sdctl – security-focused TUI for managing systemd services

sdctl is a terminal user interface for managing systemd services on Linux. Its main distinction is a security-conscious privilege model: the application itself runs unprivileged, while individual administrative actions request authorization through polkit when required.

The interface brings together service discovery, unit control, log inspection and unit-file management. System and user units can be handled from the same application, while filtering and fuzzy search help locate services quickly on systems with large numbers of units.

sdctl is written in Rust and uses ratatui for its interface, zbus for D-Bus communication and tokio for asynchronous operation.

This is free and open source software.

Key Features

• Browse system-wide and user-session systemd units from a single interface.
• Start, stop, restart and reload selected units.
• Enable, disable, mask and unmask units.
• Authenticate privileged operations through polkit rather than running the complete application with sudo.
• Filter units by type, scope, active state, enablement state and load state.
• Perform fast client-side fuzzy searches across the service list.
• Browse journal logs directly from the selected unit.
• Search within journal output and jump between matching entries.
• Follow logs as new entries are generated.
• Select individual log lines or blocks of lines and copy them to the clipboard.
• Open log output in an external editor.
• View systemd unit files with syntax highlighting.
• Create and edit drop-in overrides.
• Edit complete unit files through the user’s configured editor.
• Copy a unit file’s path to the clipboard.
• Use Vim-style keyboard navigation for scrolling, paging and searching.
• Display syntax-highlighted log output using tailspin.
• Remain responsive while carrying out D-Bus and journal operations asynchronously.

Website: github.com/ruiiiijiiiiang/sdctl
Support:
Developer: Rui Jiang
License: MIT License

sdctl is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

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