Provided by: systemd_237-3ubuntu10.57_amd64 
NAME
systemctl - Control the systemd system and service manager
SYNOPSIS
systemctl [OPTIONS...] COMMAND [NAME...]
DESCRIPTION
systemctl may be used to introspect and control the state of the "systemd" system and service manager.
Please refer to systemd(1) for an introduction into the basic concepts and functionality this tool
manages.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
-t, --type=
The argument should be a comma-separated list of unit types such as service and socket.
If one of the arguments is a unit type, when listing units, limit display to certain unit types.
Otherwise, units of all types will be shown.
As a special case, if one of the arguments is help, a list of allowed values will be printed and the
program will exit.
--state=
The argument should be a comma-separated list of unit LOAD, SUB, or ACTIVE states. When listing
units, show only those in the specified states. Use --state=failed to show only failed units.
As a special case, if one of the arguments is help, a list of allowed values will be printed and the
program will exit.
-p, --property=
When showing unit/job/manager properties with the show command, limit display to properties specified
in the argument. The argument should be a comma-separated list of property names, such as "MainPID".
Unless specified, all known properties are shown. If specified more than once, all properties with
the specified names are shown. Shell completion is implemented for property names.
For the manager itself, systemctl show will show all available properties. Those properties are
documented in systemd-system.conf(5).
Properties for units vary by unit type, so showing any unit (even a non-existent one) is a way to
list properties pertaining to this type. Similarly, showing any job will list properties pertaining
to all jobs. Properties for units are documented in systemd.unit(5), and the pages for individual
unit types systemd.service(5), systemd.socket(5), etc.
-a, --all
When listing units with list-units, also show inactive units and units which are following other
units. When showing unit/job/manager properties, show all properties regardless whether they are set
or not.
To list all units installed in the file system, use the list-unit-files command instead.
When listing units with list-dependencies, recursively show dependencies of all dependent units (by
default only dependencies of target units are shown).
-r, --recursive
When listing units, also show units of local containers. Units of local containers will be prefixed
with the container name, separated by a single colon character (":").
--reverse
Show reverse dependencies between units with list-dependencies, i.e. follow dependencies of type
WantedBy=, RequiredBy=, PartOf=, BoundBy=, instead of Wants= and similar.
--after
With list-dependencies, show the units that are ordered before the specified unit. In other words,
recursively list units following the After= dependency.
Note that any After= dependency is automatically mirrored to create a Before= dependency. Temporal
dependencies may be specified explicitly, but are also created implicitly for units which are
WantedBy= targets (see systemd.target(5)), and as a result of other directives (for example
RequiresMountsFor=). Both explicitly and implicitly introduced dependencies are shown with
list-dependencies.
When passed to the list-jobs command, for each printed job show which other jobs are waiting for it.
May be combined with --before to show both the jobs waiting for each job as well as all jobs each job
is waiting for.
--before
With list-dependencies, show the units that are ordered after the specified unit. In other words,
recursively list units following the Before= dependency.
When passed to the list-jobs command, for each printed job show which other jobs it is waiting for.
May be combined with --after to show both the jobs waiting for each job as well as all jobs each job
is waiting for.
-l, --full
Do not ellipsize unit names, process tree entries, journal output, or truncate unit descriptions in
the output of status, list-units, list-jobs, and list-timers.
Also, show installation targets in the output of is-enabled.
--value
When printing properties with show, only print the value, and skip the property name and "=".
--show-types
When showing sockets, show the type of the socket.
--job-mode=
When queuing a new job, this option controls how to deal with already queued jobs. It takes one of
"fail", "replace", "replace-irreversibly", "isolate", "ignore-dependencies", "ignore-requirements" or
"flush". Defaults to "replace", except when the isolate command is used which implies the "isolate"
job mode.
If "fail" is specified and a requested operation conflicts with a pending job (more specifically:
causes an already pending start job to be reversed into a stop job or vice versa), cause the
operation to fail.
If "replace" (the default) is specified, any conflicting pending job will be replaced, as necessary.
