they are instantiated from.
This command expects either valid unit names (in which case
various unit file directories are automatically searched for
unit files with appropriate names), or absolute paths to unit
files (in which case these files are read directly). If a
specified unit file is located outside of the usual unit file
directories, an additional symlink is created, linking it
into the unit configuration path, thus ensuring it is found
when requested by commands such as start. The file system
where the linked unit files are located must be accessible
when systemd is started (e.g. anything underneath /home/ or
/var/ is not allowed, unless those directories are located on
the root file system).
This command will print the file system operations executed.
This output may be suppressed by passing --quiet.
Note that this operation creates only the symlinks suggested
in the [Install] section of the unit files. While this
command is the recommended way to manipulate the unit
configuration directory, the administrator is free to make
additional changes manually by placing or removing symlinks
below this directory. This is particularly useful to create
configurations that deviate from the suggested default
installation. In this case, the administrator must make sure
to invoke daemon-reload manually as necessary, in order to
ensure the changes are taken into account.
Enabling units should not be confused with starting
(activating) units, as done by the start command. Enabling
and starting units is orthogonal: units may be enabled
without being started and started without being enabled.
Enabling simply hooks the unit into various suggested places
(for example, so that the unit is automatically started on
boot or when a particular kind of hardware is plugged in).
Starting actually spawns the daemon process (in case of
service units), or binds the socket (in case of socket
units), and so on.
Depending on whether --system, --user, --runtime, or --global
is specified, this enables the unit for the system, for the
calling user only, for only this boot of the system, or for
all future logins of all users. Note that in the last case,
no systemd daemon configuration is reloaded.
Using enable on masked units is not supported and results in
an error.
disable UNIT...
Disables one or more units. This removes all symlinks to the
unit files backing the specified units from the unit
configuration directory, and hence undoes any changes made by
enable or link. Note that this removes all symlinks to
matching unit files, including manually created symlinks, and
not just those actually created by enable or link. Note that
while disable undoes the effect of enable, the two commands
are otherwise not symmetric, as disable may remove more
symlinks than a prior enable invocation of the same unit
created.
This command expects valid unit names only, it does not
accept paths to unit files.
In addition to the units specified as arguments, all units
are disabled that are listed in the Also= setting contained
in the [Install] section of any of the unit files being
operated on.
This command implicitly reloads the system manager
configuration after completing the operation. Note that this
command does not implicitly stop the units that are being
disabled. If this is desired, either combine this command
with the --now switch, or invoke the stop command with
appropriate arguments later.
This command will print information about the file system
operations (symlink removals) executed. This output may be
suppressed by passing --quiet.
This command honors --system, --user, --runtime and --global
in a similar way as enable.
reenable UNIT...
Reenable one or more units, as specified on the command line.
This is a combination of disable and enable and is useful to
reset the symlinks a unit file is enabled with to the
defaults configured in its [Install] section. This command
expects a unit name only, it does not accept paths to unit
files.
preset UNIT...
Reset the enable/disable status one or more unit files, as
specified on the command line, to the defaults configured in
the preset policy files. This has the same effect as disable
or enable, depending how the unit is listed in the preset
files.
Use --preset-mode= to control whether units shall be enabled
and disabled, or only enabled, or only disabled.
If the unit carries no install information, it will be
silently ignored by this command. UNIT must be the real unit
name, any alias names are ignored silently.
For more information on the preset policy format, see
systemd.preset(5).
preset-all
Resets all installed unit files to the defaults configured in
the preset policy file (see above).
Use --preset-mode= to control whether units shall be enabled
and disabled, or only enabled, or only disabled.
is-enabled UNIT...
Checks whether any of the specified unit files are enabled
(as with enable). Returns an exit code of 0 if at least one
is enabled, non-zero otherwise. Prints the current enable
status (see table). To suppress this output, use --quiet. To
show installation targets, use --full.
