systemd cheat sheet

> systemd cheat sheet.md

systemd Cheat Sheet

Add/Edit a Unit (.service)

# add new .service file
cp app.service /etc/systemd/system/

# or edit existing
systemctl edit --full app.service

# reload the systemd process (to pick up a changes)
systemctl daemon-reload

# enable service (to let it started automatically at boot)
systemctl enable app.service

Querying State and Logs

# information about the process, and the latest logs
systemctl status app.service

# tail service logs
journalctl -u app.service -f

Unit Management

# start service
systemctl start nginx.service

# stop service
systemctl stop nginx.service

# restart service
systemctl restart nginx.service

# reload service (without interrupting normal functionality)
systemctl reload nginx.service

# disable enabled service
systemctl disable app.service

Resources

• Systemd Essentials - systemctl and journalctl basic usage
• Understanding Systemd Unit Files, systemd.service - man for modifying/creating systemd unit files, e.g. .service

app.service

[Unit]
After=network.target, syslog.target
Conflicts=shutdown.target

[Service]
Type=simple
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=30
TimeoutSec=5min
WorkingDirectory=/opt/listx
ExecStart=/usr/bin/java -jar /opt/listx/listx.jar /opt/listx/listx.properties
ExecStop=/bin/fuser 8080/tcp -k
# or ExecStop=/bin/kill $(ps aux | grep 'listx.jar' | awk '{print $2}')

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target