neulab/tldr huggingface dataset:
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 FileDescriptorStoreMax= 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 UNIT 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 command is dangerous, since it will immediately stop processes that are not enabled in the new target, 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.
clean PATTERN... Remove the configuration, state, cache, logs or runtime data of the specified units. Use --what= to select which kind of resource to remove. For service units this may be used to remove the directories configured with ConfigurationDirectory=, StateDirectory=, CacheDirectory=, LogsDirectory= and RuntimeDirectory=, see systemd.exec(5) for details. For timer units this may be used to clear out the persistent timestamp data if Persistent= is used and --what=state is selected, see systemd.timer(5). This command only applies to units that use either of these settings. If --what= is not specified, both the cache and runtime data are removed (as these two types of data are generally redundant and reproducible on the next invocation of the unit).
freeze PATTERN... Freeze one or more units specified on the command line using cgroup freezer
Freezing the unit will cause all processes contained within the cgroup corresponding to the unit to be suspended. Being suspended means that unit's processes won't be scheduled to run on CPU until thawed. Note that this command is supported only on systems that use unified cgroup hierarchy. Unit is automatically thawed just before we execute a job against the unit, e.g. before the unit is stopped.
thaw PATTERN... Thaw (unfreeze) one or more units specified on the command line.
This is the inverse operation to the freeze command and resumes the execution of processes in the unit's cgroup.
set-property UNIT PROPERTY=VALUE... 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 immediately, 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 CPUWeight=200
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.
Example: systemctl set-property foobar.service CPUWeight=200 MemoryMax=2G IPAccounting=yes
Like with unit file configuration settings, assigning an empty setting usually resets a property to its defaults.
Example: systemctl set-property avahi-daemon.service IPAddressDeny=
bind UNIT PATH [PATH] Bind-mounts a file or directory from the host into the specified unit's mount namespace. The first path argument is the source file or directory on the host, the second path argument is the destination file or directory in the unit's mount namespace. When the latter is omitted, the destination path in the unit's mount namespace is the same as the source path on the host. When combined with the --read-only switch, a ready-only bind mount is created. When combined with the --mkdir switch, the destination path is first created before the mount is applied.
Note that this option is currently only supported for units that run within a mount namespace (e.g.: with RootImage=, PrivateMounts=, etc.). This command supports bind-mounting directories, regular files, device nodes, AF_UNIX socket nodes, as well as FIFOs. The bind mount is ephemeral, and it is undone as soon as the current unit process exists. Note that the namespace mentioned here, where the bind mount will be added to, is the one where the main service process runs. Other processes (those exececuted by ExecReload=, ExecStartPre=, etc.) run in distinct namespaces.
mount-image UNIT IMAGE [PATH [PARTITION_NAME:MOUNT_OPTIONS]] Mounts an image from the host into the specified unit's mount namespace. The first path argument is the source image on the host, the second path argument is the destination directory in the unit's mount namespace (i.e. inside RootImage=/RootDirectory=). The following argument, if any, is interpreted as a colon-separated tuple of partition name and comma-separated list of mount options for that partition. The format is the same as the service MountImages= setting. When combined with the --read-only switch, a ready-only mount is created. When combined with the --mkdir switch, the destination path is first created before the mount is applied.
Note that this option is currently only supported for units that run within a mount namespace (i.e. with RootImage=, PrivateMounts=, etc.). Note that the namespace mentioned here where the image mount will be added to, is the one where the main service process runs. Note that the namespace mentioned here, where the bind mount will be added to, is the one where the main service process runs. Other processes (those exececuted by ExecReload=, ExecStartPre=, etc.) run in distinct namespaces.
systemctl mount-image foo.service /tmp/img.raw /var/lib/image root:ro,nosuid
systemctl mount-image --mkdir bar.service /tmp/img.raw /var/lib/baz/img
service-log-level SERVICE [LEVEL] If the LEVEL argument is not given, print the current log level as reported by service SERVICE.
