SystemD Pilot is a desktop application for managing systemd services on GNU/linux machines. The app is very lightweight and supports common tasks such as starting and stopping systemd services.
It can also show detailed status for each service.
Features: List services
Filter by running state
Start, Stop, Restart, Enable and Disable services + show status for each service
Create override configuration for any unit file using the edit button
Option for reloading systemd manager configuration (systemctl daemon-reload)
Easy search. Just start typing and the app will find relevant services
Lightweight
Available for download as deb, rpm and AppImage
Integration into GNOME desktop (libadwaita)
Made with love for the FOSS community. Please give it a try and share your thoughts.
Fantastic, Linux needs tools like this for users who need to make occasional changes and inspect
systemd.For inspiration, I would suggest you also look at LaunchControl, which is a GUI tool to administer
launchdon macOS.There are some. COCKPIT would probably suit most people. OpenSUSE has a GUI Services tool built into YAST
Some other projects for the same usage:
https://github.com/KDE/systemdgenie
https://github.com/GuillaumeGomez/systemd-manager
😇
Nice, thanks! So weird these tools are not commonly used - managing systemd remains one of the common terminal PITAs for everyone who doesn’t appreciate the Great Holy Terminal
Funny thing is, that there are many things I prefer the terminal for, but systemd deamons are not these things 😂
Yeah i hate managing systemd stuff because its messy on terminal
Aren’t those defunct? I was looking for examples of exactly this a while back and none of them were being actively maintained.
I use Systemd-Manager since a long time now and it worked always well. But it could well be, that it is unmaintained…
NO! NO, I WON’T HAVE IT!
I will not give up my command line, obscure, non-obvious commands that control my machine!
It is an abomination that I don’t have to search for, and then wade through hundreds of AI generated pages of useless information just to show me what services are running with systemd!
I am seriously considering starting my own startup system. I am thinking I could initiate (init) runlevels to start subsystems at various stages. If anyone is interested, hit me up.
Maybe you can script everything, with convoluted interconnections that are impossible to troubleshoot. Now that would be the way to control all the systems behind impenetrable obfuscation and keep those dratted normies from understanding anything.
I can’t tell if you’re taking the piss or not about re-implementing initscripts.
My job here is done 😉
wade through hundreds of AI generated pages of useless information
I personally find the best use of AI is to read those pages of useless information and summarise what I actually want to know.
Google: " hugo, show total number of posts not including pages " = advertising, a billion pages of partially but not entirely relevant information that takes ages to wade through.
Gemini: same question: Clear explanation and working examples in seconds.
They’re both google, but one knows what I’m actually trying to say and doesn’t (yet) push advertising at me.
this dude boots 😎
Didn’t know Pedro pascal was a coder
What license are you offering it under?
GPL v3.
The only right choice! Thanks!
Btw add license to the repo and license info to readme
Thanks, will do.
Oooh this will be perfect for a bunch of stuff I do.
Can you create new services or do you still need to create the .service file manually?
What about .timer files?
I’ve been thinking about a “create new service” feature but I’m not sure about two things: 1.how useful it can be 2.how to implement this to actually make life easier for end users
Adding a generic template would not be difficult.
I would absolutely use it. In fact creating and editing services would be the primary selling point IMO. It doesn’t need to be much “easier” than doing it in the terminal or file explorer, to me the primary benefit would just be the ease of use of creating, loading, and starting a new service all in one place.
I think a generic template would be great.
You could turn the whole thing into a giant GUI settings screen, allowing navigation to an exectuable, after which you could provide some of the most typical options as sliders, number fields, switches, or whatever is suitable. But that would be a large amount of work, and I’m not sure it would simplify things much.
The starting point should just be a text field, but with a link to the service file docs for help/reference.
Brilliant thanks for your feedback and thoughts. Will look into this.
As far as i can tell a full gui for systemd service files would be practically impossible. But a template ui would be sick, maybe something like an app autostart template could look like this:
Program: Launch options: When: early/normal/login/graphical-start Restart: never/once/alwaysJust spitballing here though.
And the RestartSomethingInterval=0 option so systemd keeps restarting the program like an obedient machine it should be, not give up because it’s tired
Even if the new service is “just” a text field for code + the name of the service. If it saves it in the right location for you its useful. Not having to fiddle with that stuff as an end user is nice.
Making life easier for end users means more documentation about what you are doing. I mean that’s the main difference between Commandline and a GUI.
Oh look Avahi Service, let’s stop it, what does it mean to stop it.
Creating a new Service, sure but what is needed, are there examples? Formfill lines with a hint what’s needed, maybe some dropdown entries?
You got what I mean.
Just having something that shows the field options and formats it correctly would be fantastic. Tooltips and all that could be added later to lower the bar of entry for new users.
Looks neat, does its job.
If you’re a power-user looking at this, you can also look at https://github.com/rgwood/systemctl-tui which is somewhat similar but seems to be more useful (for now), also showing the service logs and being easily navigable with a keyboard.
can it do mask/unmask?
Notvin this version. I’ll add that and more for the next release.
cool!
Nice i will try it out.
Thanks :) Hope you find it useful
Any chance this lands in the AUR?
I’ve not used arch for years but I’ll look into this.
I miss the days before SystemD, it seemed simpler.
Autoexec.bat or bust!
Does it support per-user systemd services?
It will, in the next release.
I am running a headless server, but still want to make managing my systemd services easier. Any recommendations? I think I’m looking for something that is to
systemdwhathtopis totop🤔EDIT: Thanks for all the recs!
I remember there being a KCM for Plasma Settings that did this sort of thing.
Yes i think it’s called systemdGenie
Awesome, Flatpak?
Yes flatpak will be realesed too.
