How to use systemctl command to manage systemd services

Introduction

In this post we will be discussing on the systemctl command with the help of which we can manage systemd services and units. We will cover how to manage services, units , check status , change system states.

Managing services

To start the service using systemctl use bellow command

~]# systemctl start name.service 

For checking the status of the service:

~]# systemctl status name.service

For stopping service using systemctl :

~]# systemctl stop name.service

To enabled services after reboot too:

systemctl enabled name.service

To check whether service is enable for reboot or not

systemctl is-enabled name.service

To determine what services are ordered to start before a service

~]# systemctl list-dependencies --before name.service

To determine what services are ordered to start after a service

~]# systemctl list-dependencies --after name.service

To disabled service from being automatically started at boot

systemctl disable name.service

Managing systemd units

To list all currently loaded service units :

systemctl list-units --type service

By default it loads only active service to list all units:

systemctl list-units --type service --all

To list all currently loaded service units to see if they are enabled:

systemctl list-unit-files --type service

Displaying Unit files:

systemctl cat name.service

Checking unit properties:

systemctl show name.service

Bellow command will prevent the service to start automatically or manually 

systemctl mask name.service

Getting default target:

systemctl get-default

Setting default target:

systemctl set-default graphical.target

To isolate the target:

systemctl isolate multi-user.target