Starting and stopping systemd services

Publication Date: 22 Sep 2023

1 Environment #

This document applies to the following products and product versions:

SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3, 15 SP2, 15 SP1, 15 GA, 12 SP5, 12 SP4, 12 SP3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3, 15 SP2, 15 SP1, 15 GA, 12 SP5, 12 SP4, 12 SP3
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Availability Extension 15 SP3, 15 SP2, 15 SP1, 15 GA, 12 SP5, 12 SP4, 12 SP3
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3, 15 SP2, 15 SP1, 15 GA
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP3, 15 SP2, 15 SP1, 15 GA, 12 SP5, 12 SP4, 12 SP3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3, 15 SP2, 15 SP1, 15 GA, 12 SP5, 12 SP4, 12 SP3

2 Starting and stopping services with systemctl #

systemctl is the systemd command for managing services. The syntax for starting and stopping services manually is as follows:

systemctl start|stop|restart|try-restart|reload|reload-or-restart SERVICE-NAME

You can manage multiple services at once, for example, start two services:

systemctl start SERVICE-NAME1 SERVICE-NAME2

It is a best practice to use systemctl to stop services, rather than the ps command. A systemd service can include commands, processes, and dependencies. ps operates on single processes. Using ps may leave a systemd service in an inconsistent state.

systemctl also controls whether services start at boot, see xref linkend="FOO".

3 Starting and stopping services with systemctl #

systemctl status SERVICE-NAME: Check if a service is running, stopped, enabled, or masked, and display the most recent log entries.
systemctl start SERVICE-NAME: Start a service.
systemctl stop SERVICE-NAME: Stop a service.
systemctl restart SERVICE-NAME: Stop the service and then start it. If a service is not running it will be started.
systemctl try-restart SERVICE-NAME: Restart a service if it is running. This has no effect on a service that is not running.
systemctl reload SERVICE-NAME: Reload the service's configuration file without interrupting operation.
systemctl reload-or-restart SERVICE-NAME: Reload the service if it supports reloading, otherwise it restarts the service. If the service is not running it will be started.