Table 1. is-enabled output
┌──────────────────┬─────────────────────────┬───────────┐
│Name │ Description │ Exit Code │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"enabled" │ Enabled via │ │
├──────────────────┤ .wants/, │ │
│"enabled-runtime" │ .requires/ or │ │
│ │ Alias= symlinks │ 0 │
│ │ (permanently in │ │
│ │ /etc/systemd/system/, │ │
│ │ or transiently in │ │
│ │ /run/systemd/system/). │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"linked" │ Made available through │ │
├──────────────────┤ one or more symlinks │ │
│"linked-runtime" │ to the unit file │ │
│ │ (permanently in │ │
│ │ /etc/systemd/system/ │ │
│ │ or transiently in │ > 0 │
│ │ /run/systemd/system/), │ │
│ │ even though the unit │ │
│ │ file might reside │ │
│ │ outside of the unit │ │
│ │ file search path. │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"alias" │ The name is an alias │ 0 │
│ │ (symlink to another │ │
│ │ unit file). │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"masked" │ Completely disabled, │ │
├──────────────────┤ so that any start │ │
│"masked-runtime" │ operation on it fails │ │
│ │ (permanently in │ > 0 │
│ │ /etc/systemd/system/ │ │
│ │ or transiently in │ │
│ │ /run/systemd/systemd/). │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"static" │ The unit file is not │ 0 │
│ │ enabled, and has no │ │
│ │ provisions for enabling │ │
│ │ in the [Install] unit │ │
│ │ file section. │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"indirect" │ The unit file itself is │ 0 │
│ │ not enabled, but it has │ │
│ │ a non-empty Also= │ │
│ │ setting in the │ │
│ │ [Install] unit file │ │
│ │ section, listing other │ │
│ │ unit files that might │ │
│ │ be enabled, or it has │ │
│ │ an alias under a │ │
│ │ different name through │ │
│ │ a symlink that is not │ │
│ │ specified in Also=. For │ │
│ │ template unit files, an │ │
│ │ instance different than │ │
│ │ the one specified in │ │
│ │ DefaultInstance= is │ │
│ │ enabled. │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"disabled" │ The unit file is not │ > 0 │
│ │ enabled, but contains │ │
│ │ an [Install] section │ │
│ │ with installation │ │
│ │ instructions. │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"generated" │ The unit file was │ 0 │
│ │ generated dynamically │ │
│ │ via a generator tool. │ │
│ │ See │ │
│ │ systemd.generator(7). │ │
│ │ Generated unit files │ │
│ │ may not be enabled, │ │
│ │ they are enabled │ │
│ │ implicitly by their │ │
│ │ generator. │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"transient" │ The unit file has been │ 0 │
│ │ created dynamically │ │
│ │ with the runtime API. │ │
│ │ Transient units may not │ │
│ │ be enabled. │ │
├──────────────────┼─────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"bad" │ The unit file is │ > 0 │
│ │ invalid or another │ │
│ │ error occurred. Note │ │
│ │ that is-enabled will │ │
│ │ not actually return │ │
│ │ this state, but print │ │
│ │ an error message │ │
│ │ instead. However the │ │
│ │ unit file listing │ │
│ │ printed by │ │
│ │ list-unit-files might │ │
│ │ show it. │ │
└──────────────────┴─────────────────────────┴───────────┘
mask UNIT...
Mask one or more units, as specified on the command line.
This will link these unit files to /dev/null, making it
impossible to start them. This is a stronger version of
disable, since it prohibits all kinds of activation of the
unit, including enablement and manual activation. Use this
option with care. This honors the --runtime option to only
mask temporarily until the next reboot of the system. The
--now option may be used to ensure that the units are also
stopped. This command expects valid unit names only, it does
not accept unit file paths.
unmask UNIT...
Unmask one or more unit files, as specified on the command
line. This will undo the effect of mask. This command expects
valid unit names only, it does not accept unit file paths.
link PATH...
