The service utility can be used for control and administration of services.
It is composed of several sub commands run by issuing
service <command> [arguments..].
Currently available service commands are:
- enable - enable a service with the given list of arguments.
- disable - disable a service. If the service is parameterized, requires the same arguments used for enabling, to disable the specific instance of the service.
- dumpscript - generate an equivalent shell script from the
execlines of a service after applying all parameter substitutions. - list - list all enabled service. A target can be specified to only list services for the specified target.
- help - display a short help text and a list of available commands.
- start - start one or more services listed on the command line.
- stop - stop one or more services listed on the command line.
- status - display status of all services or the ones specified on the command line.
The programs shudown and reboot can be used to signal to the init program
that it should transition to the shutdown or reboot target respectively.
The option -f or --force can be used to by pass the init system entirely
and force a hard reset or power off by directly signalling the kernel.
Running any one of those programs requires superuser privileges.