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.\" Copyright (c) 2009 Douglas Barton
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.Dd August 2, 2025
.Dt SERVICE 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm service
.Nd "control (start/stop/etc.) or list system services"
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl j Ar jail
.Fl e
.Nm
.Op Fl j Ar jail
.Op Fl q
.Fl R
.Nm
.Op Fl j Ar jail
.Op Fl v
.Fl l
.Nm
.Op Fl j Ar jail
.Op Fl v
.Fl r
.Nm
.Op Fl j Ar jail
.Op Fl dqv
.Op Fl E Ar var=value
.Ar script
.Op Ar command
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
command is an easy interface to the rc.d system.
Its primary purpose is to start and stop services provided
by the rc.d scripts.
When used for this purpose it will set the same restricted
environment that is in use at boot time
.Po
see
.Sx ENVIRONMENT
.Pc .
It can also be used to list
the scripts using various criteria.
.Pp
The set of permissible values for
.Ar command
depends on the particular rc.d script being invoked.
For a list of standard commands which are supported by most rc.d
scripts, see
.Xr rc 8 .
.Pp
The options are as follows:
.Bl -tag -width F1
.It Fl d
Enable debugging.
.It Fl E Ar var=value
Set the environment variable
.Ar var
to the specified
.Ar value
before starting the script.
This option can be used multiple times.
.It Fl e
List services that are enabled.
The list of scripts to check is compiled using
.Xr rcorder 8
the same way that it is done in
.Xr rc 8 ,
then that list of scripts is checked for an
.Qq rcvar
assignment.
If present the script is checked to see if it is enabled.
.It Fl j Ar jail
Perform the given actions under the named jail.
The
.Ar jail
argument can be either a jail ID or a jail name.
.It Fl l
List all files in
.Pa /etc/rc.d
and the local startup directories.
As described in
.Xr rc.conf 5
this is usually
.Pa /usr/local/etc/rc.d .
All files will be listed whether they are an actual
rc.d script or not.
.It Fl q
Be quiet, redirecting output to
.Pa /dev/null .
.It Fl R
Restart all enabled local services.
.It Fl r
Generate the
.Xr rcorder 8
as in
.Fl e
above, but list all of the files, not just what is enabled.
.It Fl v
Be slightly more verbose.
.El
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
When used to run rc.d scripts the
.Nm
command sets
.Ev HOME
to
.Pa /
and
.Ev PATH
to
.Pa /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
which is how they are set in
.Pa /etc/rc
at boot time.
If the
.Fl E
option is used, the corresponding variable is set accordingly.
.Sh EXIT STATUS
.Ex -std
.Sh EXAMPLES
These are some examples of the most common service commands.
For a full list of commands available in most rc.d scripts, see
.Xr rc 8 .
.Pp
Enable a service, then start it:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
service sshd enable
service sshd start
.Ed
.Pp
Stop a service, then disable it:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
service sshd stop
service sshd disable
.Ed
.Pp
Start a service which is not enabled:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
service sshd onestart
.Ed
.Pp
Report the status of a service:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
service named status
.Ed
.Pp
Restart a service running in a jail:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
service -j dns named restart
.Ed
.Pp
Start a service with a specific environment variable set:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
service -E LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 named start
.Ed
.Pp
Report a verbose listing of all available services:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
service -rv
.Ed
.Pp
The following programmable completion entry can be used in
.Xr csh 1
for the names and common commands of the rc.d scripts:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
complete service 'c/-/(e l r v)/' 'p/1/`service -l`/' \e
'n/*/(start stop reload restart \e
status rcvar onestart onestop)/'
.Ed
.Pp
The following programmable completion entry can be used in
.Xr bash 1 Pq Pa ports/shells/bash
for the names of the rc.d scripts:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
_service () {
local cur
cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}
COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -W '$( service -l )' -- $cur ) )
return 0
}
complete -F _service service
.Ed
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr bash 1 Pq Pa ports/shells/bash ,
.Xr rc.conf 5 ,
.Xr rc 8 ,
.Xr rcorder 8 ,
.Xr sysrc 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
utility first appeared in
.Fx 7.3 .
.Sh AUTHORS
This
manual page was written by
.An Douglas Barton Aq Mt dougb@FreeBSD.org .
|
