Which command is primarily used for managing and configuring system services?

The command used primarily for managing and configuring system services in modern Linux distributions is systemctl. This command interfaces with the systemd system and service manager, which has largely replaced older init systems. With systemctl, users can perform a wide variety of actions, including starting and stopping services, enabling or disabling them at boot time, checking their status, and managing service dependencies.

Systemctl's functionality is particularly important in current environments as it integrates with the concept of "units," which can encompass not just traditional services but also other types of resources managed by systemd, such as mounts and sockets. The command provides a consistent and straightforward way to handle system service management, making it a central tool for administrators in any systemd-based Linux distribution.

Other commands, while still in use, serve more specialized roles or are considered legacy. For instance, the service command allows for managing services but often doesn't provide the full range of capabilities that systemctl offers, especially in terms of status checking and dependency management. Similarly, init is an older system management tool that has been largely replaced in many distributions. Jobctl is not a common command for managing services and does not apply in this context.