SERVICE(8)              FreeBSD System Manager's Manual             SERVICE(8)

NAME

     service - control (start/stop/etc.) or list system services

SYNOPSIS

     service [-j jail] -e
     service [-j jail] [-q] -R
     service [-j jail] [-v] -l
     service [-j jail] [-v] -r
     service [-j jail] [-dqv] [-E var=value] script [command]

DESCRIPTION

     The service 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 (see ENVIRONMENT).  It can also be used to list the
     scripts using various criteria.

     The set of permissible values for 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 rc(8).

     The options are as follows:

     -d  Enable debugging.

     -E var=value
         Set the environment variable var to the specified value before
         starting the script.  This option can be used multiple times.

     -e  List services that are enabled.  The list of scripts to check is
         compiled using rcorder(8) the same way that it is done in rc(8), then
         that list of scripts is checked for an "rcvar" assignment.  If
         present the script is checked to see if it is enabled.

     -j jail
         Perform the given actions under the named jail.  The jail argument
         can be either a jail ID or a jail name.

     -l  List all files in /etc/rc.d and the local startup directories.  As
         described in rc.conf(5) this is usually /usr/local/etc/rc.d.  All
         files will be listed whether they are an actual rc.d script or not.

     -q  Be quiet, redirecting output to /dev/null.

     -R  Restart all enabled local services.

     -r  Generate the rcorder(8) as in -e above, but list all of the files,
         not just what is enabled.

     -v  Be slightly more verbose.

ENVIRONMENT

     When used to run rc.d scripts the service command sets HOME to / and PATH
     to /sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin which is how they are set in /etc/rc at
     boot time.  If the -E option is used, the corresponding variable is set
     accordingly.

EXIT STATUS

     The service utility exits 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

EXAMPLES

     These are some examples of the most common service commands.  For a full
     list of commands available in most rc.d scripts, see rc(8).

     Enable a service, then start it:

           service sshd enable
           service sshd start

     Stop a service, then disable it:

           service sshd stop
           service sshd disable

     Start a service which is not enabled:

           service sshd onestart

     Report the status of a service:

           service named status

     Restart a service running in a jail:

           service -j dns named restart

     Start a service with a specific environment variable set:

           service -E LC_ALL=C.UTF-8 named start

     Report a verbose listing of all available services:

           service -rv

     The following programmable completion entry can be used in csh(1) for the
     names and common commands of the rc.d scripts:

           complete service 'c/-/(e l r v)/' 'p/1/`service -l`/' \
                            'n/*/(start stop reload restart \
                            status rcvar onestart onestop)/'

     The following programmable completion entry can be used in bash(1)
     (ports/shells/bash) for the names of the rc.d scripts:

           _service () {
                   local cur
                   cur=${COMP_WORDS[COMP_CWORD]}
                   COMPREPLY=( $( compgen -W '$( service -l )' -- $cur ) )
                   return 0
           }
           complete -F _service service

SEE ALSO

     bash(1) (ports/shells/bash), rc.conf(5), rc(8), rcorder(8), sysrc(8)

HISTORY

     The service utility first appeared in FreeBSD 7.3.

AUTHORS

     This manual page was written by Douglas Barton <dougb@FreeBSD.org>.

FreeBSD 15.1-STABLE-HBSD        August 2, 2025                      SERVICE(8)