Comparison of the service utility with systemctl – RHEL-7

In this post we are going to Comparison of the service utility with systemctl. In previous Redhat versions init scripts are used which is located at /etc/init.d directory. These are the bash scripts and used to control the state of services and daemons. Init scripts are replaced with service units in RHEL 7. Extension for the service files are .service work similar to init scripts. Systemctl command used to start, stop, restart, enable, or disable system services. The service and chkconfig commands are also still available. Below table describes a Comparison of the service utility with systemctl.

Also follow other topics for Differentrunlevels in RHEL and How to Enable or Disable services on boot with chkconfig | systemctl – RHEL-6/7/8

Comparison of the service utility with systemctl

Service	Systemctl	Description
service name start	systemctl start name.service	Starts a service.
service name stop	systemctl stop name.service	Stops a service.
service name restart	systemctl restart name.service	Restarts a service.
service name condrestart	systemctl try-restart name.service	Restarts a service only if it is running.
service name reload	systemctl reload name.service	Reloads configuration
service name status	systemctl status name.service	Checks if a service is running
	systemctl is-active name.service
service --status-all	systemctl list-units --type service --all	Displays the status of all services

Chkconfig	Systemctl	Description
chkconfig name on	systemctl enable name.service	Enables a service
chkconfig name off	systemctl disable name.service	Disables a service.
chkconfig --list name	systemctl status name.service	Checks if a service is enabled
	systemctl is-enabled name.service
chkconfig --list	systemctl list-unit-files --type service	Lists all services and checks if they are enabled.
chkconfig --list	systemctl list-dependencies --after	Lists services that are ordered to start before the specified unit
chkconfig --list	systemctl list-dependencies --before	Lists services that are ordered to start after the specified unit

SysV init Commands with systemctl Comparison

Old Command	New Command	Description
runlevel	systemctl list-units --type target	Lists currently loaded target units.
telinit runlevel	systemctl isolate name.target	Changes the current target.

 

Some chkconfig commands are below:

List the current runlevels where the services will be starting

# chkconfig --list httpd

httpd                     0:off      1:off      2:off      3:off      4:off      5:off      6:off

Enabling the service on runlevel 2,3,4 and 5 without specifying any runlevel

# chkconfig httpd on

httpd                     0:off      1:off      2:on       3:on       4:on       5:on       6:off 

Some systemctl commands are below:

To Display the Default target unit

# systemctl get-default

To View the Current Target

# systemctl list-units --type target

 

To List All Loaded Units

# systemctl list-units --type target --all

Also follow other topics for DifferentRun Levels in Linux and How to Enable or Disable services on boot with chkconfig | systemctl – RHEL-6/7/8