G-Systemctl

g-systemctl is a terminal user interface (TUI) for managing system services on Linux and macOS. View, search, filter, and control your service daemons directly from the terminal.

See It In Action

demo.mp4

Features

• List all system services with status indicators
• Filter services by name in real-time
• Start/stop services with a single keypress
• Cross-platform support (Linux via systemctl, macOS via launchctl)
• Keyboard-driven navigation
• Mouse support (scroll to navigate, click to select)
• Initial filter via command line argument (-f / --filter)
• Stream service logs in the TUI via journalctl

Prerequisites

• CMake 3.14+
• C++17 compatible compiler (GCC 7+, Clang 5+)
• Linux with systemd or macOS
• journalctl for Linux service log streaming

Installation

Homebrew

Download the formula from the latest release and install it locally:

curl -LO https://github.com/shakg/g-systemctl/releases/latest/download/g-systemctl.rb
brew install ./g-systemctl.rb

Debian / Ubuntu

Download the .deb package from the latest release and install it:

curl -LO https://github.com/shakg/g-systemctl/releases/latest/download/g-systemctl-linux-amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./g-systemctl-linux-amd64.deb

Linux Binary

curl -LO https://github.com/shakg/g-systemctl/releases/latest/download/g-systemctl-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
tar -xzf g-systemctl-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
sudo install -m 755 g-systemctl-*/g-systemctl /usr/local/bin/g-systemctl

Build from source

git clone https://github.com/shakg/g-systemctl.git
cd g-systemctl
mkdir build && cd build
cmake -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..
make -j$(nproc)
sudo make install

Release Checksums

curl -LO https://github.com/shakg/g-systemctl/releases/latest/download/SHA256SUMS.txt
grep g-systemctl-linux-x86_64.tar.gz SHA256SUMS.txt | shasum -a 256 -c -

Usage

g-systemctl

For full functionality (start/stop services), run with sudo:

sudo g-systemctl

Keyboard Shortcuts

Key	Action
Up / Alt+k	Move selection up
Down / Alt+j	Move selection down
Enter	Toggle selected service (start/stop)
Alt+r	Restart selected service
Alt+l	Stream logs for selected service
Alt+c	Close log stream
Page Up / Page Down	Scroll the log stream by page
?	Show/hide help
Alt+q / Esc	Quit
Type	Filter services by name
Backspace	Delete filter character

Mouse Support

Action	Effect
Scroll up/down	Navigate the service list, or scroll the log panel when the pointer is over it
Left click service	Select a service
Left click action buttons	Toggle a service or open its logs
Left click Shortcuts(?)	Show help

Command Line Options

g-systemctl --help              # Show help
g-systemctl --version           # Show version
g-systemctl --system            # Show system services (default)
g-systemctl --user              # Show user services
g-systemctl -f <text>           # Start with an initial filter
g-systemctl --filter <text>     # Start with an initial filter

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please follow the Contributing Guidelines for details on how to contribute to this project.