Which utility is the main gateway to managing systemd and system services?

The main utility for managing systemd and system services is systemctl. This command provides a robust interface for interacting with systemd, allowing users to start, stop, enable, disable, and manage services effectively. It functions as the control interface for systemd, providing options to inspect and modify the state of services and units on a Linux system.

systemctl also allows for the management of system states, such as rebooting the system, displaying the current state of services, and configuring services to start automatically at boot time. It is essential for administrators to understand how to use systemctl, as it forms the backbone of service management in systems using systemd.

The other options mentioned have different roles or are related to older init systems. For instance, the service command serves as a compatibility script for managing services, primarily on systems that still use init scripts instead of systemd. Init refers to the traditional initialization system, which systemd has largely replaced in modern distributions. The term "manager" is too vague and does not correspond to a specific utility within the context of managing systemd or services. Thus, systemctl stands out as the definitive command for managing systemd in contemporary Linux environments.