If the optional argument LEVEL is provided, then change the current log level of the service to LEVEL. The log level should be a typical syslog log level, i.e. a value in the range 0...7 or one of the strings emerg, alert, crit, err, warning, notice, info, debug; see syslog(3) for details.
The service must have the appropriate BusName=destination property and also implement the generic org.freedesktop.LogControl1(5) interface. (systemctl will use the generic D-Bus protocol to access the org.freedesktop.LogControl1.LogLevel interface for the D-Bus name destination.)
service-log-target SERVICE [TARGET] If the TARGET argument is not given, print the current log target as reported by service SERVICE.
If the optional argument TARGET is provided, then change the current log target of the service to TARGET. The log target should be one of the strings console (for log output to the service's standard error stream), kmsg (for log output to the kernel log buffer), journal (for log output to systemd-journald.service(8) using the native journal protocol), syslog (for log output to the classic syslog socket /dev/log), null (for no log output whatsoever) or auto (for an automatically determined choice, typically equivalent to console if the service is invoked interactively, and journal or syslog otherwise).
For most services, only a small subset of log targets make sense. In particular, most "normal" services should only implement console, journal, and null. Anything else is only appropriate for low-level services that are active in very early boot before proper logging is established.
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.
In addition to resetting the "failed" state of a unit it also resets various other per-unit properties: the start rate limit counter of all unit types is reset to zero, as is the restart counter of service units. Thus, if a unit's start limit (as configured with StartLimitIntervalSec=/StartLimitBurst=) is hit and the unit refuses to be started again, use this command to make it startable again.
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).
Unlike list-units this command will list template units in addition to explicitly instantiated units.
enable UNIT..., 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. The file system where the linked unit files are located must be accessible when systemd is started (e.g. anything underneath /home/ or /var/ is not allowed, unless those directories are located on the root file system).
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 UNIT... 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 UNIT... 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 UNIT... 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.  UNIT must be the real unit name, any alias names are ignored silently.
For more information on the preset policy format, see systemd.preset(5).
preset-all Resets all installed unit files to the defaults configured in the preset policy file (see above).
is-enabled UNIT... 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.
mask UNIT... 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 UNIT... 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. The file system where the linked unit files are located must be accessible when systemd is started (e.g. anything underneath /home/ or /var/ is not allowed, unless those directories are located on the root file system).
revert UNIT... 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 UNIT..., add-requires TARGET UNIT... 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 UNIT... 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 TARGET 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 systemd supports an environment block that is passed to processes the manager spawns. The names of the variables can contain ASCII letters, digits, and the underscore character. Variable names cannot be empty or start with a digit. In variable values, most characters are allowed, but the whole sequence must be valid UTF-8. (Note that control characters like newline (NL), tab (TAB), or the escape character (ESC), are valid ASCII and thus valid UTF-8). The total length of the environment block is limited to _SC_ARG_MAX value defined by sysconf(3).
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. This command will fail if variable names and values do not conform to the rules listed above.
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 a list of environment variable names is passed, client-side values are then imported into the manager's environment block. If any names are not valid environment variable names or have invalid values according to the rules described above, an error is raised. If no arguments are passed, the entire environment block inherited by the systemctl process is imported. In this mode, any inherited invalid environment variables are quietly ignored.
Importing of the full inherited environment block (calling this command without any arguments) is deprecated. A shell will set dozens of variables which only make sense locally and are only meant for processes which are descendants of the shell. Such variables in the global environment block are confusing to other processes.
Manager State 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.
log-level [LEVEL] If no argument is given, print the current log level of the manager. If an optional argument LEVEL is provided, then the command changes the current log level of the manager to LEVEL (accepts the same values as --log-level= described in systemd(1)).
log-target [TARGET] If no argument is given, print the current log target of the manager. If an optional argument TARGET is provided, then the command changes the current log target of the manager to TARGET (accepts the same values as --log-target=, described in systemd(1)).
service-watchdogs [yes|no] If no argument is given, print the current state of service runtime watchdogs of the manager. If an optional boolean argument is provided, then globally enables or disables the service runtime watchdogs (WatchdogSec=) and emergency actions (e.g.  OnFailure= or StartLimitAction=); see systemd.service(5). The hardware watchdog is not affected by this setting.
