Linux how to enable and disable services at boot

To manage the startup of Linux services, use the systemctl command. 1. Check the service status: systemctl status <service-name> to see if the service is running, enabled or disabled. 2. Enable the service startup and start: sudo systemctl enable <service-name>, such as sudo systemctl enable nginx. If it is started at the same time, use sudo systemctl enable --now nginx. 3. Disable the service startup: sudo systemctl disable <service-name>, such as sudo systemctl disable cups. If it stops at the same time, use sudo systemctl disable --now cups. 4. Check the enabled services: systemctl list-enabled, or use systemctl is-enabled <service-name> to check the status of a specific service, and the return value is enabled, disabled, static, or masked. 5. Completely block the service: sudo systemctl mask <service-name> can prevent the service from starting and manually starting, such as sudo systemctl mask bluetooth, and use sudo systemctl unmask <service-name> to unblock it. These commands are suitable for most modern Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, and Fedora, enabling full control of boot services.

In Linux, managing services at boot time is typically done using systemd , the init system used by most modern distributions. You can enable or disable services so they start (or don't start) automatically when the system boots.

Here's how to enable and disable services at boot using common systemctl commands.

1. Check the Current Status of a Service

Before enabling or disabling a service, it helps to check its current status:

 systemctl status <service-name>

For example:

 systemctl status apache2

This shows whether the service is active (running), enabled (starts at boot), or disabled.

2. Enable a Service to Start at Boot

To configure a service to start automatically when the system boots:

 sudo systemctl enable <service-name>

Example:

 sudo systemctl enable nginx

This creates a symbolic link from the system's copy of the service file (usually in /etc/systemd/system/ or /usr/lib/systemd/system/ ) into the appropriate systemd target (like multi-user.target.wants ), indicating it should be started at boot.

✅ Note: Enabling a service does not start it immediately — it only sets it to start on next boot.

If you want to enable and start it now:

 sudo systemctl enable --now nginx

3. Disable a Service from Starting at Boot

To prevent a service from starting automatically at boot:

 sudo systemctl disable <service-name>

Example:

 sudo systemctl disable cups

This removes the symbolic link that tells systemd to start the service at boot.

⚠️ Disabling a service does not stop it if it's currently running. To also stop it now:

 sudo systemctl disable --now cups

4. Check All Enabled Services

To list all services that are currently enabled to start at boot:

 systemctl list-enabled

Or filter for a specific service:

 systemctl is-enabled <service-name>

This returns enabled , disabled , static (a service that can't be enabled but is used as a dependency), or masked .

5. Mask a Service (Optional: Prevent Manual Start Too)

If you want to completely block a service from being started — even manually — you can mask it:

 sudo systemctl mask <service-name>

Example:

 sudo systemctl mask bluetooth

This creates a symlink to /dev/null , making the service configuration inaccessible.

To unmask it later:

 sudo systemctl unmask <service-name>

Summary of Key Commands

Most distributions like Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, and others use systemd , so these commands work across them. If you're on an older system using SysVinit, you'd use update-rc.d (Debian) or chkconfig (RHEL/CentOS 6), but those are largely outdated.

Basically, with systemctl enable and disable , you have full control over what runs at startup.

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