Managing systemd services in Linux

You will learn how to start, stop, or restart services in Linux. You will learn how to manage services through the systemd daemon using the systemctl command, using the service command, and using init scripts in the /etc/init.d directory. You will need administrator privileges.

Managing services using systemd and the systemctl command

Since Linux switched to managing services with the systemd daemon, this has become the preferred way to manage services in current Linux versions.

To start a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo systemctl start <service_name>

To stop a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo systemctl stop <service_name>

To restart a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo systemctl restart <service_name>

To check the status of a service in the console, enter:

sudo systemctl status <service_name>

Managing services using the service command

To start a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo service <service_name> start

To stop a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo service <service_name> stop

To restart a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo service <service_name> restart

To check the status of a service in the console, enter:

sudo service <service_name> status

Managing services using init.d scripts

This method is outdated and was used before Linux switched to managing services with the systemd daemon. For this reason, it is only used on older versions of Linux. It works by running a script located in the /etc/init.d directory.

To start a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo /etc/init.d/<service_name> start

To stop a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo /etc/init.d/<service_name> stop

To restart a service, enter the following in the console:

sudo /etc/init.d/<service_name> restart

To check the status of a service in the console, enter:

sudo /etc/init.d/<service_name> status