Cheatsheet

Every command you reach for day to day, on one page. New to 66? Read the getting started tutorial first — this page is a quick reference, not an introduction.

In the tables below, foo is a service name and mytree a tree name. Run 66 as a regular user for your own services, or as root for system services; the commands are the same.

Commands are shown with long options for readability. Every long option has a short equivalent (for example --start is -S, --tree is -t), listed on each command's reference page. An option that takes a value accepts both --depth 2 and --depth=2.

Service life cycle

Goal	Command
Run a service now	66 start foo
Register it for the next boot/session	66 enable foo
Register and run it now	66 enable --start foo
Stop it (stays enabled)	66 stop foo
Un-register it from boot	66 disable foo
Stop and unregister in one go	66 disable --stop foo
Restart (down then up)	66 restart foo
Reload config — sends SIGHUP	66 reload foo
Re-apply an edited frontend file	66 reconfigure foo
Stop and drop from the scandir	66 free foo
Erase everything 66 generated for it	66 remove foo

66 remove is irreversible (it keeps only your frontend file). Several services at once: separate names with spaces — 66 start foo bar baz.

Golden rule: start = now; enable = on every future boot/session.

Signals

Goal	Command
Send SIGHUP (also --term, --kill, --cont…)	66 signal --hangup foo
Send any signal, by name or number	66 signal --signal SIGUSR1 foo
Leave the dependencies alone	66 signal --no-propagate --term foo
Bring down and keep it down	66 signal --down-keep foo
Bring up and wait until it is ready	66 signal --up --wait U foo

66 signal is the low-level path every state change goes through — start, stop and reload are the ones you normally type. It works on an already supervised service, and it propagates to dependencies unless you say --no-propagate. The letters of --wait are u up, U up and ready, d down, D down and ready, r (re)started, R (re)started and ready.

Inspecting services

Goal	Command
Status of one service	66 status foo
Overview of all services	66 status
Show dependencies as a graph	66 status --graph foo
Limit graph depth	66 status --depth 2 foo
Reverse (stop) order	66 status --reverse foo
Pick fields (scriptable)	66 status --no-name --field name,status foo
Compile a frontend without running it	66 parse foo
Dump the parsed resolve file (debug)	66 resolve foo
Dump the management flags: parsed, supervised… (debug)	66 state foo
Dump the runtime status: up since, result, pid (debug)	66 runstate foo
Pick fields from it (scriptable)	66 runstate --no-name --field state,pid foo
Print the version of 66	66 version

66 state answers what does 66 know about this service, 66 runstate answers is it running right now, since when, with which result.

Logs

Goal	Command
Every log, all sources merged in time order	66 log
Logs of one service	66 log foo
The system (boot/scandir) catch-all logger	66 log system
Follow new lines, tail -f style	66 log --follow foo
Only a time window	66 log --since 2026-08-01 --until 2026-08-02T12:00:00 foo
Only lines matching a regex	66 log --grep 'fail' foo

66 log is a read-only viewer: it never writes or rotates anything. Times are ISO 8601 in local time — YYYY-MM-DD or YYYY-MM-DDTHH:MM:SS. Without an operand every source is interleaved and each line is tagged with the service it comes from.

Supervision (scandir)

Goal	Command
Create the supervision directory	66 scandir create
Start supervision (creates if needed, idempotent)	66 scandir start
Re-scan for new/removed services	66 scandir reconfigure
Force an immediate scan	66 scandir check
Clean shutdown of supervision	66 scandir stop

66 scandir start returns at once if a scandir is already running; otherwise it launches the supervisor in the foreground — background it (&) or use a dedicated terminal. Normally 66-userd (system: 66 boot) does this for you, so you rarely type it.

Trees

Goal	Command
Create a tree	66 tree create mytree
Enable a tree (brought up at boot)	66 tree enable mytree
Make a tree the current one	66 tree current mytree
Show a tree's services	66 tree status mytree
Bring a tree up / down	66 tree start mytree / 66 tree stop mytree
Remove a tree	66 tree remove mytree
Enable a service into a tree	66 --tree mytree enable foo

Without a chosen tree, services go to the default tree global.

Configuration & environment

Goal	Command
Edit a service's environment file	66 configure foo
List available config versions	66 configure --versions foo
Set the current config version	66 configure --current version foo
Override one key=value	66 configure --replace 'KEY=value' foo
Publish a session variable to every service	66 env import DISPLAY XAUTHORITY
Publish an explicit value	66 env set EDITOR=vim
Withdraw a published variable	66 env unset DISPLAY
List the published variables	66 env list

After changing config of a running service, apply it with 66 reconfigure foo.

66 env publishes into the runtime environment of your scandir, which is merged last — after the frontend, the service configuration file and the ImportFile files — so a published variable wins over every other source. A service picks it up the next time it starts. What is published lives and dies with the scandir.

Events

Goal	Command
Raise a user event by name	66 emit cert-renewed

66 emit is fire-and-forget: it hands the event to the event daemon and returns, whether or not anything listens. Every service declaring an [Event] section with EventType = user and On = ( cert-renewed ) then runs its reaction. See the event system.

Snapshots

Goal	Command
Snapshot the whole 66 ecosystem	66 snapshot create name
Restore a snapshot	66 snapshot restore name
List snapshots	66 snapshot list
Delete a snapshot	66 snapshot remove name

A snapshot only covers the ecosystem of the user who runs it.

System control

Goal	Command
Boot the system (PID 1)	66 boot
Power off	66 poweroff
Reboot	66 reboot
Halt	66 halt
Suspend to RAM	66 suspend
Hibernate to disk	66 hibernate

Minimal frontend file

The smallest valid service (see frontend for everything):

[Main]
Type = classic

[Start]
Execute = ( /usr/bin/mydaemon --foreground )

Type is classic (supervised, restarted), oneshot (runs once) or module (a bundle).

Common identifiers

Replaced at parse time, for generic/reusable files (see identifier):

Token	Replaced by
@I	Instance name (string after the @)
@U	User name (root for uid 0)
@H	User home directory
@R	User runtime directory (/run for root)

Key paths

What	Regular user	Root / system
Frontend files	$HOME/.66/service	/etc/66/service, /usr/share/66/service
Config files	.66/conf	/etc/66/conf
66 working dir	.66	/var/lib/66
Live supervision	/run/66	/run/66