Operation Manual

8.1 Basic Usage

The SysV init system utilized several different commands to handle services— the init

scripts, insserv, telinit and others. systemd makes it easier to manage services,

since there is only one command to memorize for the majority of service handling tasks:

systemctl.It uses the command plus subcommand notation like git or zypper:

systemctl [general OPTIONS] subcommand [subcommand OPTIONS]

See man 1 systemctl for a complete manual.

TIP: Terminal Output and Bash Completion

If the output goes to a terminal (and not to a pipe or a le, for example)

systemd commands send long output to a pager by default. Use the

--no-pager option to turn off paging mode.

systemd also supports bash-completion, allowing you to enter the rst letters

of a subcommand and then hit →| to automatically complete it. This feature

is only available in the bash Shell and requires the installation of the package

bash-completion.

8.1.1 Managing Services in a Running

System

Subcommands for managing services are the same as for managing a service with SysV

init (start, stop, ...). The general syntax for service management commands is as

follows:

systemd

SysV init

systemd allows to manage several services in one go. Instead of executing init scripts

one after the other as with SysV init, execute a command like the following:

134 Reference