Can systemctl list all enabled services, including legacy services?

Question

This question asks: "How to list all enabled services from systemctl?" Answers on that page include:

systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled
systemctl list-unit-files --state=enabled

At least as of systemd version 229 (on Ubuntu 16.04), systemctl list-unit-files will not include "LSB" services that are launched via legacy init scripts.

Therefore, the original question seems to remain unanswered: Can systemd display a list of ALL the services (and other unit types) that it will try to start at boot, including legacy services?

Consider:

$ systemctl list-units | grep LSB | grep grub
  grub-common.service    loaded    active exited    LSB: Record successful boot for GRUB

$ systemctl list-unit-files | grep enabled | grep grub || echo 'nothing found'
nothing found

$ systemctl is-enabled grub-common
grub-common.service is not a native service, redirecting to systemd-sysv-install
Executing /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install is-enabled grub-common
enabled

systemctl knows about grub-common, and if you ask explicitly systemctl will tell you it is enabled.

So... is there a way to get systemd to display a list of ALL the services it will attempt to run at boot, including legacy scripts?

Does `systemctl list-units --type service --all` work for you? — George Udosen, Dec 18 '17 at 07:26
Newer versions of systemd may include legacy services in `list-unit-files`. For example, Debian 9 (Stretch) has systemd version 232. However, I only have one LSB service on that system: `raspi-config.service`. It is `enabled`, but its state is `generated`. It **is** listed when I run `systemctl list-unit-files --state=generated`. But now we have a new wrinkle: a service that `is-enabled` but whose state is not `enabled`. So it appears there is not a one-to-one mapping between being `enabled` and having a state of `enabled`. — mpb, Dec 18 '17 at 23:43

score 6 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 18 '17 at 07:31

6

I believe the command you want is:

systemctl list-units --type service --all

This from my test lists all service even those from legacy boot services.

Source:

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/system_administrators_guide/sect-managing_services_with_systemd-services

answered Dec 18 '17 at 07:31

George Udosen

1,807
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26

2

I believe `systemctl list-units --type service --all` will list all services, not all enabled services. I just want enabled services, i.e., services that systemd will attempt to start at boot. – mpb Dec 18 '17 at 23:33
For me just running this works, and lists all "loaded" services, which AFAICT includes everything it attempted to load at boot time, ref: https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-systemctl-to-manage-systemd-services-and-units#adjusting-the-system-state-(runlevel)-with-targets maybe it's a version thing... – rogerdpack May 08 '19 at 20:15

Pablo A · Answer 2 · 2021-10-29T07:23:04.370

I believe what you want is

systemctl list-unit-files --type service --state enabled

Use list-unit-files to list installed unit files (not only the ones currently in memory). Some related sections from man page:

  list-units [PATTERN...]             List units currently in memory

  list-unit-files [PATTERN...]        List installed unit files
  
  is-enabled UNIT...                  Check whether unit files are enabled

-t --type=TYPE         List units of a particular type
   --state=STATE       List units with particular LOAD or SUB or ACTIVE state

-a --all               Show all properties/all units currently in memory,
                       including dead/empty ones. To list all units installed
                       on the system, use 'list-unit-files' instead.

On old versions of systemd this wasn't true:

In really old systemd versions "systemctl list-unit-files" only showed native unit files. In newer versions we also display generated unit files, to make them more discoverable.

I tested each generated services with is-enabled. Some return enabled, some disabled, and some a third state "generated" (which all are). I'm not sure about those.

systemctl is-enabled $(systemctl list-unit-files --type service --state generated | awk '/.*\.service/ {print $1}' | tr '\n' ' ') |& grep "^\w*$" | sort | uniq -c | sort -rn

Can systemctl list all enabled services, including legacy services?

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