What is systemd?
If you’re not familiar with systemd yet, it’s the init system and service manager used by most modern Linux distributions. Basically, it’s the first process that starts when your Linux boots up and it keeps running to manage all the system services.
systemd handles starting and stopping programs (called “services”), mounting drives, managing logs, and more. Compared to older init systems like SysVinit, systemd is faster and more flexible thanks to features like parallel startup and socket activation.
You can control services with the systemctl command—whether it’s a traditional app, a script, or even a Docker container.