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.
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
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.
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.
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.