There are times when you want to be able to start, stop, restart, reload and even permantly stop services from running.
I always run through my system services and ensure I have turned off all the services I do not wish to be running, this serves several good reasons:
1) Reduce's the amount of memory used.
2 Can make an increase in system performance.
3) Why run a service you don't need, that could be a security risk.
4) PC will boot faster.
How do I manage my services?
There are many ways to manage services on linux.
The services that start reside in the init.d and rc?.d folders in /etc.
To start and stop a service for example networking you would use:
# sudo apt-get install pptp-linux
# sudo /etc/init.d/networking stop
# sudo /etc/init.d/networking start
Redhat uses these locations to start and stop services but also offers a shell command that can mange these services so they stay on or off permanently.
chkconfig - This command alows you to see all the services in a list and which of them are on or off in any runlevel.
NOTE: A run level is the level the system is operating at this list is a guide to the levels not necessarily the setup that your linux uses.
1 - Single user mode
2 - Not used
3 - Full system no GUI
4 - Not used
5 - Full system with GUI
To find out what your default runlevel is you can look at the /etc/inittab file.
Using chkconfig
To see which services are configured as system services use:
# sudo chkconfig --list
To turn off a service use:
# sudo chkconfig --levels 345 sshd off
NTSYSV
Redhat also provides a command called ntsyv.
ntsysv - This is a text user interface that function as the above command.
It can be used to configure the running runlevel as follows:
# sudo ntsysv
or for other runlevels use:
# sudo ntsysv --level 345
What if I'm running Crunchbang.
In crunchbang these utilities are not installed, you will need to install them yourself if you wish to configure you services manually.
Use the following commands to install the above commands.
# sudo apt-get install chkconfig
crunchbang does not have ntsysv but it does have a similar command called sysvconf.
# sudo apt-get install sysvconf
I need a GUI not command line
If you really need that gui tool then use the humorously named BootUpManager aka BUM
# apt-get install bum
This tool allows you to manage all your services as above but in a graphical way.
Remember when playing with services you need to be root, use sudo in front of all the commands before running them.
