:PROPERTIES:
:ID:       80866258-4fd5-4ddc-b3e4-00fa3d3372d3
:END:
#+title: Command line: systemctl
#+date: 2021-07-27 13:47:34 +08:00
#+date_modified: 2021-07-27 14:06:35 +08:00
#+language: en
#+property: header_args  :eval no


The go-to command to manage units in a systemd-ful system.

For full details, you can view the =systemctl.1= manual page.




* Synopsis

#+begin_src shell
systemctl [OPTIONS...] COMMAND [COMMAND_ARGS...] [COMMAND_OPTIONS...]
#+end_src




* Options

- =--user= runs the binary in user mode with the user-specific options and load-path.
  See [[id:c7edff80-6dea-47fc-8ecd-e43b5ab8fb1e][systemd at user-level]] for more details.

- =--help= is an obvious one.
  It prints a detailed help section of the command.




* Subcommands

- =enable UNIT= and =disable UNIT= enables and disables units.
  It mainly adds the unit activation at startup.

  + =--now= starts/stops the unit.
    It is the equivalent of =systemctl {enable,disable} UNIT && systemctl {start,stop} UNIT=.
    Pretty handy if you intend to add the unit at startup and want to use it now.

- =start UNIT= and =stop UNIT= starts and stops the unit, respectively.
  Though, this doesn't activate

- =restart UNIT= restarts the given unit.
  This also reloads with the modified changes of the unit.

- In some cases where restarting the unit isn't enough, =daemon-reload= will reload the daemon with the modified units.
  systemd does not have reload-at-change for its unit.
  That is, if a unit is modified, systemd will not run the modified version until reloaded.

- =show-environment= shows the environment variables of the system.

- =list-units [PATTERN...]= is self-explanatory ;p.

- =is-active PATTERN...= prints the status of the matched unit and exits successfully if it's active.