How to list all enabled services from systemctl?

Question

How can I list all enabled services from systemctl?

I know running systemctl command by itself lists all services, but I would like to only get the enabled ones.

what do you mean by enabled? You mean services that are running? — Gen, Jul 05 '16 at 18:28
@Gen enabling a service is quite different from starting it. See `man systemctl`. — Jos, Jul 05 '16 at 18:35
Fascinating. The lowest rated answer is the most "correct" answer, even though it is clearly not the best answer. This excellent question (and its answers) is an interesting example of how systemd violates the long-standing (and brilliant) design principles of Unix & Co. @FelipeAlvarez complains that the most-accepted answer assumes systemd follows the unix design philosopy, but systemd/systemctl can do exactly what he wants (most experienced users will just consider that complete bloat). I begin to see more clearly why Linus Torvalds is so vehemently critical of systemd. — BISI, Dec 13 '18 at 18:20
If you want to list "templated" services (blabla@instance.service), do not forget to add "--all" - thanks to @rafdouglas below. — jehon, Jul 06 '22 at 14:01

Delorean · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-05T19:05:41.727

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systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled will list all enabled ones.

If you want which ones are currently running, you need systemctl | grep running.

Use the one you're looking for. Enabled, doesn't mean it's running. And running doesn't mean it's enabled. They are two different things.

Enabled means the system will run the service on the next boot. So if you enable a service, you still need to manually start it, or reboot and it will start.

Running means it's actually running right now, but if it's not enabled, it won't restart when you reboot.

edited Jul 05 '16 at 19:05

answered Jul 05 '16 at 18:52

Delorean

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annoying to have to use an external tool (grep) to show this vital information. But thank you for showing us the way :) – Felipe Alvarez Feb 15 '17 at 02:43
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@FelipeAlvarez You're welcome! However, grep is not an external tool, it's a base command. You could always write your own scripts with simpler names that will run those commands for you. I do this often myself. – Delorean Feb 15 '17 at 20:36
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Grep is not systemctl, so the OS has to make another call to another tool. That's what I meant :-) One tool (systemctl) should do one job, very, very well. – Felipe Alvarez Feb 15 '17 at 23:23
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@FelipeAlvarez Correct. But that's how Linux works. Many small binaries that work well with each other. systemctl does what is asked, it lists services. There is no filtering command built-in to systemctl because grep already exists and can do that well with any program's output. It's how it's always been :) – Delorean Feb 16 '17 at 16:01
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I agree and so it should be. But, systemd already tries to do SO much that I wonder why it can't list enabled services? – Felipe Alvarez Feb 18 '17 at 00:45
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@FelipeAlvarez Linux is all about small tools, and it's part of Linux's philosophy which was inherited from Unix : "Make each program do one thing well. To do a new job, build afresh rather than complicate old programs by adding new "features"." - [The Bell System Technical Journal from 1978](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy) – Delorean Mar 20 '17 at 19:12
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`systemctl | grep running` do not list anything to me! Even if something is running is only listed as for his status like: `enabled, disabled, masked, static` – Cirelli94 Apr 13 '17 at 10:34
+1 I was able to grep systemctl to see if mysql service was running using `systemctl | grep -E 'running.*active|active.*running' | grep mys` – Eric Hepperle - CodeSlayer2010 Apr 20 '17 at 16:01
@Cirelli94 That is odd. `systemctl` with no other options shows an output where the 4th column states if something is running/failed/exited etc. Are you sure you're running Ubuntu 16.04? – Delorean Apr 20 '17 at 18:16
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@EricHepperle-CodeSlayer2010 You don't even need that much, you can just do `systemctl | grep mysql` to see if it's running. – Delorean Apr 20 '17 at 18:18
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Simpler: `systemctl list-unit-files --state=running` – Will Sep 02 '17 at 10:40
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It appears that `systemctl list-unit-files` does not list ALL serivces. For example, it does not list `tinc`, even though tinc is enabled. Maybe `systemctl list-unit-files` only lists services that have unit files? But fails to lists any services that might be enabled via legacy sysv style init scripts? – mpb Dec 17 '17 at 22:42
grepping the output of systemctl seems to produce a mess of lines broken in weird places... – Tom Feb 19 '18 at 15:03
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@TomH No issues here on 16.04 or 17.10 or 18.04. Verify your installation. – Delorean Feb 21 '18 at 05:46
In general, the names of unit files do not have to be the same as the names of units. For example on 18.04 there is a unit file `sshd.service`, but the unit is actually called `ssh.service`. Same with service templates. – OrangeDog Jan 11 '19 at 18:28
This does not work for *instances* that take an argument, e.g. you may have `my@x.service` enabled and `my@y.service` disabled. All you will see from `systemctl list-unit-files` is `my@.service indirect` which is useless. – Walf Jul 23 '20 at 08:30
@Walf try to add `--all` to systemctl command . – digital_infinity Sep 14 '20 at 10:33
@digital_infinity that made no difference to instances. – Walf Sep 15 '20 at 02:18
@Walf I used `--all` with instances after I had made them them enabled to list status of all instances or start them all. Did use wildcards ? (`systemctl list-unit-files 'my@*' --all`) – digital_infinity Sep 16 '20 at 07:33
@Walf Now I can see `--all` works correctly with `status` but does not work with `list-unit-files` – digital_infinity Sep 16 '20 at 07:45
No systemd unit file must ever contain the string "running" or "enabled". `long_running_backup.service` or `gpu_enabled_calculation.service` will lead to bugs in the future. – Unix philosophy at its best. – ominug Nov 18 '22 at 08:58
To make it a bit more robust: add parameter `--no-legend` to systemctl and `-w` to grep. – ominug Nov 18 '22 at 09:13

score 186 · Answer 2 · edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

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man systemctl states:

--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.

