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7 Linux chkconfig Command Examples – Add,

Remove, View, Change Services
by BALAKRISHNAN MARIYAPPAN on JUNE 21, 2011

Chkconfig command is used to setup,

view, or change services that are configured to start automatically during the system
startup.

This article contains 7 practical examples that explains how to use the chkconfig
command.

1. Check Service Startup status from Shell Script

When you execute chkconfig command only with the service name, it returns true if
the service is configured for startup. The following code snippet shows how to check
whether a service is configured for startup or not from a shell script.

# vi check.sh

chkconfig network && echo "Network service is configured"

chkconfig junk && echo "Junk service is configured"

# ./check.sh

Network service is configured

You can also specifically check whether it is configured for a particular run level or
not.

# vi check1.sh

chkconfig network --level 3 && echo "Network service is configured for level 3"

chkconfig network --level 1 && echo "Network service is configured for level 1"

# ./check1.sh

Network service is configured for level 3

2. View Current Status of Startup Services

The –list option displays all the services with the current startup configuration
status.

# chkconfig --list

abrtd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off

acpid 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off

atd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

...

To view only the services that are configured to be started during system startup, do
the following. Please note that this assumes that your system startup level is 3.
chkconfig --list | grep 3:on

Note: To view all available system run levels, refer to 6 Stages of Linux Boot Process
To view the startup configuration of a particular service, grep the output of
‘chkconfig –list’ for that service.

chkconfig --list | grep network

3. Add a new Service to the Startup

Use –add option to add a specific service to the list of services that will be started
during system reboot.

The following example shows how to add a new service (for example, iptables) to the
list of services that needs to be started. The ‘chkconfig –add’ command will also turn
on level 2, 3, 4 and 5 automatically as shown below.

# chkconfig --list | grep iptables

# chkconfig --add iptables

# chkconfig --list | grep iptables

iptables 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off

Note: “chkconfig –add” only adds an existing service to the list of startup. If the
service doesn’t exist, you should first install it before adding it to the system startup
list. While this is pretty obvious, it is worth to mention it, as a newbie might make
this mistake.

4. Remove a Service From Startup List

The following example shows that ip6tables services is configured for startup.

# chkconfig --list | grep ip6tables

ip6tables 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:off 5:off 6:off

To remove it from the startup list, use the –del option as shown below.

# chkconfig --del ip6tables

# chkconfig --list | grep ip6tables

5. Turn-on or Turn-off a Service for a Selected Run Level

Sometimes you might not want to delete the whole service. Instead, you might just
want to turn the flag on or off for a particular run level (for a particular service).

The following example will turn off nfserver service for level 5

# chkconfig --level 5 nfsserver off

You can also combine multiple levels. The following example will turn off nfsserver
for both level 3 and 5.

# chkconfig --level 35 nfsserver off

6. Script Files under rc.d Subdirectories

Whenever you add or remove a service from chkconfig control, it does the following
under the /etc/rc.d sub-directories.

 When chkconfig –add command is executed, it creates a symbolic link file to start
and stop the service under corresponding rc directory.
 When chkconfig –del command is executed, it removes the symbolic link file
from the corresponding rc directory.
The following example shows that xinetd is enabled for both run level 3 and 5.

So, xinetd will have two files under rc3.d directory, and two files under rc5.d
directory. The file that starts with K is used during shutdown (K stands for kill). The
file that starts with S is used during startup (S stands for start).
# chkconfig --list | grep xinetd

xinetd 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off

xinetd based services:

# cd /etc/rc.d/rc3.d

# ls | grep xinetd

K08xinetd

S14xinetd

# cd /etc/rc.d/rc5.d

# ls | grep xinetd

K08xinetd

S14xinetd

7. rcx.d Directory Changes for Add Operation

When you add a new service to chkconfig control, the default run levels for that
service will be turned on automatically, and files will be created under the
corresponding rcx directories.

For example, if the nfsserver service doesn’t exist in the chkconfig control, no
nfsserver service startup files would be present under /etc/rc.d/rc*.d directories as
shown below.

# chkconfig --list | grep nfsserver

nfsserver 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:off 4:off 5:off 6:off

# ls /etc/rc.d/rc3.d | grep nfsserver

# ls /etc/rc.d/rc5.d | grep nfsserver

After you add the nfsserver service, you’ll see the symbolic links under these
directories.

# chkconfig --add nfsserver

nfsserver 0:off 1:off 2:off 3:on 4:off 5:on 6:off

# cd /etc/rc.d/rc3.d

# ls -l | grep nfsserver

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 2011-06-18 00:52 K08nfsserver -> ../nfsserver

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 2011-06-18 00:52 S14nfsserver -> ../nfsserver

# cd /etc/rc.d/rc5.d

# ls -l | grep nfsserver

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 2011-06-18 00:52 K08nfsserver -> ../nfsserver

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 2011-06-18 00:52 S14nfsserver -> ../nfsserver

When you turn off the service either using –del option or –level option, the
corresponding symbolic link file under rcx.d directory will be deleted as shown
below.

# chkconfig --level 5 nfsserver off

# ls /etc/rc.d/rc5.d | grep nfsserver