How to Check if a Service Is Running on Linux

The quickest way to check whether a service is running on a modern Linux system is systemctl is-active <service>. This guide covers that and the other ways to verify service state, including checking several services at once.

The quick check

systemctl is-active nginx

This prints active if the service is running, inactive if it’s stopped, or failed if it crashed. It’s scriptable — the exit code is 0 when active — so it’s ideal for health checks:

if systemctl is-active --quiet nginx; then
  echo "nginx is up"
else
  echo "nginx is DOWN"
fi

The --quiet flag suppresses the text output so you only get the exit code.

The detailed check

When you want more than a one-word answer, status shows the active state, the main PID, memory use, and the last few log lines:

systemctl status nginx

● nginx.service - A high performance web server and a reverse proxy server
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/nginx.service; enabled)
     Active: active (running) since Tue 2026-06-16 09:32:45 UTC; 3 days ago
   Main PID: 1056 (nginx)
     Memory: 12.4M

The line that matters is Active: — active (running) is what you want. inactive (dead) means stopped; failed means it crashed.

Checking several services at once

On a production server you often want to confirm a whole stack is up. Pass multiple names to is-active:

systemctl is-active nginx php-fpm mysql redis

Each prints its state on its own line. Or list every running service and filter:

# All running services
systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running

# Is a specific one in the running list?
systemctl list-units --type=service --state=running | grep nginx

Other useful state checks

# Is it set to start at boot?
systemctl is-enabled nginx

# Has it failed?
systemctl is-failed nginx

# Show every service that has failed
systemctl --failed

The pre-systemd way

On older systems without systemd (or inside some containers), use the service command or check the process directly:

service nginx status        # SysVinit-style
ps aux | grep nginx         # is the process there at all?
pgrep -a nginx              # cleaner: PID + command

FAQ

What does “active (exited)” mean? The service ran successfully and finished — common for one-shot units that do a task and stop, like a script that sets up networking. It’s not an error.

is-active says “activating” — what’s that? The service is starting up but hasn’t finished (or it’s stuck retrying). Check systemctl status and the logs to see whether it’s progressing or failing.

How do I check a service on a remote machine? systemctl --host user@remote is-active nginx runs the check over SSH, provided SSH access is configured.

For the full set of service commands, see the systemctl reference. If a service shows failed, see systemd service failed to start.