systemctl

Index · Directives · Python · libudev · gudev systemd 204

## 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(1) system and service manager.

## Options

The following options are understood:

`-h`, `--help`

  Prints a short help text and exits.

`--version`

  Prints a short version string and exits.

`-t`, `--type=`

  The argument should be a comma separated list of unit types such as `service` and `socket`, or unit load states such as `loaded` and `masked` (types and states can be mixed).

  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.

  If one of the arguments is a unit load state, when listing units, limit display to certain unit types. Otherwise units of in all load states 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.

`-p`, `--property=`

  When showing unit/job/manager properties with the show command, limit display to certain properties as specified as argument. If not specified all set properties are shown. The argument should be a comma-separated list of property names, such as `MainPID`. If specified more than once all properties with the specified names are shown.

`-a`, `--all`

  When listing units, show all loaded units, regardless of their state, including inactive units. When showing unit/job/manager properties, show all properties regardless whether they are set or not.

  To list all units installed on the system, use the list-unit-files command instead.

`--reverse`

  Show reverse dependencies between units with list-dependencies, i.e. units with dependencies of type `Wants=` or `Requires=` on the given unit.

`--after`, `--before`

  Show which units are started after, resp. before with list-dependencies.

`--failed`

  When listing units, show only failed units. Do not confuse with `--fail`.

`--full`

  Do not ellipsize unit names, cgroup members, and truncate unit descriptions in the output of list-units and list-jobs.

`--fail`

  If the requested operation conflicts with a pending unfinished job, fail the command. If this is not specified the requested operation will replace the pending job, if necessary. Do not confuse with `--failed`.

`--show-types`

  When showing sockets, show the type of the socket.

`--irreversible`

  Mark this transaction's jobs as irreversible. This prevents future conflicting transactions from replacing these jobs. The jobs can still be cancelled using the cancel command.

`--ignore-dependencies`

  When enqueuing a new job ignore all its dependencies and execute it 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.

`-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 if 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.

`-q`, `--quiet`

  Suppress output to standard output in snapshot, is-active, is-failed, enable and disable.

`--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 it is completed. By passing this argument it is only verified and enqueued.

`--no-legend`

  Do not print a legend, i.e. the column headers and the footer with hints.

`--no-pager`

  Do not pipe output into a pager.

`--system`

  Talk to the systemd system manager. (Default)

`--user`

  Talk to the systemd manager of the calling user.

`--no-wall`

  Don't send wall message before halt, power-off, 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 kill. Must be one of `main`, `control` or `all` to select whether to kill only the main process of the unit, the control process or all processes of the unit. 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 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, they will be executed immediately without terminating any processes or umounting any file systems. Warning: specifying `--force` twice with any of these operations might result in data loss.

`--root=`

  When used with enable/disable/is-enabled (and related commands), use alternative root path when looking for unit files.

`--runtime`

  When used with enable, disable, is-enabled (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.

  Similar, when used with set-cgroup-attr, unset-cgroup-attr, set-cgroup and unset-cgroup, make changes only temporarily, so that they are lost on the next reboot.

`-H`, `--host`

  Execute operation remotely. Specify a hostname, or username and hostname separated by @, to connect to. This will use SSH to talk to the remote systemd instance.

`-P`, `--privileged`

  Acquire privileges via PolicyKit before executing the operation.

`-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`.

`--plain`

  When used with list-dependencies the output is printed as a list instead of a tree.

## Commands

The following commands are understood:

list-units

  List known units (subject to limitations specified with `-t`).

  This is the default command.

list-sockets

  List socket units ordered by the listening address. 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 programatic consumption.

  See also the options `--show-types`, `--all`, and `--failed`.

start `NAME`...

  Start (activate) one or more units specified on the command line.

stop `NAME`...

  Stop (deactivate) one or more units specified on the command line.

reload `NAME`...

  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 or load commands.

restart `NAME`...

  Restart one or more units specified on the command line. If the units are not running yet they will be started.

try-restart `NAME`...

  Restart one or more units specified on the command line if the units are running. Do nothing if units are not running. Note that for compatibility with Red Hat init scripts condrestart is equivalent to this command.

reload-or-restart `NAME`...

  Reload one or more units if they support it. If not, restart them instead. If the units are not running yet they will be started.

reload-or-try-restart `NAME`...

  Reload one or more units if they support it. If not, restart them instead. Do nothing if the units are not running. Note that for compatibility with SysV init scripts force-reload is equivalent to this command.

isolate `NAME`

  Start the unit specified on the command line and its dependencies and stop all others.

  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 `NAME`...

  Send a signal to one or more processes of the unit. Use `--kill-who=` to select which process to kill. Use `--kill-mode=` to select the kill mode and `--signal=` to select the signal to send.

is-active `NAME`...