Link a unit file that is not in the unit file search paths
into the unit file search path. This command expects an
absolute path to a unit file. The effect of this may be
undone with disable. The effect of this command is that a
unit file is made available for commands such as start, even
though it is not installed directly in the unit search path.
The file system where the linked unit files are located must
be accessible when systemd is started (e.g. anything
underneath /home/ or /var/ is not allowed, unless those
directories are located on the root file system).
revert UNIT...
Revert one or more unit files to their vendor versions. This
command removes drop-in configuration files that modify the
specified units, as well as any user-configured unit file
that overrides a matching vendor supplied unit file.
Specifically, for a unit "foo.service" the matching
directories "foo.service.d/" with all their contained files
are removed, both below the persistent and runtime
configuration directories (i.e. below /etc/systemd/system and
/run/systemd/system); if the unit file has a vendor-supplied
version (i.e. a unit file located below /usr/) any matching
persistent or runtime unit file that overrides it is removed,
too. Note that if a unit file has no vendor-supplied version
(i.e. is only defined below /etc/systemd/system or
/run/systemd/system, but not in a unit file stored below
/usr/), then it is not removed. Also, if a unit is masked, it
is unmasked.
Effectively, this command may be used to undo all changes
made with systemctl edit, systemctl set-property and
systemctl mask and puts the original unit file with its
settings back in effect.
add-wants TARGET UNIT..., add-requires TARGET UNIT...
Adds "Wants=" or "Requires=" dependencies, respectively, to
the specified TARGET for one or more units.
This command honors --system, --user, --runtime and --global
in a way similar to enable.
edit UNIT...
Edit a drop-in snippet or a whole replacement file if --full
is specified, to extend or override the specified unit.
Depending on whether --system (the default), --user, or
--global is specified, this command creates a drop-in file
for each unit either for the system, for the calling user, or
for all futures logins of all users. Then, the editor (see
the "Environment" section below) is invoked on temporary
files which will be written to the real location if the
editor exits successfully.
If --full is specified, this will copy the original units
instead of creating drop-in files.
If --force is specified and any units do not already exist,
new unit files will be opened for editing.
If --runtime is specified, the changes will be made
temporarily in /run/ and they will be lost on the next
reboot.
If the temporary file is empty upon exit, the modification of
the related unit is canceled.
After the units have been edited, systemd configuration is
reloaded (in a way that is equivalent to daemon-reload).
Note that this command cannot be used to remotely edit units
and that you cannot temporarily edit units which are in
/etc/, since they take precedence over /run/.
get-default
Return the default target to boot into. This returns the
target unit name default.target is aliased (symlinked) to.
set-default TARGET
Set the default target to boot into. This sets (symlinks) the
default.target alias to the given target unit.
Machine Commands
list-machines [PATTERN...]
List the host and all running local containers with their
state. If one or more PATTERNs are specified, only containers
matching one of them are shown.
Job Commands
list-jobs [PATTERN...]
List jobs that are in progress. If one or more PATTERNs are
specified, only jobs for units matching one of them are
shown.
When combined with --after or --before the list is augmented
with information on which other job each job is waiting for,
and which other jobs are waiting for it, see above.
cancel JOB...
Cancel one or more jobs specified on the command line by
their numeric job IDs. If no job ID is specified, cancel all
pending jobs.
Environment Commands
systemd supports an environment block that is passed to processes
the manager spawns. The names of the variables can contain ASCII
letters, digits, and the underscore character. Variable names
cannot be empty or start with a digit. In variable values, most
characters are allowed, but the whole sequence must be valid
UTF-8. (Note that control characters like newline (NL), tab
(TAB), or the escape character (ESC), are valid ASCII and thus
valid UTF-8). The total length of the environment block is
limited to _SC_ARG_MAX value defined by sysconf(3).
show-environment
Dump the systemd manager environment block. This is the
environment block that is passed to all processes the manager
spawns. The environment block will be dumped in
straight-forward form suitable for sourcing into most shells.