If "replace-irreversibly" is specified, operate like "replace", but also mark the new jobs as
irreversible. This prevents future conflicting transactions from replacing these jobs (or even being
enqueued while the irreversible jobs are still pending). Irreversible jobs can still be cancelled
using the cancel command. This job mode should be used on any transaction which pulls in
shutdown.target.
"isolate" is only valid for start operations and causes all other units to be stopped when the
specified unit is started. This mode is always used when the isolate command is used.
"flush" will cause all queued jobs to be canceled when the new job is enqueued.
If "ignore-dependencies" is specified, then all unit dependencies are ignored for this new job and
the operation is executed immediately. If passed, no required units of the unit passed will be pulled
in, and no ordering dependencies will be honored. This is mostly a debugging and rescue tool for the
administrator and should not be used by applications.
"ignore-requirements" is similar to "ignore-dependencies", but only causes the requirement
dependencies to be ignored, the ordering dependencies will still be honored.
--fail
Shorthand for --job-mode=fail.
When used with the kill command, if no units were killed, the operation results in an error.
-i, --ignore-inhibitors
When system shutdown or a sleep state is requested, ignore inhibitor locks. Applications can
establish inhibitor locks to avoid that certain important operations (such as CD burning or suchlike)
are interrupted by system shutdown or a sleep state. Any user may take these locks and privileged
users may override these locks. If any locks are taken, shutdown and sleep state requests will
normally fail (regardless of whether privileged or not) and a list of active locks is printed.
However, if --ignore-inhibitors is specified, the locks are ignored and not printed, and the
operation attempted anyway, possibly requiring additional privileges.
--dry-run
Just print what would be done. Currently supported by verbs halt, poweroff, reboot, kexec, suspend,
hibernate, hybrid-sleep, default, rescue, emergency, and exit.
-q, --quiet
Suppress printing of the results of various commands and also the hints about truncated log lines.
This does not suppress output of commands for which the printed output is the only result (like
show). Errors are always printed.
--no-block
Do not synchronously wait for the requested operation to finish. If this is not specified, the job
will be verified, enqueued and systemctl will wait until the unit's start-up is completed. By passing
this argument, it is only verified and enqueued. This option may not be combined with --wait.
--wait
Synchronously wait for started units to terminate again. This option may not be combined with
--no-block. Note that this will wait forever if any given unit never terminates (by itself or by
getting stopped explicitly); particularly services which use "RemainAfterExit=yes".
--user
Talk to the service manager of the calling user, rather than the service manager of the system.
--system
Talk to the service manager of the system. This is the implied default.
--failed
List units in failed state. This is equivalent to --state=failed.
--no-wall
Do not send wall message before halt, power-off and reboot.
--global
When used with enable and disable, operate on the global user configuration directory, thus enabling
or disabling a unit file globally for all future logins of all users.
--no-reload
When used with enable and disable, do not implicitly reload daemon configuration after executing the
changes.
--no-ask-password
When used with start and related commands, disables asking for passwords. Background services may
require input of a password or passphrase string, for example to unlock system hard disks or
cryptographic certificates. Unless this option is specified and the command is invoked from a
terminal, systemctl will query the user on the terminal for the necessary secrets. Use this option to
switch this behavior off. In this case, the password must be supplied by some other means (for
example graphical password agents) or the service might fail. This also disables querying the user
for authentication for privileged operations.
--kill-who=
When used with kill, choose which processes to send a signal to. Must be one of main, control or all
to select whether to kill only the main process, the control process or all processes of the unit.
The main process of the unit is the one that defines the life-time of it. A control process of a unit
is one that is invoked by the manager to induce state changes of it. For example, all processes
started due to the ExecStartPre=, ExecStop= or ExecReload= settings of service units are control
processes. Note that there is only one control process per unit at a time, as only one state change
is executed at a time. For services of type Type=forking, the initial process started by the manager
for ExecStart= is a control process, while the process ultimately forked off by that one is then
considered the main process of the unit (if it can be determined). This is different for service
units of other types, where the process forked off by the manager for ExecStart= is always the main
process itself. A service unit consists of zero or one main process, zero or one control process plus
any number of additional processes. Not all unit types manage processes of these types however. For
example, for mount units, control processes are defined (which are the invocations of /bin/mount and
/bin/umount), but no main process is defined. If omitted, defaults to all.
