How to check all services running in Linux

When using any Linux distribution, several processes and services will run together. Some services may run in the background without the user's knowledge. Running unnecessary services can consume a lot of system resources or cause security problems.

Therefore, it is necessary to know all the services that are running on the system. In this article, TipsMake.com will show you all possible ways to list the services running on Linux computers.

How to check the services running in Linux

First, understand the Linux services. If the service has a script, then it comes with three states:

1. start (start)
2. stop
3. restart

This is all done with the - service command . For example, to restart service network-manager, run the following command:

sudo service network-manager restart

The service command references each service using the init script stored in /etc/init.d for Ubuntu and any other Debian-based distributions, and etc / rc.d / init.d for the distributions. Linux distribution is based on RedHat. Some service names vary by distribution. For example, the Apache web server service is httpd on CentOS and Apache2 on Ubuntu.

Many Linux distributions belong to the following init systems:

1. System V (SysV) , is the original init system.
2. Upstart
3. systemd , is the newest init system as of the time of writing.

Check all services running in the System V (SysV) init system

Let's take a look at some of the Terminal commands you can use to list all services running on the SysV init system.

service --status-all

Service -status-all command output

The above command lists all the services running in the system. In case the service is running a lot, you can use the additional parameters - more and less to list the services in the view in an organized and clear manner.

service --status-all | less

Service command output –status-all | Less

service --status-all | more

Service command output –status-all | More

To list only services currently running on the system, execute the command below:

service --status-all | grep running

To view the status of a specific service, execute the command below:

service --status-all | grep [service_name] e.g service --status-all | grep httpd

Alternatively, you can execute the below command to view the status of a specific service.

service httpd status

To list all services that are activated during boot, execute the command below:

chkconfig --list

Check all services running in the Upstart init system

To list all services on Linux machines running the Upstart init system, execute the command below:

initctl list

Check all the services running in the Systemd init system

To list all services on Linux machines running Systemd init, execute the following command:

systemctl

Systemctl command output

From the above command, we see that the data is displayed in 5 columns, namely UNIT, LOAD, ACTIVE, SUB and DESCRIPTION .

You can also list running services based on their type with the following command:

systemctl list-units --type service

Output command systemctl list-units –type

You can also list services based on their current state. The result is quite similar to the output of the previous command but a bit simpler.

systemctl list-unit-files --type service

systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled

To list the status of a specific service, execute the command below:

systemctl status [service_name] e.g systemctl status acpid.path

Systemctl status acpid.path command

To list only services currently running on the system, execute the command below:

systemctl | grep running

The systemctl command | grep running

To list all services that are activated during boot, execute the command below:

systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled

The command systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled

You can also view the top control groups and their use of system resources such as I / O, CPU, Tasks and Memory using the systemd-cgtop command .

systemd-cgtop

Systemd-cgtop command output

It is also possible to use pstree to list all services running on the system. Pstree gets this information from the Systemd system output.

pstree

Pstree command output

Pstree can also be used with the System V int system. It takes the output from the SysVinit system.

pstree

You can also use the chkservice utility to check all the services running on the Systemd system. This utility is not preinstalled. However, you can install it via Terminal using the command below:

sudo apt-get install chkservice

Chkservice installation command

To start the chkservice, execute the command below. Note, you need superuser rights.

sudo chkservice

The command starts chkservice

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