disable.md

systemd-disable.md

To completely disable a service in systemd (so it doesn't start automatically and can't be started by dependencies), follow these steps:

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🔧 1. Disable the service

This stops it from starting automatically on boot:

sudo systemctl disable <service-name>

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🚫 2. Mask the service

This makes it impossible to start the service manually or automatically (even by another service):

sudo systemctl mask <service-name>

This creates a symlink from the service file to /dev/null, effectively making it unusable.

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🔁 Optional: If you want to undo this later:

• To unmask:

sudo systemctl unmask <service-name>

• To enable again:

sudo systemctl enable <service-name>