If no special characters or whitespace is present in the
variable values, no escaping is performed, and the
assignments have the form "VARIABLE=value". If whitespace or
characters which have special meaning to the shell are
present, dollar-single-quote escaping is used, and
assignments have the form "VARIABLE=$'value'". This syntax is
known to be supported by bash(1), zsh(1), ksh(1), and
busybox(1)'s ash(1), but not dash(1) or fish(1).
set-environment VARIABLE=VALUE...
Set one or more systemd manager environment variables, as
specified on the command line. This command will fail if
variable names and values do not conform to the rules listed
above.
unset-environment VARIABLE...
Unset one or more systemd manager environment variables. If
only a variable name is specified, it will be removed
regardless of its value. If a variable and a value are
specified, the variable is only removed if it has the
specified value.
import-environment VARIABLE...
Import all, one or more environment variables set on the
client into the systemd manager environment block. If a list
of environment variable names is passed, client-side values
are then imported into the manager's environment block. If
any names are not valid environment variable names or have
invalid values according to the rules described above, an
error is raised. If no arguments are passed, the entire
environment block inherited by the systemctl process is
imported. In this mode, any inherited invalid environment
variables are quietly ignored.
Importing of the full inherited environment block (calling
this command without any arguments) is deprecated. A shell
will set dozens of variables which only make sense locally
and are only meant for processes which are descendants of the
shell. Such variables in the global environment block are
confusing to other processes.
Manager State Commands
daemon-reload
Reload the systemd manager configuration. This will rerun all
generators (see systemd.generator(7)), reload all unit files,
and recreate the entire dependency tree. While the daemon is
being reloaded, all sockets systemd listens on behalf of user
configuration will stay accessible.
This command should not be confused with the reload command.
daemon-reexec
Reexecute the systemd manager. This will serialize the
manager state, reexecute the process and deserialize the
state again. This command is of little use except for
debugging and package upgrades. Sometimes, it might be
helpful as a heavy-weight daemon-reload. While the daemon is
being reexecuted, all sockets systemd listening on behalf of
user configuration will stay accessible.
log-level [LEVEL]
If no argument is given, print the current log level of the
manager. If an optional argument LEVEL is provided, then the
command changes the current log level of the manager to LEVEL
(accepts the same values as --log-level= described in
systemd(1)).
log-target [TARGET]
If no argument is given, print the current log target of the
manager. If an optional argument TARGET is provided, then the
command changes the current log target of the manager to
TARGET (accepts the same values as --log-target=, described
in systemd(1)).
service-watchdogs [yes|no]
If no argument is given, print the current state of service
runtime watchdogs of the manager. If an optional boolean
argument is provided, then globally enables or disables the
service runtime watchdogs (WatchdogSec=) and emergency
actions (e.g. OnFailure= or StartLimitAction=); see
systemd.service(5). The hardware watchdog is not affected by
this setting.
System Commands
is-system-running
Checks whether the system is operational. This returns
success (exit code 0) when the system is fully up and
running, specifically not in startup, shutdown or maintenance
mode, and with no failed services. Failure is returned
otherwise (exit code non-zero). In addition, the current
state is printed in a short string to standard output, see
the table below. Use --quiet to suppress this output.
Use --wait to wait until the boot process is completed before
printing the current state and returning the appropriate
error status. If --wait is in use, states initializing or
starting will not be reported, instead the command will block
until a later state (such as running or degraded) is reached.
