this post was submitted on 17 Dec 2024

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Introducing SystemD Pilot, GUI app for managing systemd services (github.com)

submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 50 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

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 launchd on macOS.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago

There are some. COCKPIT would probably suit most people. OpenSUSE has a GUI Services tool built into YAST

[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Some other projects for the same usage:

https://github.com/KDE/systemdgenie

https://github.com/GuillaumeGomez/systemd-manager

😇

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Funny thing is, that there are many things I prefer the terminal for, but systemd deamons are not these things 😂

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

Yeah i hate managing systemd stuff because its messy on terminal

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Aren't those defunct? I was looking for examples of exactly this a while back and none of them were being actively maintained.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

I use Systemd-Manager since a long time now and it worked always well. But it could well be, that it is unmaintained..

[–] [email protected] 34 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I can't tell if you're taking the piss or not about re-implementing initscripts.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

My job here is done 😉

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

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.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago

Didn’t know Pedro pascal was a coder

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What license are you offering it under?

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago (2 children)

GPL v3.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

The only right choice! Thanks!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Btw add license to the repo and license info to readme

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

Thanks, will do.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

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?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 days ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (2 children)

Brilliant thanks for your feedback and thoughts. Will look into this.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Nice i will try it out.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 days ago

Thanks :) Hope you find it useful

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

can it do mask/unmask?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Notvin this version. I'll add that and more for the next release.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 days ago

cool!

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Any chance this lands in the AUR?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

I've not used arch for years but I'll look into this.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I miss the days before SystemD, it seemed simpler.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Autoexec.bat or bust!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (3 children)

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 systemd what htop is to top🤔

EDIT: Thanks for all the recs!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 days ago

I know you asked for cli apps, and maybe you have already heard of it, but in case you haven't, cockpit is a pretty nice web UI for managing your server (not just systemd services, but everything)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Funnily enough, just saw people on Lemmy talking about this one the other day

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

https://github.com/joehillen/sysz

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I remember there being a KCM for Plasma Settings that did this sort of thing.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

Yes i think it's called systemdGenie

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Does it support per-user systemd services?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 4 days ago

It will, in the next release.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Awesome, Flatpak?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

Yes flatpak will be realesed too.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 4 days ago

Thanks for this! Works pretty well when testing -

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Cool. I have been using the built in YAST2 GUI services on OpenSUSE. But for other machines COCKPIT webgui uses systems to view and manage services.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 days ago

This is good. We need more GUI tools to keep the noobs out of the terminal. Not only because that gives a better impression, but it also protects them from doing a command wrong and really hurting something.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago

Really cool bro. Always loved GUI for command line utils!

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