4 systemd tools that make everyday Linux troubleshooting much easier

4 systemd tools that make everyday Linux troubleshooting much easier

4 systemd tools that make everyday Linux troubleshooting much easier

https://www.howtogeek.com/4-systemd-tools-that-make-everyday-linux-troubleshooting-much-easier/

Publish Date: 2026-02-13 12:30:00

Source Domain: www.howtogeek.com

Some people love systemd and can’t stop raving about it; others love to hate it and can’t stop throwing shade at it. Even though systemd remains divisive, one thing’s for sure: since nearly all modern Linux distributions have adopted it as their default init system, learning to use it can pay off big time. Here’s a basic overview of how to use four systemd tools that make troubleshooting on Linux a breeze.

Systemctl: The modern way to manage services

Systemctl is the gateway to service management on systemd-based Linux distributions. It can start and stop services, restart or reload them, enable or disable them, and help you learn so much more about the status of the different services on your system. Checking the status of a particular service is usually the first step in troubleshooting. You can use systemctl to show all running service units:

systemctl list-units –type=service

The state option can tell you more about failed services:

systemctl list-units –state=failed



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