-s, --signal=
When used with kill, choose which signal to send to selected processes. Must be one of the well-known
signal specifiers such as SIGTERM, SIGINT or SIGSTOP. If omitted, defaults to SIGTERM.
-f, --force
When used with enable, overwrite any existing conflicting symlinks.
When used with edit, create all of the specified units which do not already exist.
When used with halt, poweroff, reboot or kexec, execute the selected operation without shutting down
all units. However, all processes will be killed forcibly and all file systems are unmounted or
remounted read-only. This is hence a drastic but relatively safe option to request an immediate
reboot. If --force is specified twice for these operations (with the exception of kexec), they will
be executed immediately, without terminating any processes or unmounting any file systems. Warning:
specifying --force twice with any of these operations might result in data loss. Note that when
--force is specified twice the selected 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.
--message=
When used with halt, poweroff or reboot, set a short message explaining the reason for the operation.
The message will be logged together with the default shutdown message.
--now
When used with enable, the units will also be started. When used with disable or mask, the units will
also be stopped. The start or stop operation is only carried out when the respective enable or
disable operation has been successful.
--root=
When used with enable/disable/is-enabled (and related commands), use the specified root path when
looking for unit files. If this option is present, systemctl will operate on the file system
directly, instead of communicating with the systemd daemon to carry out changes.
--runtime
When used with enable, disable, edit, (and related commands), make changes only temporarily, so that
they are lost on the next reboot. This will have the effect that changes are not made in
subdirectories of /etc but in /run, with identical immediate effects, however, since the latter is
lost on reboot, the changes are lost too.
Similarly, when used with set-property, make changes only temporarily, so that they are lost on the
next reboot.
--preset-mode=
Takes one of "full" (the default), "enable-only", "disable-only". When used with the preset or
preset-all commands, controls whether units shall be disabled and enabled according to the preset
rules, or only enabled, or only disabled.
-n, --lines=
When used with status, controls the number of journal lines to show, counting from the most recent
ones. Takes a positive integer argument. Defaults to 10.
-o, --output=
When used with status, controls the formatting of the journal entries that are shown. For the
available choices, see journalctl(1). Defaults to "short".
--firmware-setup
When used with the reboot command, indicate to the system's firmware to boot into setup mode. Note
that this is currently only supported on some EFI systems and only if the system was booted in EFI
mode.
--plain
When used with list-dependencies, list-units or list-machines, the output is printed as a list
instead of a tree, and the bullet circles are omitted.
-H, --host=
Execute the operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or a username and hostname separated by "@", to
connect to. The hostname may optionally be suffixed by a container name, separated by ":", which
connects directly to a specific container on the specified host. This will use SSH to talk to the
remote machine manager instance. Container names may be enumerated with machinectl -H HOST.
-M, --machine=
Execute operation on a local container. Specify a container name to connect to.
--no-pager
Do not pipe output into a pager.
--no-legend
Do not print the legend, i.e. column headers and the footer with hints.
-h, --help
Print a short help text and exit.
--version
Print a short version string and exit.
COMMANDS
The following commands are understood:
Unit Commands
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.
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 has long as passed since the timer laset 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=.
start PATTERN...
Start (activate) one or more units specified on the command line.
Note that glob patterns operate on the set of primary 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.
stop PATTERN...
Stop (deactivate) one or more units specified on the command line.
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 FileDescriptoreStoreMax= 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 NAME
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 is similar to changing the runlevel in a traditional init system. The isolate command will
immediately stop processes that are not enabled in the new unit, 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.
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 (/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. White
indicates an "inactive" or "deactivating" state. Red indicates a "failed" or "error" state and green
indicates an "active", "reloading" or "activating" state.
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", and
"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 by the system and service manager.
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.
set-property NAME ASSIGNMENT...
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 instantly, 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 CPUShares=777
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. Like unit file configuration settings, assigning the empty list to list
parameters will reset the list.
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.
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.
list-dependencies [NAME]
Shows units required and wanted by the specified unit. This recursively lists units following the
Requires=, Requisite=, ConsistsOf=, Wants=, BindsTo= dependencies. If no unit is 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.