  Check whether any of the specified units are active (i.e. running). Returns an exit code 0 if at least one is active, non-zero otherwise. Unless `--quiet` is specified this will also print the current unit state to STDOUT.

is-failed `NAME`...

  Check whether any of the specified units are failed. Returns an exit code 0 if at least one is failed, non-zero otherwise. Unless `--quiet` is specified this will also print the current unit state to STDOUT.

status [`NAME`...|`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 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.

show [`NAME`...|`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 is shown, and if a job id is specified properties of the job is 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.

get-cgroup-attr `NAME` `ATTRIBUTE`...

  Retrieve the specified control group attributes of the specified unit. Takes a unit name and one or more attribute names such as `cpu.shares`. This will output the current values of the specified attributes, separated by new-lines. For attributes that take list of items the output will be new-line separated, too. This operation will always try to retrieve the data in question from the kernel first, and if that is not available use the configured values instead. Instead of low-level control group attribute names high-level pretty names may be used, as used for unit execution environment configuration, see systemd.exec(5) for details. For example, passing `memory.limit_in_bytes` and `MemoryLimit` is equivalent.

set-cgroup-attr `NAME` `ATTRIBUTE` `VALUE`...

  Set the specified control group attribute of the specified unit to the specified value. Takes a unit name and an attribute name such as `cpu.shares`, plus one or more values (multiple values may only be used for attributes that take multiple values). This operation will immediately update the kernel attribute for this unit and persistently store this setting for later reboots (unless `--runtime` is passed, in which case the setting is not saved persistently and only valid until the next reboot.) Instead of low-level control group attribute names high-level pretty names may be used, as used for unit execution environment configuration, see systemd.exec(5) for details. For example, passing `memory.limit_in_bytes` and `MemoryLimit` is equivalent. This operation will implicitly create a control group for the unit in the controller the attribute belongs to, if needed. For attributes that take multiple values, this operation will append the specified values to the previously set values list (use unset-cgroup-attr to reset the list explicitly). For attributes that take a single value only the list will be reset implicitly.

unset-cgroup-attr `NAME` `ATTRIBUTE`...

  Unset the specified control group attributes of the specified unit. Takes a unit name and one or more attribut names such as `cpu.shares`. This operation might or might not have an immediate effect on the current kernel attribute value. This will remove any persistently stored configuration values for this attribute (as set with set-cgroup-attr before), unless `--runtime` is passed, in which case the configuration is reset only until the next reboot. Again, high-level control group attributes may be used instead of the low-level kernel ones. For attributes which take multiple values, all currently set values are reset.

set-cgroup `NAME` `CGROUP`..., unset-cgroup `NAME` `CGROUP`...

  Add or remove a unit to/from a specific control group hierarchy and/or control group path. Takes a unit name, plus a control group specification in the syntax `CONTROLLER`:`PATH` or `CONTROLLER`. In the latter syntax (where the path is omitted) the default unit control group path is implied. Examples: `cpu` or `cpu:/foo/bar`. If a unit is removed from a control group hierarchy all its processes will be moved to the root group of the hierarchy and all control group attributes will be reset. These operations are immediately reflected in the kernel hierarchy, and stored persistently to disk (unless `--runtime` is passed).

help `NAME`...|`PID`...

  Show manual pages for one or more units, if available. If a PID is passed the manual pages for the unit the process of the PID belongs to is shown.

reset-failed [`NAME`...]

  Reset the `failed` state of the specified units, or if no unit name is passed 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 restarted or reset with this command.

list-unit-files

  List installed unit files.

enable `NAME`...

  Enable one or more unit files or unit file instances, as specified on the command line. This will create a number of symlinks as encoded in the `[Install]` sections of the unit files. After the symlinks have been created the systemd configuration is reloaded (in a way that is equivalent to daemon-reload) to ensure the changes are taken into account immediately. Note that this does not have the effect that any of the units enabled are also started at the same time. If this is desired a separate start command must be invoked for the unit. Also note that in case of instance enablement, symlinks named same as instances are created in install location, however they all point to the same template unit file.

  This command will print the actions executed. This output may be suppressed by passing `--quiet`.

  Note that this operation creates only the suggested symlinks for the units. 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 in the 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, to ensure his 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` or `--global` is specified this enables the unit for the system, for the calling user only or for all future logins of all users. Note that in the last case no systemd daemon configuration is reloaded.

disable `NAME`...

  Disables one or more units. This removes all symlinks to the specified unit files from the unit configuration directory, and hence undoes the changes made by enable. Note however that this removes all symlinks to the unit files (i.e. including manual additions), not just those actually created by enable. This call implicitly reloads the systemd daemon configuration after completing the disabling of the units. Note that this command does not implicitly stop the units that are being disabled. If this is desired an additional stop command should be executed afterwards.