Table 2. is-system-running output
┌─────────────┬────────────────────┬───────────┐
│Name │ Description │ Exit Code │
├─────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────┤
│initializing │ Early bootup, │ > 0 │
│ │ before │ │
│ │ basic.target is │ │
│ │ reached or the │ │
│ │ maintenance state │ │
│ │ entered. │ │
├─────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────┤
│starting │ Late bootup, │ > 0 │
│ │ before the job │ │
│ │ queue becomes idle │ │
│ │ for the first │ │
│ │ time, or one of │ │
│ │ the rescue targets │ │
│ │ are reached. │ │
├─────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────┤
│running │ The system is │ 0 │
│ │ fully operational. │ │
├─────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────┤
│degraded │ The system is │ > 0 │
│ │ operational but │ │
│ │ one or more units │ │
│ │ failed. │ │
├─────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────┤
│maintenance │ The rescue or │ > 0 │
│ │ emergency target │ │
│ │ is active. │ │
├─────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────┤
│stopping │ The manager is │ > 0 │
│ │ shutting down. │ │
├─────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────┤
│offline │ The manager is not │ > 0 │
│ │ running. │ │
│ │ Specifically, this │ │
│ │ is the operational │ │
│ │ state if an │ │
│ │ incompatible │ │
│ │ program is running │ │
│ │ as system manager │ │
│ │ (PID 1). │ │
├─────────────┼────────────────────┼───────────┤
│unknown │ The operational │ > 0 │
│ │ state could not be │ │
│ │ determined, due to │ │
│ │ lack of resources │ │
│ │ or another error │ │
│ │ cause. │ │
└─────────────┴────────────────────┴───────────┘
default
Enter default mode. This is equivalent to systemctl isolate
default.target. This operation is blocking by default, use
--no-block to request asynchronous behavior.
rescue
Enter rescue mode. This is equivalent to systemctl isolate
rescue.target. This operation is blocking by default, use
--no-block to request asynchronous behavior.
emergency
Enter emergency mode. This is equivalent to systemctl isolate
emergency.target. This operation is blocking by default, use
--no-block to request asynchronous behavior.
halt
Shut down and halt the system. This is mostly equivalent to
systemctl start halt.target --job-mode=replace-irreversibly
--no-block, but also prints a wall message to all users. This
command is asynchronous; it will return after the halt
operation is enqueued, without waiting for it to complete.
Note that this operation will simply halt the OS kernel after
shutting down, leaving the hardware powered on. Use systemctl
poweroff for powering off the system (see below).
If combined with --force, shutdown of all running services is
skipped, however all processes are killed and all file
systems are unmounted or mounted read-only, immediately
followed by the system halt. If --force is specified twice,
the operation is immediately executed without terminating any
processes or unmounting any file systems. This may result in
data loss. Note that when --force is specified twice the halt
operation is executed by systemctl itself, and the system
manager is not contacted. This means the command should
succeed even when the system manager has crashed.
poweroff
Shut down and power-off the system. This is mostly equivalent
to systemctl start poweroff.target
--job-mode=replace-irreversibly --no-block, but also prints a
wall message to all users. This command is asynchronous; it
will return after the power-off operation is enqueued,
without waiting for it to complete.
If combined with --force, shutdown of all running services is
skipped, however all processes are killed and all file
systems are unmounted or mounted read-only, immediately
followed by the powering off. If --force is specified twice,
the operation is immediately executed without terminating any
processes or unmounting any file systems. This may result in
data loss. Note that when --force is specified twice the
power-off operation is executed by systemctl itself, and the
system manager is not contacted. This means the command
should succeed even when the system manager has crashed.
reboot
Shut down and reboot the system. This is mostly equivalent to
systemctl start reboot.target --job-mode=replace-irreversibly
--no-block, but also prints a wall message to all users. This
command is asynchronous; it will return after the reboot
operation is enqueued, without waiting for it to complete.
If combined with --force, shutdown of all running services is
skipped, however all processes are killed and all file
systems are unmounted or mounted read-only, immediately
followed by the reboot. If --force is specified twice, the
operation is immediately executed without terminating any
processes or unmounting any file systems. This may result in
data loss. Note that when --force is specified twice the
reboot operation is executed by systemctl itself, and the
system manager is not contacted. This means the command
should succeed even when the system manager has crashed.
If the switch --reboot-argument= is given, it will be passed
as the optional argument to the reboot(2) system call.
kexec
Shut down and reboot the system via kexec. This is equivalent
to systemctl start kexec.target
--job-mode=replace-irreversibly --no-block. This command is
asynchronous; it will return after the reboot operation is
enqueued, without waiting for it to complete.
