How to create service using Systemd on Linux

Written on: April 11, 2025

Systemd is a system and service manager for Linux. It is the first process on boot (with PID = 1) that starts with the OS, and this process begins all other processes or services.

You can create and manage your own services using the systemctl command.

How to Create a Service in Systemd on Linux?

To create a service, you need to create a .service file in the following directory:

/etc/systemd/system/myservice.service

Follow these steps to create your service file:

Open the terminal and run:
```
sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/myservice.service
```
This will create and open the file myservice.service (you can use any name with a .service extension).

Add the following content to the file:

[Unit]
Description=My Custom Service
After=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/python3/path/to/your/script.py
WorkingDirectory=/path/to/your/
Restart=always
User=yourusername
Environment=PYTHONUNBUFFERED=1

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Reload the systemd daemon:

 sudo systemctl daemon-reexec 
 sudo systemctl daemon-reload

Summary Table

Step	Command/Action	Description
1	`sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/myservice.service`	Create and open the service file.
2	Add service configuration.	Define the service details in the file.
3	`sudo systemctl daemon-reexec` `sudo systemctl daemon-reload`	Reload the systemd daemon to apply changes.
4	`sudo systemctl status myservice`	Check the status of the service.
5	`journalctl -u myservice -f`	View logs for troubleshooting.

Test & Logs

If the service fails, check the logs using:

 journalctl -u myservice -f

Ever wondered how a server recovers from runtime errors and restarts automatically? It is the systemd service file that handles such scenarios.