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.
Use --wait to wait until the boot process is completed before printing the current state and returning the appropriate error status. If --wait is in use, states initializing or starting will not be reported, instead the command will block until a later state (such as running or degraded) is reached.
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  │ > 0       │ │             │ the job 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        │ > 0       │ │             │ operational but one  │           │ │             │ or more units        │           │ │             │ failed.              │           │ ├─────────────┼──────────────────────┼───────────┤ │maintenance  │ The rescue or        │ > 0       │ │             │ emergency target is  │           │ │             │ active.              │           │ ├─────────────┼──────────────────────┼───────────┤ │stopping     │ The manager is       │ > 0       │ │             │ shutting down.       │           │ ├─────────────┼──────────────────────┼───────────┤ │offline      │ The manager is not   │ > 0       │ │             │ running.             │           │ │             │ Specifically, this   │           │ │             │ is the operational   │           │ │             │ state if an          │           │ │             │ incompatible program │           │ │             │ is running as system │           │ │             │ manager (PID 1).     │           │ ├─────────────┼──────────────────────┼───────────┤ │unknown      │ The operational      │ > 0       │ │             │ state could 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 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 switch --reboot-argument= is given, it will be passed as the optional argument to the reboot(2) system call.
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.
suspend-then-hibernate Suspend the system and hibernate it after the delay specified in systemd-sleep.conf. This will trigger activation of the special target unit suspend-then-hibernate.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 or hibernate/thaw cycle to complete.
Parameter Syntax Unit commands listed above take either a single unit name (designated as UNIT), 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
# systemctl start sshd.service
are equivalent, as are
# systemctl isolate default
# 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 UNIT should be the name of the unit file (possibly abbreviated, see above), or the absolute path to the unit file:
# systemctl enable foo.service
# systemctl link /path/to/foo.service
-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.
-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, most of which are derived or closely match the options described 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.
-P Equivalent to --value --property=, i.e. shows the value of the property without the property name or "=". Note that using -P once will also affect all properties listed with -p/--property=.
-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).
When used with status, show journal messages in full, even if they include unprintable characters or are very long. By default, fields with unprintable characters are abbreviated as "blob data". (Note that the pager may escape unprintable characters again.)
-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.
--with-dependencies When used with status, cat, list-units, and list-unit-files, those commands print all specified units and the dependencies of those units.
-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 "=". Also see option -P above.
--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", "flush", or "triggering". 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.
"triggering" may only be used with systemctl stop. In this mode, the specified unit and any active units that trigger it are stopped. See the discussion of Triggers= in systemd.unit(5) for more information about triggering units.
-T, --show-transaction When enqueuing a unit job (for example as effect of a systemctl start invocation or similar), show brief information about all jobs enqueued, covering both the requested job and any added because of unit dependencies. Note that the output will only include jobs immediately part of the transaction requested. It is possible that service start-up program code run as effect of the enqueued jobs might request further jobs to be pulled in. This means that completion of the listed jobs might ultimately entail more jobs than the listed ones.
--fail Shorthand for --job-mode=fail.
When used with the kill command, if no units were killed, the operation results in an error.
--check-inhibitors= When system shutdown or sleep state is request, this option controls how to deal with inhibitor locks. It takes one of "auto", "yes" or "no". Defaults to "auto", which will behave like "yes" for interactive invocations (i.e. from a TTY) and "no" for non-interactive invocations.  "yes" will let the request respect inhibitor locks.  "no" will let the request 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 (unless privileged) and a list of active locks is printed. However, if "no" is specified or "auto" is specified on a non-interactive requests, the established locks are ignored and not shown, and the operation attempted anyway, possibly requiring additional privileges. May be overridden by --force.
-i Shortcut for --check-inhibitors=no.
--dry-run Just print what would be done. Currently supported by verbs halt, poweroff, reboot, kexec, suspend, hibernate, hybrid-sleep, suspend-then-hibernate, 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".
When used with is-system-running, wait until the boot process is completed before returning.
--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.