How to check whether a service is running or not on Linux Mint

Question

How do I check whether a service is running or not on Linux Mint?

If that service is not running, I need to start it.

I have tried using

service <service-name> status

But for some services it is not returning any results.

service --status-all is not of much use either as it has ? marks for some services.

Answer 1

In Linux Mint 16 and 17, by default you should be able to use a combination of sudo service <options> and sudo update-rc.d <options>.

For example, to get a list of services, try:

sudo service --status-all (as you said).

On the displayed list, + = started, - = stopped and ? is unknown.

To disable a listed service from starting at boot try:

sudo update-rc.d <service name> disable

To enable a service to start at boot:

sudo update-rc.d <service name> enable

There are many more options for update-rc.d, try man update-rc.d for details.

A service that has been disabled (or stopped) can be manually started with:

sudo service <service name> start

A service (started manually or at boot) can stopped with:

sudo service <service name> stop

Many services also have other options like restart and force-reload but all should have start and stop.