Explanation:

LOAD: Reflects whether the unit definition was properly loaded.
ACTIVE: The high-level unit activation state, i.e. generalization of SUB.
SUB: The low-level unit activation state, values depend on unit type.

Though you can also use this to only show enabled units with:

systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled

If a unit is enabled that means that the system will start it on startup. Though setting something to enabled doesn't actually also start it so you will need to do that manually, or reboot the system after setting it to enabled.

edited Jun 12 '20 at 14:37

Community

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answered Jul 05 '16 at 18:58

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To enable and start at the same time: `systemctl enable --now ...` – Mmmh mmh Jul 29 '17 at 20:24
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`--state=enabled` has no effect on systemd version 215 (on Raspbian 8 Jessie), but it does work on systemd version 229 (on Ubuntu 16.04.03 Xenial). – mpb Dec 17 '17 at 22:15
@mpb: But yet it works perfectly fine on version 235 on Arch Linux. – Dec 17 '17 at 23:07
You can also check `--state=generated` for generated unit files that might be running (the pihole-FTL service works this way, for example). – mgalgs Aug 26 '21 at 17:24
1. The answer lacks of a `--type service` to filter only that type of units. 2. @mgalgs `list-unit-files` [now includes](https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2019-May/042555.html) generated units – Pablo Bianchi Oct 29 '21 at 07:18
You don't have the service(s) if they are based on a template `servicename@.service` while `--list-units` does – Mat M Mar 15 '23 at 12:51

score 97 · Answer 3 · edited Mar 20 '19 at 18:39

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To list all the systemd service which are in state=active and sub=running

systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running

To list all the systemd serice which are in state=active and sub either running or exited

systemctl list-units --type=service --state=active

edited Mar 20 '19 at 18:39

Pablo Bianchi

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answered Sep 14 '17 at 03:59

Ankit Kumar Honey

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`--list-units` show the service(s) if they are based on a template `servicename@.service` +1 – Mat M Mar 15 '23 at 12:52

score 23 · Answer 4 · edited Jul 30 '18 at 18:07

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To see 'enabled' services including these that are still under upstart/init run:

systemctl list-unit-files --type service --state enabled,generated

To see all of the currently running services run:

systemctl list-units --type service --state running

edited Jul 30 '18 at 18:07

Stephen Rauch

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answered Jul 30 '18 at 16:51

nix-power

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Unfortunately the names of the services can be different in the two lists - e.g. `sshd` vs. `ssh` and `syslog` vs. `rsyslog`. – OrangeDog Jan 11 '19 at 18:35
The only "non grep" right answer. Though not sure why upstart is mentioned... – rogerdpack Jul 05 '19 at 16:53
`list-unit-files` [now includes](https://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/systemd-devel/2019-May/042555.html) generated units – Pablo Bianchi Oct 29 '21 at 07:20

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Jan 14 '20 at 11:36

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There is a good GUI application called Stacer where you can manage all the services.

Check its Github link Stacer Github
Also check Web for more info

answered Jan 14 '20 at 11:36

yathomasi

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score 11 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 02 '19 at 15:41

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Also overview of all active and failed services:

systemctl list-units --type service --state running,failed

answered Sep 02 '19 at 15:41

panticz

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score 6 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 04 '20 at 08:04

In addition to the current answers, I use the following to get just the names of the services:

systemctl list-units --type=service --state=active,running | awk '/.*\.service/ {print $1}'

Rather than the tabular format, this makes it easier to pipe just those services to another program

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Jul 05 '22 at 09:02

What about systemctl unit templates?

To list also templated units, you might want to use:

systemctl list-units --all|grep yourservice

The --all switch shows also all units which have been instantiated with

systemctl <service_name>@<argument>.service

From the man page:

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.

Example:

systemctl openvpn@my_office_endopoint.service

Further reading: https://fedoramagazine.org/systemd-template-unit-files/

The "--all" parameter was missing from other replies! – jehon Jul 06 '22 at 13:59 — jehon, Jul 06 '22 at 13:59

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered May 15 '23 at 10:51

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To list user otheruser's active user services:

sudo runuser -l otheruser-c "systemctl --user list-units --type=service --state=active"

answered May 15 '23 at 10:51

Abdull

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How to list all enabled services from systemctl?

9 Answers9

What about systemctl unit templates?

Linked