status¶

This command displays the state of a service.

66 status answers one question: what is this service doing right now. It is not a dump of everything known about it. The parsed configuration of a service — its run script, environment, standard io redirections, frontend location — belongs to 66 resolve, and its full log to 66 log. status shows the state, the dependency links, and the last few log lines for a quick glance.

Interface¶

status [ -h ] [ -n ] [ -f field,... ] [ -g ] [ -d depth ] [ -r ] service

By default the dependency graph is rendered in the start order of execution. You can reverse the rendered order, meaning the stop execution, with the -r option.

Without specifying -f, all fields are displayed. The contents field only means something for a module, so it is left out of the default display for any other service type; asking for it explicitly with -f stays valid.

If no service is specified, it displays all services from all trees. This is a useful way to quickly get an overview of the entire service system. In that case, -g is implied and -d can be used but -f and -n options have no effect.

Options¶

-h, --help: prints this help.
-n, --no-name: do not display the field name(s) specified. Combining this option with -f facilitates scripting usage. Durations are printed as raw seconds in that mode, which is the form a script wants.
-f, --field field,...: comma separated list of fields to display.
-g, --graph: shows the dependency list of the service as a hierarchical graph instead of a list.
-d, --depth depth: limits the depth of the dependency list visualisation; default is 1. This implies -g option.
-r, --reverse: shows the dependency list of services in reverse mode.
-o, --options field,...: deprecated alias for -f; use -f instead.

Valid fields for -f option¶

name: displays the name.
status: displays the run state. See Reading the status field below.
description: displays the description.
type: displays the service type.
source: displays the path of the service's frontend file.
tree: displays the service's tree name.
enabled: yes if the service comes up at boot, no if it does not.
pid: the pid of the running process, 0 when there is none. Always a number, so a script never has to special-case a word.
depends: displays the service's dependencies.
requiredby: displays the service(s) which depends on service.
contents: displays services within module.
log: displays the last five lines of the service's log. Use 66 log to read the whole log, filter it or follow it.

Reading the status field¶

The status field combines two independent states, the enable state and the run state, and tells how long the service has been in the latter:

Status : enabled, up (pid 620) since 8h 59min by boot

The enable state is enabled (the service comes up at boot) or disabled (it does not). It states an intent for the next boot and says nothing about the running process: a service can be disabled, up (started by hand, it will not return after a reboot) or enabled, down (it will come up next boot).

The run state is one of up, down, starting, stopping, finishing, restarting, done, failed or waiting.

What last happened to the process follows in parentheses — exited with its code, signaled with its signal, timeout-start, timeout-stop, crash-limit or exec-failed. Nothing is shown there when the last thing that happened was a clean success.

The origin of the transition is always appended as by <who>:

Status : enabled, down (exited 1) since 2min 5s by user

A waiting service is an armed event reactor: it is not running and not failed, it sits idle until its event fires, and it goes back to waiting after each firing — it never parks in done. Because its state alone can never tell whether it already did its work, the date of its last run closes the line:

Status : enabled, waiting since 1h 13min by event (last run 1h 13min ago)
Status : enabled, waiting since 3min by user (never run)

never run means since it was last armed: an explicit stop clears that memory, and so does a reboot — the runtime record lives in a tmpfs. The same run shows up in the service list as waiting(done) instead of a bare waiting.

who answers who wanted this state, not who last poked the process:

user — a state you asked for, with start or stop.
boot — the boot procedure brought it up.
shutdown — the shutdown procedure brought it down.
event — an event reactor triggered the transition.
self — the supervisor acted on its own.

A service killed with 66 signal reports self: a signal does not ask the service to go down, so the death is intrinsic and the supervisor respawns it on its own initiative. Only a command that flips the wanted state owns the transition.

Everything the line glues together also stands alone as its own field, which is what a script wants: -f enabled yields yes or no, -f pid the bare pid, -f type the type that otherwise rides with the name. Under -n every field yields its own value, unglued and with raw seconds:

$ 66 status -nf enabled dbus
yes
$ 66 status -nf pid dbus
620
$ 66 status -nf status dbus
up (pid 620) since 32340 by boot

For the raw runtime record behind these states — the exact timestamps, the exit code and the crash budget — see 66 runstate. For the granular internal flags, see 66 state.

Usage examples¶

Displays all information of service foo

66 status foo

Only displays the field name and status of service foo

66 status -f name,status foo

Also, do not display the name of the field name and status of service foo

66 status -nf name,status foo

Displays the state of foo without its log

66 status -f name,status,enabled foo

Reads the whole log of the service foo — status only ever shows its last few lines

66 log foo

In a script you can do

#!/bin/sh

service="${1}"
type=$(66 status -nf type ${service})

if [ ${type} = "classic" ]; then
    echo ${service} is a classic service
elif [ ${type} = "module" ]; then
    echo ${service} is a module service
elif [ ${type} = "oneshot" ]; then
    echo ${service} is a oneshot service
fi

Displays information of the service using the graph mode

66 status -g dbus

Name         : dbus ( classic )
Status       : enabled, up (pid 620) since 8h 59min by boot
Description  : dbus system daemon
Source       : /usr/share/66/service/dbus
Tree         : global
Dependencies : \
               └─dbus-log (pid=615, state=Enabled, type=classic, tree=global)
Required by  : \
               └─consolekit (pid=632, state=Enabled, type=classic, tree=global)
Log          : dbus-log - '66 log dbus' for more
2026-07-17 12:27:25.136118430  dbus-daemon[626]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1' requested by ':1.0'
2026-07-17 12:27:25.149366699  dbus-daemon[626]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1'
2026-07-17 12:28:12.083741993  dbus[620]: Unknown username "colord" in message bus configuration file
2026-07-17 12:28:12.099542827  dbus-daemon[620]: [system] Activating service name='org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1' requested by ':1.0'
2026-07-17 12:28:12.113367939  dbus-daemon[620]: [system] Successfully activated service 'org.freedesktop.PolicyKit1'