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 NAME..., 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.
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 NAME...
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 NAME...
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 NAME...
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. NAME must
be the real unit name, any alias names are ignored silently.
For more information on the preset policy format, see systemd.preset(5). For more information on the
concept of presets, please consult the Preset[1] document.
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 NAME...
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/, │ │
├──────────────────┤ .requires/ or Alias= │ │
│"enabled-runtime" │ symlinks (permanently in │ 0 │
│ │ /etc/systemd/system/, or │ │
│ │ transiently in │ │
│ │ /run/systemd/system/). │ │
├──────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"linked" │ Made available through one │ │
├──────────────────┤ or more symlinks to the unit │ │
│"linked-runtime" │ 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. │ │
├──────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│"masked" │ Completely disabled, so that │ │
├──────────────────┤ any start operation on it │ │
│"masked-runtime" │ 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 not │ 0 │
│ │ 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 file, 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 generated │ 0 │
│ │ 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 invalid or │ > 0 │
│ │ 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 NAME...
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 NAME...
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.
revert NAME...
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 NAME..., add-requires TARGET NAME...
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 NAME...
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 NAME
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
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.
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 no arguments are passed, the entire environment block is imported. Otherwise, a list of one
or more environment variable names should be passed, whose client-side values are then imported into
the manager's environment block.
Manager Lifecycle 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.
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.
Table 2. is-system-running output
┌─────────────┬──────────────────────────────┬───────────┐
│Name │ Description │ Exit Code │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│initializing │ Early bootup, before │ > 0 │
│ │ basic.target is reached or │ │
│ │ the maintenance state │ │
│ │ entered. │ │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│starting │ Late bootup, before the job │ > 0 │
│ │ queue becomes idle for the │ │
│ │ first time, or one of the │ │
│ │ rescue targets are reached. │ │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│running │ The system is fully │ 0 │
│ │ operational. │ │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│degraded │ The system is operational │ > 0 │
│ │ but one or more units │ │
│ │ failed. │ │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│maintenance │ The rescue or emergency │ > 0 │
│ │ target is active. │ │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│stopping │ The manager is shutting │ > 0 │
│ │ down. │ │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│offline │ The manager is not running. │ > 0 │
│ │ Specifically, this is the │ │
│ │ operational state if an │ │
│ │ incompatible program is │ │
│ │ running as system manager │ │
│ │ (PID 1). │ │
├─────────────┼──────────────────────────────┼───────────┤
│unknown │ The operational state could │ > 0 │
│ │ 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 [arg]
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 optional argument arg is given, it will be passed as the optional argument to the reboot(2)
system call. The value is architecture and firmware specific. As an example, "recovery" might be used
to trigger system recovery, and "fota" might be used to trigger a “firmware over the air” update.
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.
Parameter Syntax
Unit commands listed above take either a single unit name (designated as NAME), 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 NAME 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
EXIT STATUS
On success, 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.
ENVIRONMENT
$SYSTEMD_EDITOR
Editor to use when editing units; overrides $EDITOR and $VISUAL. If neither $SYSTEMD_EDITOR nor
$EDITOR nor $VISUAL are present or if it is set to an empty string or if their execution failed,
systemctl will try to execute well known editors in this order: editor(1), nano(1), vim(1), vi(1).
$SYSTEMD_PAGER
Pager to use when --no-pager is not given; overrides $PAGER. If neither $SYSTEMD_PAGER nor $PAGER are
set, a set of well-known pager implementations are tried in turn, including less(1) and more(1),
until one is found. If no pager implementation is discovered no pager is invoked. Setting this
environment variable to an empty string or the value "cat" is equivalent to passing --no-pager.
$SYSTEMD_LESS
Override the options passed to less (by default "FRSXMK").
$SYSTEMD_LESSCHARSET
Override the charset passed to less (by default "utf-8", if the invoking terminal is determined to be
UTF-8 compatible).
SEE ALSO
systemd(1), journalctl(1), loginctl(1), machinectl(1), systemd.unit(5), systemd.resource-control(5), systemd.special(7), wall(1), systemd.preset(5), systemd.generator(7), glob(7)
NOTES
1. Preset
https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd/Preset