Stage 8 · Lesson 6 of 9
Services and logs
A is a program that runs all the time in the background, such as a . On most servers, systemd starts these services and restarts them if needed. systemctl status nginx shows whether a service is running, with its latest log lines.
systemctl restart restarts it, and systemctl enable makes it start when the machine boots. journalctl -u nginx -f follows its logs live. Other logs live under /var/log.
When anything on a server misbehaves, the logs usually say why. Often the first error explains it, not the last. Recent WSL versions can run systemd too.
Common traprestarting a failing service again and again without reading its log.
A question to check yourself, an AI practice session and 1 cheat sheet entry come when you add the roadmap to your account. Add it
Resources for this stage
Start with· follow one of these
- GuideFreeInitial Server Setup with Ubuntu (DigitalOcean)
DigitalOcean · Beginner
A clear, widely used checklist for a new user, sudo, SSH access and a firewall on Ubuntu
- CourseFreeThe Missing Semester of Your CS Education
MIT · Beginner
The command-line environment lecture covers SSH, tmux, job control and dotfiles
Practise
Keep handy
Also worth your time
- roadmap.sh: LinuxGo deeper
The server, networking and troubleshooting branches of the Linux map