NAME

service — run or list system services

SYNOPSIS

service

[-elv]

service

[-ev] rc_script_name1 [rc_script_name2 [...]]

service

[-v] rc_script_name action

DESCRIPTION

The service command is a simple interface to the services startup system.

Its purpose is to list the services or invoke actions on them as provided by the rc.d scripts. When used to invoke rc.d scripts, service will set the same environment that is used at boot time.

The options are as follows:

-e

List services that are enabled. The list of scripts is compiled using rcorder(8) the same way as is done in rc(8); each script is first checked for an “rcvar” assignment and if present, checked to see if it is enabled. If one or more rc_script_name are specified, only those are checked. The rc_script_name arguments are always specified without a path prefix.

-l

List all files in /etc/rc.d (the default of rc_directories as defined in rc.conf(5)). A script will be listed unless it has the “nostart” keyword enabled.

-v

Report what rc_directories are defined or in which directory the rc.d script was found when an action is invoked.

ENVIRONMENT

When used to invoke rc.d scripts, the service command sets umask to 022, HOME to /, and PATH to /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin which is how they are set in /etc/rc at boot time. The action is typically one of start, restart, status, or any other argument supported by the rc_script_name.

EXIT STATUS

The service utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES

These are typical usages of the service command:

# service sshd restart 
Stopping sshd. 
Starting sshd.

$ service -v inetd status 
inetd is located in /etc/rc.d 
inetd is running as pid 1713.

$ service -ve ccd motd hostapd my_pkg 
rc_directories is /etc/rc.d /usr/pkg/etc/rc.d 
/etc/rc.d/ccd 
/usr/pkg/etc/rc.d/my_pkg 
/etc/rc.d/motd

In the last example, hostapd(8) was apparently left disabled and the additional directory /usr/pkg/etc/rc.d was configured by redefining the variable rc_directories in rc.conf; further, my_pkg=yes must have also been set.

SEE ALSO

rc.conf(5), rc(8), rcorder(8)

HISTORY

The service utility first appeared in NetBSD 7.0.

AUTHORS

Written for FreeBSD by Douglas Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org>.

Adapted and extended to NetBSD by Adrian Steinmann <ast@marabu.ch>.