If combined with --force, shutdown of all running services is
skipped, however all processes are killed and all file
systems are unmounted or mounted read-only, immediately
followed by the reboot.
exit [EXIT_CODE]
Ask the service manager to quit. This is only supported for
user service managers (i.e. in conjunction with the --user
option) or in containers and is equivalent to poweroff
otherwise. This command is asynchronous; it will return after
the exit operation is enqueued, without waiting for it to
complete.
The service manager will exit with the specified exit code,
if EXIT_CODE is passed.
switch-root ROOT [INIT]
Switches to a different root directory and executes a new
system manager process below it. This is intended for usage
in initial RAM disks ("initrd"), and will transition from the
initrd's system manager process (a.k.a. "init" process) to
the main system manager process which is loaded from the
actual host volume. This call takes two arguments: the
directory that is to become the new root directory, and the
path to the new system manager binary below it to execute as
PID 1. If the latter is omitted or the empty string, a
systemd binary will automatically be searched for and used as
init. If the system manager path is omitted, equal to the
empty string or identical to the path to the systemd binary,
the state of the initrd's system manager process is passed to
the main system manager, which allows later introspection of
the state of the services involved in the initrd boot phase.
suspend
Suspend the system. This will trigger activation of the
special target unit suspend.target. This command is
asynchronous, and will return after the suspend operation is
successfully enqueued. It will not wait for the
suspend/resume cycle to complete.
hibernate
Hibernate the system. This will trigger activation of the
special target unit hibernate.target. This command is
asynchronous, and will return after the hibernation operation
is successfully enqueued. It will not wait for the
hibernate/thaw cycle to complete.
hybrid-sleep
Hibernate and suspend the system. This will trigger
activation of the special target unit hybrid-sleep.target.
This command is asynchronous, and will return after the
hybrid sleep operation is successfully enqueued. It will not
wait for the sleep/wake-up cycle to complete.
suspend-then-hibernate
Suspend the system and hibernate it after the delay specified
in systemd-sleep.conf. This will trigger activation of the
special target unit suspend-then-hibernate.target. This
command is asynchronous, and will return after the hybrid
sleep operation is successfully enqueued. It will not wait
for the sleep/wake-up or hibernate/thaw cycle to complete.
Parameter Syntax
Unit commands listed above take either a single unit name
(designated as UNIT), or multiple unit specifications (designated
as PATTERN...). In the first case, the unit name with or without
a suffix must be given. If the suffix is not specified (unit name
is "abbreviated"), systemctl will append a suitable suffix,
".service" by default, and a type-specific suffix in case of
commands which operate only on specific unit types. For example,
# systemctl start sshd
and
# systemctl start sshd.service
are equivalent, as are
# systemctl isolate default
and
# systemctl isolate default.target
Note that (absolute) paths to device nodes are automatically
converted to device unit names, and other (absolute) paths to
mount unit names.
# systemctl status /dev/sda
# systemctl status /home
are equivalent to:
# systemctl status dev-sda.device
# systemctl status home.mount
In the second case, shell-style globs will be matched against the
primary names of all units currently in memory; literal unit
names, with or without a suffix, will be treated as in the first
case. This means that literal unit names always refer to exactly
one unit, but globs may match zero units and this is not
considered an error.
Glob patterns use fnmatch(3), so normal shell-style globbing
rules are used, and "*", "?", "[]" may be used. See glob(7) for
more details. The patterns are matched against the primary names
of units currently in memory, and patterns which do not match
anything are silently skipped. For example:
# systemctl stop sshd@*.service
will stop all sshd@.service instances. Note that alias names of
units, and units that aren't in memory are not considered for
glob expansion.
For unit file commands, the specified UNIT should be the name of
the unit file (possibly abbreviated, see above), or the absolute
path to the unit file:
# systemctl enable foo.service
or
# systemctl link /path/to/foo.service