  This command will print the actions executed. This output may be suppressed by passing `--quiet`.

  This command honors `--system`, `--user`, `--global` in a similar way as enable.

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. To suppress this output use `--quiet`.

reenable `NAME`...

  Reenable one or more unit files, as specified on the command line. This is a combination of disable and enable and is useful to reset the symlinks a unit is enabled with to the defaults configured in the `[Install]` section of the unit file.

preset `NAME`...

  Reset 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. For more information on preset policy format see systemd.preset(5). For more information on the concept of presets please consult the Preset document.

mask `NAME`...

  Mask one or more unit files, as specified on the command line. This will link these units 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 manual activation. Use this option with care.

unmask `NAME`...

  Unmask one or more unit files, as specified on the command line. This will undo the effect of mask.

link `FILENAME`...

  Link a unit file that is not in the unit file search paths into the unit file search path. This requires an absolute path to a unit file. The effect of this can be undone with disable. The effect of this command is that a unit file is available for start and other commands although it isn't installed directly in the unit search path.

load `NAME`...

  Load one or more units specified on the command line. This will simply load their configuration from disk, but not start them. To start them you need to use the start command which will implicitly load a unit that has not been loaded yet. Note that systemd garbage collects loaded units that are not active or referenced by an active unit. This means that units loaded this way will usually not stay loaded for long. Also note that this command cannot be used to reload unit configuration. Use the daemon-reload command for that. All in all, this command is of little use except for debugging.

  This command should not be confused with the daemon-reload or reload.

list-jobs

  List jobs that are in progress.

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.

dump

  Dump server status. This will output a (usually very long) human readable manager status dump. Its format is subject to change without notice and should not be parsed by applications.

list-dependencies `NAME`

  Shows required and wanted units of the specified unit. If no unit is specified `default.target` is implied. Target units are recursively expanded. When `--all` is passed all other units are recursively expanded as well.

snapshot [`NAME`]

  Create a snapshot. If a snapshot name is specified, the new snapshot will be named after it. If none is specified an automatic snapshot name is generated. In either case, the snapshot name used is printed to STDOUT, unless `--quiet` is specified.

  A snapshot refers to a saved state of the systemd manager. It is implemented itself as a unit that is generated dynamically with this command and has dependencies on all units active at the time. At a later time the user may return to this state by using the isolate command on the snapshot unit.

  Snapshots are only useful for saving and restoring which units are running or are stopped, they do not save/restore any other state. Snapshots are dynamic and lost on reboot.

delete `NAME`...

  Remove a snapshot previously created with snapshot.

daemon-reload

  Reload systemd manager configuration. This will reload all unit files and recreate the entire dependency tree. While the daemon is reloaded, all sockets systemd listens on on behalf of user configuration will stay accessible.

  This command should not be confused with the load or reload commands.

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 reexecuted all sockets systemd listens on on behalf of user configuration will stay accessible.

show-environment

  Dump the systemd manager environment block. The environment block will be dumped in straight-forward form suitable for sourcing into a shell script. This environment block will be passed to all processes the manager spawns.

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.

default

  Enter default mode. This is mostly equivalent to isolate default.target.

rescue

  Enter rescue mode. This is mostly equivalent to isolate rescue.target but also prints a wall message to all users.

emergency

  Enter emergency mode. This is mostly equivalent to isolate emergency.target but also prints a wall message to all users.

halt

  Shut down and halt the system. This is mostly equivalent to start halt.target --irreversible but also prints a wall message to all users. 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.

poweroff

  Shut down and power-off the system. This is mostly equivalent to start poweroff.target --irreversible but also prints a wall message to all users. 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.

reboot

  Shut down and reboot the system. This is mostly equivalent to start reboot.target --irreversible but also prints a wall message to all users. 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.

kexec

  Shut down and reboot the system via kexec. This is mostly equivalent to start kexec.target --irreversible but also prints a wall message to all users. 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

  Ask the systemd manager to quit. This is only supported for user service managers (i.e. in conjunction with the `--user` option) and will fail otherwise.

suspend

  Suspend the system. This will trigger activation of the special `suspend.target` target.

hibernate

  Hibernate the system. This will trigger activation of the special `hibernate.target` target.

hybrid-sleep

  Hibernate and suspend the system. This will trigger activation of the special `hybrid-sleep.target` target.

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. Takes two arguments: the directory to make 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 or equal to the empty string 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.

## Exit status

On success 0 is returned, a non-zero failure code otherwise.

## Environment

`$SYSTEMD_PAGER`

  Pager to use when `--no-pager` is not given; overrides `$PAGER`. Setting this to an empty string or the value `cat` is equivalent to passing `--no-pager`.

## See Also

systemd(1), systemadm(1), journalctl(1), loginctl(1), systemd.unit(5), systemd.special(7), wall(1), systemd.preset(5)