using systemctl

guide.md

Using Systemctl

Adapted/shortened from digitalocean

Creating a unit file

nano /etc/systemd/system/app.service

[Unit]
Description=App
After=multi-user.target
Wants=network-online.target  # all these lines are optional
After=network-online.target

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/home/user/...
User=user
Group=user
ExecStart=/usr/bin/... #full command with full paths
Type=idle
Restart=always
RestartSec=15

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

• systemctl daemon-reload reloads all unit files
• systemctl cat app.service views the unit file

Auto Start

• systemctl enable app.service
• systemctl disable app.service

Start / Stop / Status

• systemctl start app.service
• systemctl stop app.service
• systemctl status app.service

Logs

journalctl -u app.service -f - -f is the tail argument