What are some basic Linux systemd service management commands?

Here’s a systemd command cheatsheet that you can use to manage services on Linux:

Starting and stopping a systemd unit

This happens at the moment you give the command:

systemctl start daveservice
systemctl stop daveservice
systemctl restart daveservice

Enabling and Disabling a systemd Unit

This changes what happens at boot, but not what happens in the moment. If a service is running and you DISABLE it, it’ll continue running. All you’ve done is tell systemd that you don’t want it started the next time the system boots.

systemctl enable daveservice
systemctl disable daveservice

How to check the status of a systemd unit (Linux Service)

This lets you see if the service is running, enabled, some relevant process information, and a preview of the latest log messages.

systemctl status daveservice

To check logs, run

journalctl -u foo-daemon

Resources

A great site that I find myself going back to every once in a while is https://www.shellhacks.com/systemd-service-file-example/
It contains an example, along with a write-up of the most common available configuration directives that a unit file can accept.